Chapter III: The Theatre (1)

The hostility of the city to the drama was unquestionably the main cause of the erection of the first playhouse; yet combined with this were two other important causes, usually overlooked. The first was the need of a building specially designed to meet the requirements of the players and of the public, a need yearly growing more urgent as plays became more complex, acting developed into a finer art, and audiences increased in dignity as well as in size. The second and the more immediate cause was the appearance of a man with business insight enough to see that such a building would pay. The first playhouse, we should remember, was not erected by a troupe of actors, but by a money-seeking individual.[30] Although he was himself an actor, and the manager of a troupe, he did not, it seems, take the troupe into his confidence. In complete independence of any theatrical organization he proceeded with the erection of his building as a private speculation; and, we are told, he dreamed of the "continual great profit and commodity through plays that should be used there every week."

[Footnote 30: I emphasize this point because the opposite is the accepted opinion. We find it expressed in _The Cambridge History of English Literature_, VI, 431, as follows: "Certain players, finding the city obdurate, and unwilling to submit to its severe regulations, began to look about them for some means of carrying on their business out of reach of the mayor's authority," etc.]

This man, "the first builder of playhouses,"--and, it might have been added, the pioneer in a new field of business,--was James Burbage, originally, as we are told by one who knew him well, "by occupation a joiner; and reaping but a small living by the same, gave it over and became a common player in plays."[31] As an actor he was more successful, for as early as 1572 we find him at the head of Leicester's excellent troupe.

[Footnote 31: Deposition by Robert Myles, 1592, printed in Wallace's _The First London Theatre_, p. 141.]

Having in 1575 conceived the notion of erecting a building specially designed for dramatic entertainments, he was at once confronted with the problem of a suitable location. Two conditions narrowed his choice: first, the site had to be outside the jurisdiction of the Common Council; secondly, it had to be as near as possible to the city.

No doubt he at once thought of the two suburbs that were specially devoted to recreation, the Bankside to the south, and Finsbury Field to the north of the city. The Bankside had for many years been associated in the minds of Londoners with "sports and pastimes." Thither the citizens were accustomed to go to witness bear-baiting and bull-baiting, to practice archery, and to engage in various athletic sports. Thither, too, for many years the actors had gone to present their plays. In 1545 King Henry VIII had issued a proclamation against vagabonds, ruffians, idle persons, and common players,[32] in which he referred to their "fashions commonly used at the Bank." The Bankside, however, was associated with the lowest and most vicious pleasures of London, for here were situated the stews, bordering the river's edge. Since the players were at this time subject to the bitterest attacks from the London preachers, Burbage wisely decided not to erect the first permanent home of the drama in a locality already a common target for puritan invective.

[Footnote 32: See page 134.]

The second locality, Finsbury Field, had nearly all the advantages, and none of the disadvantages, of the Bankside. Since 1315 the Field had been in the possession of the city,[33] and had been used as a public playground, where families could hold picnics, falconers could fly their hawks, archers could exercise their sport, and the militia on holidays could drill with all "the pomp and circumstance of glorious war." In short, the Field was eminently respectable, was accessible to the city, and was definitely associated with the idea of entertainment. The locality, therefore, was almost ideal for the purpose Burbage had in mind.[34]

[Footnote 33: See _The Remembrancia_, p. 274; Stow, _Survey_. The Corporation of London held the manor on lease from St. Paul's Cathedral until 1867.]

[Footnote 34: Doubtless, too, Burbage was influenced in his choice by the fact that he had already made his home in the Liberty of Shoreditch, near Finsbury Field.]

The new playhouse, of course, could not be erected in the Field itself, which was under the control of the city; but just to the east of the Field certain vacant land, part of the dissolved Priory of Holywell, offered a site in every way suitable to the purpose. The Holywell property, at the dissolution of the Priory, had passed under the jurisdiction of the Crown, and hence the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen could not enforce municipal ordinances there. Moreover, it was distant from the city wall not much more than half a mile. The old conventual church had been demolished, the Priory buildings had been converted into residences, and the land near the Shoreditch highway had been built up with numerous houses. The land next to the Field, however, was for the most part undeveloped. It contained some dilapidated tenements, a few old barns formerly belonging to the Priory, and small garden plots, conspicuous objects in the early maps.

Finsbury Field lies to the north (beyond Moor Field, the small rectangular space next to the city wall), and the Holywell Property lies to the right of Finsbury Field, between the Field and the highway. Holywell Lane divides the garden plots; the Theatre was erected just to the north, and the Curtain just to the south of this lane, facing the Field. (From the _Map of London_ by Braun and Hogenbergius representing the city as it was in 1554-1558.)]

