It is faid in Camden's Annals of the reign of king James the firft, that the theatre in Blackfriars fell down in the year 1623, and that above eighty perfons were killed by the accident; but he was mifinformed. The room which gave way was in a private house, and appropriated to the fervice of religion. I am unable to afcertain at what time the Globe theatre was built. Hentzner has alluded to it as exifting in 1598, though he does not exprefsly mention it. I believe it was not built long before the year 1596'. of playing comedies, hiftories, interludes, morals, paftorals, ftage. plaies, and fuch like, as well for the follace and pleasure of his majeftie, as for the honeft recreation of fuch as bali defire to fee them; to be called by the name of The Children of the Revels;-and to be drawne in fuch a manner and forme as bath been used in other lycenfes of that kinde." Thefe very perfons, we have feen, were the company of the Revels in 1622, and were then become men. 81623. Ex occafu domûs scenicæ apud Black-friers Londini, 81 perfonæ fpectabiles necantur." Camdeni Annales, ab anno 1603 ad annum 1623, 4to. 1691. p. 82. That this writer was misinformed, appears from an old tract, printed in the fame year in which the accident happened, entitled, A Word of Comfort, or a difcourfe concerning the late lamentable accident of the fall of a Room at a Catholick fermon in the Black-friers, London, whereby about four-score persons were oppresled. 4to 1623. See alfo verfes prefixed to a play called The Queen, published by Alexander Goughe, (probably the fon of Robert Goughe, one of the actors in Shakspeare's company,) in 1653: we dare not lay that Blackfriers we heare, which in this age Fell, when it was a church, not when a ftage; "Or that the puritans that once dwelt there, "Prayed and thriv'd, though the play-houfe were so near." Camden had a paralytick ftroke on the 18th of Auguft 1623, and died on the 9th of November following. The above-mentioned accident happened on the 24th of October; which accounts for his inaccuracy. The room which fell, was an upper room in HunfdonHoufe, in which the French Ambaffador then dwelt. See Stowe's Chron. p. 1035, edit. 1631. 9"Non longe ab uno horum theatrorum, quæ omnia lignea funt, ad Thamefin navis eft regia, quæ duo egregia habet conclavia," &c. Itin. p. 132. By navis regia he means the royal barge called the Gallyfoift. See the South View of London, as it appeared in 1599. See The Suit of the Watermen against the Players," in the Works of Taylor the Water-poet, p. 171. It was fituated on the Bankfide, (the fouthern fide of the river Thames,) nearly oppofite to Friday-street, Cheapfide. It was an hexagonal wooden building, partly open to the weather, and partly thatched 2. When Hentzner wrote, all the other theatres as well as this were compofed of wood. 2 In the long Antwerp View of London in the Pepyfan Library at Cambridge, is a representation of the Globe theatre, from which a drawing was made by the Rev. Mr. Henley, and tranfmitted to Mr. Steevens. From that drawing this cut was made. ᄆᄆᄆ 合合 E 2 The The Globe was a publick theatre, and of confiderable fize3, and there they always acted by day-light*. On the roof of this and the other publick theatres a pole was erected, to which a flag was affixeds. These flags were probably difplayed only during the hours of exhibition; and it fhould feem from one of the old comedies that they were taken down in Lent, in which time, during the early part of King James's reign plays were not allowed to be reprefented, though at a fubfequent period this prohibition was difpenfed with". I formerly 3 The Globe, we learn from Wright's Hiftoria Hiftrionica, was nearly of the fame fize as the Fortune, which has been already defcribed. 4 Hiftoria Hiftrionica, 8vo. 1699, p. 7. 5 So, in The Curtain-Drawer of the World, 612: "Each playhoufe advanceth his flagge in the aire, whither quickly at the waving thereof are fummoned whole troops of men, women, and children.”— Again, in A Mad World, my Mafters, a comedy by Middleton, 1608: the hair about the hat is as good as a flag upon the pole, at a common play-house, to waft company." See a South View of the City of London as it appeared in 1599, in which are representations of the Globe and Swan theatres. From the words, "a common playhoufe," in the paffage last quoted, we may be led to fuppofe that flags were not difplayed on the roof of Blackfriars, and the other private playhouses. This cuftom perhaps took its rife from a mifconception of a line in Ovid: "Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro,-" which Heywood, in a tract published in 1612, thus tranflates: "In those days from the marble houfe did waive "From the roof (fays the fame author, defcribing a Roman amphitheatre,) grew a loover or turret, of exceeding altitude, from which an enfign of filk waved continually;-pendebant vela theatro." -The mifinterpretation might, however, have arisen from the English cuftom. 'Tis Lent in your cheeks ;-the flag is down." A Mad World, my Mafters, a comedy by Middleton, 1608. Again, in Earle's Characters, 7th edit. 1638: Shrove-tuesday hee [a player] feares as much as the bawdes, and Lent is more dangerous to him than the butchers." 