Chapter XI: Epilogue (7)

[7] The Curtain Road, now notorious for cheap and shoddy furniture, still marks the site of the Curtain Theatre; at the same date there was another playhouse in the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, distinguished as "The Theatre," where the Chamberlain's Company had settled. John Stow, in his Survey of London, 1598, speaking of the priory of St. John Baptist, says: "And neere thereunto are builded two publique houses for acting of shews of comedies, tragedies, and histories, for recreation. Whereof is one called the "Courtein," the other "The Theatre;" both standing on the South West side toward the field." In both these James Burbadge may have been interested; his long residence in the parish may fairly lead to the conclusion, that he was a sharer in at least one of them. Richard Tarlton, the famous actor of clown's parts, was a near neighbour of James Burbadge, and a shareholder and performer at the Curtain. Thomas Pope, a performer of rustic clowns, by his will dated July, 1603, left--"All my part, right, title, and interest which I have in the playhouse, called the Curtein, situated and being in Halliwell, in the parish of St. Leonard's in Shoreditch, in the County of Middlesex." At what date one or the other of these early Suburban playhouses ceased to be occupied, we have little or no satisfactory evidence.

[8] Stoke's Rapid Plan of Teaching Music.

[9] The Old Parr's Head, in Upper Street, Islington.

[10] BLACK JACK. A huge leather drinking vessel. A Frenchman speaking of it says, "The English drink out of their boots."--_Heywood._

[11] BEAU-TRAP:--A loose stone in the pavement under which the water lodges in rainy weather, which when trodden on squirts it up to the great damage of light-coloured clothes and clean stockings. First invented by Sedan-chairmen, whose practice it was to loosen a flat-stone so that in wet weather those that choose to save their money by walking, might, by treading on the "trap" dirt their shoes and stockings.

[12] Pitts, a modern publisher of love garlands, merriments, penny ballads, &c.

"Who, ere he went to heaven,
Domiciled in Dials Seven!"
George Daniel's, "_Democritus in London_."

[13] Lockhart's "Life of Sir Walter Scott."

[14] The whole market has been rebuilt during these last few years, & Darkhouse-lane abolished.--C. H.

[15] In the glee, "Merrily rang the Bells of St. Michael's Tower," we are told that Richard Penlake had a shrew for a wife, and though she had a tongue that was longer, yet--

"Richard Penlake a crabstick would take
And show her that he was the stronger."

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.

Period errors, comma errors, and mismatched quotation marks have been corrected without note.

Items in the index are out of order and some do not include missing page numbers. These are presented as in the original text.

The original text contains hyphen and spelling variants and spelling errors that have been retained.

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