Burbage learned that a large portion of this land lying next to the Field was in the possession of a well-to-do gentleman named Gyles Alleyn,[35] and that Alleyn was willing to lease a part of his holding on the conditions of development customary in this section of London. These conditions are clearly revealed in a chancery suit of 1591:

The ground there was for the most part converted first into
garden plots, and then leasing the same to diverse tenants
caused them to covenant or promise to build upon the same,
by occasion whereof the buildings which are there were for
the most part erected and the rents increased.[36]

[Footnote 35: For a detailed history of the property from the year 1128, and for the changes in the ownership of Alleyn's portion after the dissolution, see Braines, _Holywell Priory_.]

[Footnote 36: Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 365. The suit concerns the Curtain property, somewhat south of the Alleyn property, but a part of the Priory.]

The part of Alleyn's property on which Burbage had his eye was in sore need of improvement. It consisted of five "paltry tenements," described as "old, decayed, and ruinated for want of reparation, and the best of them was but of two stories high," and a long barn "very ruinous and decayed and ready to have fallen down," one half of which was used as a storage-room, the other half as a slaughter-house. Three of the tenements had small gardens extending back to the Field, and just north of the barn was a bit of "void ground," also adjoining the Field. It was this bit of "void ground" that Burbage had selected as a suitable location for his proposed playhouse. The accompanying map of the property[37] will make clear the position of this "void ground" and of the barns and tenements about it. Moreover, it will serve to indicate the exact site of the Theatre. If one will bear in mind the fact that in the London of to-day Curtain Road marks the eastern boundary of Finsbury Field, and New Inn Yard cuts off the lower half of the Great Barn, he will be able to place Burbage's structure within a few yards.[38]

[Footnote 37: I have based this map in large measure on the documents presented by Braines in his excellent pamphlet, _Holywell Priory_.]

[Footnote 38: For proof see Braines, _op. cit._]

Based on the lease, and on the miscellaneous documents printed by Halliwell-Phillipps and by Braines. The "common sewer" is now marked by Curtain Road, and the "ditch from the horse-pond" by New Inn Yard.]

The property is carefully described in the lease--quoted below--which Burbage secured from Alleyn, but the reader will need to refer to the map in order to follow with ease the several paragraphs of description:[39]

All those two houses or tenements, with appurtenances, which
at the time of the said former demise made were in the
several tenures or occupations of Joan Harrison, widow, and
John Dragon.

And also all that house or tenement with the appurtenances,
together with the garden ground lying behind part of the
same, being then likewise in the occupation of William
Gardiner; which said garden plot doth extend in breadth from
a great stone wall there which doth enclose part of the
garden then or lately being in the occupation of the said
Gyles, unto the garden there then in the occupation of Edwin
Colefox, weaver, and in length from the same house or
tenement unto a brick wall there next unto the fields
commonly called Finsbury Fields.

And also all that house or tenement, with the appurtenances,
at the time of the said former demise made called or known
by the name of the Mill-house; together with the garden
ground lying behind part of the same, also at the time of
the said former demise made being in the tenure or
occupation of the aforesaid Edwin Colefox, or of his
assigns; which said garden ground doth extend in length from
the same house or tenement unto the aforesaid brick wall
next unto the aforesaid Fields.

And also all those three upper rooms, with the
appurtenances, next adjoining to the aforesaid Mill-house,
also being at the time of the said former demise made in the
occupation of Thomas Dancaster, shoemaker, or of his
assigns; and also all the nether rooms, with the
appurtenances, lying under the same three upper rooms, and
next adjoining also to the aforesaid house or tenement
called the Mill-house, then also being in the several
tenures or occupations of Alice Dotridge, widow, and Richard
Brockenbury, or of their assigns; together with the garden
ground lying behind the same, extending in length from the
same nether rooms down unto the aforesaid brick wall next
unto the aforesaid Fields, and then or late being also in
the tenure or occupation of the aforesaid Alice Dotridge.

And also so much of the ground and soil lying and being
afore all the tenements or houses before granted, as
extendeth in length from the outward part of the aforesaid
tenements being at the time of the making of the said former
demise in the occupation of the aforesaid Joan Harrison and
John Dragon, unto a pond there being next unto the barn or
stable then in the occupation of the right honorable the
Earl of Rutland or of his assigns, and in breadth from the
aforesaid tenement or Mill-house to the midst of the well
being afore the same tenements.