7 [Received] of the King's players for a lenten difpenfation, the other companys promifing to doe as muche, 44s. March 23, 1616.” " Of I formerly conjectured that The Globe, though hexagonal at the outfide, was perhaps a rotunda within, and that it might have derived its name from its circular form. But, though the part appropriated to the audi "Of John Hemminges, in the name of the four companys, for toleration in the holydayes, 44s. January 29, 1618." Extracts from the office-book of Sir George Buc. Mff. Herbert. Thefe difpenfations did not extend to the fermon-days, as they were then called; that is, Wednesday and Friday in each week. After Sir Henry Herbert became poffeffed of the office of Master of the Revels, fees for permiffion to perform in Lent appear to have been conftantly paid by each of the theatres. The managers however did not always perform plays during that feafon. Some of the theatres, particularly the Red-Bull and the Fortune, were then let to prize-fighters, tumblers, and rope-dancers, who fometimes added a Mafque to the other exhibitions. These facts are afcertained by the following entries : ❝1622. 21 Martii. For a prife at the Red Bull, for the howfe; the fencers would give nothing. 10s." Mff. Aftley.. 0." "From Mr. Gunnel, [Manager of the Fortune,] in the name of the dancers of the ropes for Lent, this 15 March, 1624. £1. 0. "From Mr. Gunnel, to allowe of a Mafque for the dancers of the ropes, this 19 March, 1624. £2. 0. o." We fee bere, by thy way, that Microcosmus, which was exhibited in 1637, was not (as Dr. Burney fuppofes in his ingenious Hiftory of Mafick, Vol. III. p. 385,) the first maique exhibited on the publick ftage. "From Mr. Blagrave, in the name of the Cockpit company, for this Lent, this 30th March, 1624. £2. 0. 0." "March 20, 1626. From Mr. Hemminges, for this Lent allowanfe, £2. 0. o." Mff. Herbert. Prynne takes notice of this relaxation in his Hiftriomaftix, 4to.1633: "There are none so addicted to ftage-playes, but when they go unto places where they cannot have them, or when as they are fuppreffed by publike authority, (as in times of peftilence, and in Lent, till now of late,) can well fubfift without them.” p. 784. "After thefe" (fays Heywood, fpeaking of the buildings at Rome, appropriated to scenick exhibitions,) they compofed others, but differing in form from the theatre or amphitheatre, and every fuch was called circus; the frame globe-like, and merely round." Apology for Alters, 1612. See alfo our author's prologue to K. Henry V. ❝or may we cram "Within this wooden O," &c. But as we find in the prologue to Marston's Antonio's Revenge, which was acted by the Children of Paul's in 1602, "If any spirit breathes within this round,-" no inference refpecting the denomination of the Globe can be drawn from this expreffion. E 3 ence ence was probably circular, I now believe that the house was denominated only from its fign; which was a figure of Hercules fupporting the Globe, under which was written, Totus mundus agit hiftrionem". This theatre was burnt down on the 29th of June, 16133; but it was rebuilt in 2 Stowe informs us, that "the allowed Stewhoufes [antecedent to the year 1545] had fignes on their frontes towards the Thames, not hanged out, but painted on the walles; as a Boares head, The Crofs Keyes, The Gunne, The Cafile, the Crane, the Cardinals Hat, the Bell, the Swanne," &c. Survey of London, 4to, 1603, p. 409. The houfes which continued to carry on the fame trade after the ancient and privileged edifices had been put down, probably were diftinguished by the old figns; and the fign of the Globe, which theatre was in their neighbourhood, was perhaps, in imitation of them, painted on its wall. 3 The following account of this accident is given by Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter dated July 2, 1613, Reliq. Wotton, p. 425, edit. 1685: "Now to let matters of ftate fleep, I will entertain you at the present with what hath happened this week at the Banks fide. The Kings Players had a new play called All is true, reprefenting fame principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth, which was fet forth with many extraordinary circumftances of pomp and majefty, even to the matting of the ftage; the knights of the order with their Georges and Garter, the guards with their embroidered coats, and the like: fufficient in truth within a while to make greatnefs very familiar, if not ridiculous. Now King Henry making a Mafque at the Cardinal Wolfeys houfe, and certain cannons being shot off at his entry, fome of the paper or other ftuff, wherwith one of them was ftopped, did light on the thatch, where being thought at firit but an idle fmoak, and their eyes more attentive to the fhow, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, confuming within lefs than an hour the whole houfe to the very ground. This was the fatal period of that virtuous fabrick, wherein yet nothing did perish but wood and fraw, and a few forfaken cloaks." From a letter of Mr. John Chamberlaine's to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated July 8, 1613, in which this accident is likewife mentioned, we learn that this theatre had only two doors. "The burning of the Globe or playhouse on the Bankfide on St. Peter's day cannot escape you; which fell out by a peal of chambers, (that I know not upon what occafion were to be used in the play,) the tampin or ftopple of one of them lighting in the thatch that covered the houfe, burn'd it down to the ground in less than two hours, with a dwelling-house adjoyning; and it was a great marvaile and fair grace of God that the people had fo little harm, having but two narrow doors to get out." Winwood's Memorials, Vol. III. p. 469. Not a fingle life was loft. In 1613 was entered on the Stationers' books A doleful ballad of the general conflagration of the famous theatre on the Bankfide, called the Globe. I have never met with it. the |