And also all that Great Barn, with the appurtenances, at the
time of the making of the said former demise made being in
the several occupations of Hugh Richards, innholder, and
Robert Stoughton, butcher; and also a little piece of ground
then inclosed with a pale and next adjoining to the
aforesaid barn, and then or late before that in the
occupation of the said Robert Stoughton; together also with
all the ground and soil lying and being between the said
nether rooms last before expressed, and the aforesaid Great
Barn, and the aforesaid pond; that is to say, extending in
length from the aforesaid pond unto a ditch beyond the brick
wall next the aforesaid Fields.

And also the said Gyles Alleyn and Sara his wife do by these
presents demise, grant, and to farm lett unto the said James
Burbage all the right, title, and interest which the said
Gyles and Sara have or ought to have in or to all the
grounds and soil lying between the aforesaid Great Barn and
the barn being at the time of the said former demise in the
occupation of the Earl of Rutland or of his assigns,
extending in length from the aforesaid pond and from the
aforesaid stable or barn then in the occupation of the
aforesaid Earl of Rutland or of his assigns, down to the
aforesaid brick wall next the aforesaid Fields.[40]

And also the said Gyles and Sara do by these presents
demise, grant, and to farm lett to the said James all the
said void ground lying and being betwixt the aforesaid ditch
and the aforesaid brick wall, extending in length from the
aforesaid [great stone] wall[41] which encloseth part of the
aforesaid garden being at the time of the making of the said
former demise or late before that in the occupation of the
said Gyles Allen, unto the aforesaid barn then in the
occupation of the aforesaid Earl or of his assigns.

[Footnote 39: The original lease may be found incorporated in Alleyn _v._ Street, Coram Rege, 1599-1600, printed in full by Wallace, _The First London Theatre_, pp. 163-80, and again in Alleyn _v._ Burbage, Queen's Bench, 1602, Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 267-75. The lease, I think, was in English not Latin, and hence is more correctly given in the first document; in the second document the scrivener has translated it into Latin. The lease is also given in part on page 187.]

[Footnote 40: This part of the property was claimed by the Earl of Rutland, and was being used by him. For a long time it was the subject of dispute. Ultimately, it seems, the Earl secured the title, as he had always had the use of the property. This probably explains why Burbage did not attempt to erect his playhouse there.]

[Footnote 41: The document by error reads "brick wall" but the mistake is obvious, and the second version of the lease does not repeat the error. This clause merely means that the ditch, not the brick wall, constituted the western boundary of the property.]

The lease was formally signed on April 13, 1576, and Burbage entered into the possession of his property. Since the terms of the lease are important for an understanding of the subsequent history of the playhouse, I shall set these forth briefly:

First, the lease was to run for twenty-one years from April 13, 1576, at an annual rental of L14.

Secondly, Burbage was to spend before the expiration of ten years the sum of L200 in rebuilding and improving the decayed tenements.

Thirdly, in view of this expenditure of L200, Burbage was to have at the end of the ten years the right to renew the lease at the same rental of L14 a year for twenty-one years, thus making the lease good in all for thirty-one years:

And the said Gyles Alleyn and Sara his wife did thereby
covenant with the said James Burbage that they should and
would at any time within the ten years next ensuing at or
upon the lawful request or demand of the said James Burbage
make or cause to be made to the said James Burbage a new
lease or grant like to the same presents for the term of one
and twenty years more, to begin from the date of making the
same lease, yielding therefor the rent reserved in the
former indenture.[42]

[Footnote 42: Quoted from Burbage _v._ Alleyn, Court of Requests, 1600, Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 182. I have stripped the passage of some of its legal verbiage.]

Fourthly, it was agreed that at any time before the expiration of the lease, Burbage might take down and carry away to his own use any building that in the mean time he might have erected on the vacant ground for the purpose of a playhouse:

And farther, the said Gyles Alleyn and Sara his wife did
covenant and grant to the said James Burbage that it should
and might be lawful to the said James Burbage (in
consideration of the imploying and bestowing the foresaid
two hundred pounds in forme aforesaid) at any time or times
before the end of the said term of one and twenty years, to
have, take down, and carry away to his own proper use for
ever all such buildings and other things as should be
builded, erected, or set up in or upon the gardens and void
grounds by the said James, either for a theatre or playing
place, or for any other lawful use, without any stop, claim,
let, trouble, or interruption of the said Gyles Alleyn and
Sara his wife.[43]

[Footnote 43: Quoted from Burbage _v._ Alleyn, Court of Requests, 1600, Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 182.]

Protected by these specific terms, Burbage proceeded to the erection of his playhouse. He must have had faith and abundant courage, for he was a poor man, quite unequal to the large expenditures called for by his plans. A person who had known him for many years, deposed in 1592 that "James Burbage was not at the time of the first beginning of the building of the premises worth above one hundred marks[44] in all his substance, for he and this deponent were familiarly acquainted long before that time and ever since."[45] We are not surprised to learn, therefore, that he was "constrained to borrow diverse sums of money," and that he actually pawned the lease itself to a money-lender.[46] Even so, without assistance, we are told, he "should never be able to build it, for it would cost five times as much as he was worth."

[Footnote 44: That is, about L80.]

[Footnote 45: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 134; cf. p. 153.]

[Footnote 46: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 151. Cuthbert Burbage declared in 1635: "The Theatre he built with many hundred pounds taken up at interest." (Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 317.)]

Fortunately he had a wealthy brother-in-law, John Brayne,[47] a London grocer, described as "worth five hundred pounds at the least, and by common fame worth a thousand marks."[48] In some way Brayne became interested in the new venture. Like Burbage, he believed that large profits would flow from such a novel undertaking; and as a result he readily agreed to share the expense of erecting and maintaining the building. Years later members of the Brayne faction asserted that James Burbage "induced" his brother-in-law to venture upon the enterprise by unfairly representing the great profits to ensue;[49] but the evidence, I think, shows that Brayne eagerly sought the partnership. Burbage himself asserted in 1588 that Brayne "practiced to obtain some interest therein," and presumed "that he might easily compass the same by reason that he was natural brother"; and that he voluntarily offered to "bear and pay half the charges of the said building then bestowed and thereafter to be bestowed" in order "that he might have the moiety[50] of the above named Theatre."[51] As a further inducement, so the Burbages asserted, he promised that "for that he had no children," the moiety at his death should go to the children of James Burbage, "whose advancement he then seemed greatly to tender."

[Footnote 47: The name is often spelled "Braynes."]

[Footnote 48: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 109.]

[Footnote 49: See Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 139 _seq._]

[Footnote 50: That is, half-interest.]

[Footnote 51: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 40.]

Whatever caused Brayne to interest himself in the venture, he quickly became fired with such hopes of great gain that he not only spent upon the building all the money he could gather or borrow, but sold his stock of groceries for L146, disposed of his house for L100, even pawned his clothes, and put his all into the new structure. The spirit in which he worked to make the venture a success, and the personal sacrifices that he and his wife made, fully deserve the quotation here of two legal depositions bearing on the subject:

This deponent, being servant, in Bucklersbury, aforesaid, to
one Robert Kenningham, grocer, in which street the said John
Brayne dwelled also, and of the same trade, he, the said
Brayne, at the time he joined with the said James Burbage in
the aforesaid lease, was reputed among his neighbors to be
worth one thousand pounds at the least, and that after he
had joined with the said Burbage in the matter of the
building of the said Theatre, he began to slack his own
trade, and gave himself to the building thereof, and the
chief care thereof he took upon him, and hired workmen of
all sorts for that purpose, bought timber and all other
things belonging thereunto, and paid all. So as, in this
deponent's conscience, he bestowed thereupon for his owne
part the sum of one thousand marks at the least, in so much
as his affection was given so greatly to the finishing
thereof, in hope of great wealth and profit during their
lease, that at the last he was driven to sell to this
deponent's father his lease of the house wherein he dwelled
for L100, and to this deponent all such wares as he had left
and all that belonged thereunto remaining in the same, for
the sum of L146 and odd money, whereof this deponent did pay
for him to one Kymbre, an ironmonger in London, for iron
work which the said Brayne bestowed upon the said Theatre,
the sum of L40. And afterwards the said Brayne took the
matter of the said building so upon him as he was driven to
borrow money to supply the same, saying to this deponent
that his brother Burbage was not able to help the same, and
that he found not towards it above the value of fifty
pounds, some part in mony and the rest in stuff.[52]

[Footnote 52: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 136.]

In reading the next deposition, one should bear in mind the fact that the deponent, Robert Myles, was closely identified with the Brayne faction, and was, therefore, a bitter enemy to the Burbages. Yet his testimony, though prejudiced, gives us a vivid picture of Brayne's activity in the building of the Theatre:

So the said John Brayne made a great sum of money of purpose
and intent to go to the building of the said playhouse, and
thereupon did provide timber and other stuff needful for the
building thereof, and hired carpenters and plasterers for
the same purpose, and paid the workmen continually. So as he
for his part laid out of his own purse and what upon credit
about the same to the sum of L600 or L700 at the least. And
in the same time, seeing the said James Burbage nothing able
either of himself or by his credit to contribute any like
sum towards the building thereof, being then to be finished
or else to be lost that had been bestowed upon it already,
the said Brayne was driven to sell his house he dwelled in
in Bucklersbury, and all his stock that was left, and give
up his trade, yea in the end to pawn and sell both his own
garments and his wife's, and to run in debt to many for
money, to finish the said playhouse, and so to employ
himself only upon that matter, and all whatsoever he could
make, to his utter undoing, for he saieth that in the latter
end of the finishing thereof, the said Brayne and his wife,
the now complainants, were driven to labor in the said work
for saving of some of the charge in place of two laborers,
whereas the said James Burbage went about his own business,
and at sometimes when he did take upon him to do some thing
in the said work, he would be and was allowed a workman's
hire as other the workman there had.[53]

[Footnote 53: Brayne _v._ Burbage, 1592. Printed in full by Wallace, _op cit._ p. 141.]

The last fling at Burbage is quite gratuitous; yet it is probably true that the main costs of erecting the playhouse fell upon the shoulders of Brayne. The evidence is contradictory; some persons assert that Burbage paid half the cost of the building,[54] others that Brayne paid nearly all,[55] and still others content themselves with saying that Brayne paid considerably more than half. The last statement may be accepted as true. The assertion of Gyles Alleyn in 1601, that the Theatre was "erected at the costs and charges of one Brayne and not of the said James Burbage, to the value of one thousand marks,"[56] is doubtless incorrect; more correct is the assertion of Robert Myles, executor of the Widow Brayne's will, in 1597: "The said John Brayne did join with the said James [Burbage] in the building aforesaid, and did expend thereupon greater sums than the said James, that is to say, at least five or six hundred pounds."[57] Since there is evidence that the playhouse ultimately cost about L700,[58] we might hazard the guess that of this sum Brayne furnished about L500,[59] and Burbage about L200. To equalize the expenditure it was later agreed that "the said Brayne should take and receive all the rents and profits of the said Theatre to his own use until he should be answered such sums of money which he had laid out for and upon the same Theatre more than the said Burbage had done."[60]

[Footnote 54: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 213, 217, 263, 265, _et al._]

[Footnote 55: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 137, 141, 142, 148, 153.]

[Footnote 56: Alleyn _v._ Burbage, Star Chamber Proceedings, 1601-02; printed by Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 277.]

[Footnote 57: Myles _v._ Burbage and Alleyn, 1597; printed by Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 159; cf. pp. 263, 106, 152.]

[Footnote 58: See Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 277.]

[Footnote 59: This agrees with the claim of Brayne's widow.]

[Footnote 60: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 120.]

But if Burbage at the outset was "nothing able to contribute any" great sum of ready money towards the building of the first playhouse, he did contribute other things equally if not more important. In the first place, he conceived the idea, and he carried it as far towards realization as his means allowed. In the second place, he planned the building--its stage as well as its auditorium--to meet the special demands of the actors and the comfort of the audience. This called for bold originality and for ingenuity of a high order, for, it must be remembered, he had no model to study--he was designing the first structure of its kind in England.[61] For this task he was well prepared. In the first place, he was an actor of experience; in the second place, he was the manager of one of the most important troupes in England; and, in the third place, he was by training and early practice a carpenter and builder. In other words, he had exact knowledge of what was needed, and the practical skill to meet those needs.

[Footnote 61: Mr. E.K. Chambers (_The Mediaeval Stage_, I, 383, note 2; II, 190, note 4) calls attention to a "theatre" belonging to the city of Essex as early as 1548. Possibly the Latin document he cites referred to an amphitheatre of some sort near the city which was used for dramatic performances; at any rate "in theatro" does not necessarily imply the existence of a playhouse (cf., for example, _op. cit._, I, 81-82). There is also a reference (quoted by Chambers, _op. cit._, II, 191, note 1, from _Norfolk Archaeology_, XI, 336) to a "game-house" built by the corporation of Yarmouth in 1538 for dramatic performances. What kind of house this was we do not know, but the corporation leased it for other purposes, with the proviso that it should be available "at all such times as any interludes or plays should be ministered or played." Howes, in his continuation of Stow's _Annals_ (1631), p. 1004, declares that before Burbage's time he "neither knew, heard, nor read of any such theatres, set stages, or playhouses as have been purposely built, within man's memory"; and Cuthbert Burbage confidently asserted that his father "was the first builder of playhouses"--an assertion which, I think, cannot well be denied.]

The building that he designed and erected he named--as by virtue of priority he had a right to do--"The Theatre."

Of the Theatre, unfortunately, we have no pictorial representation, and no formal description, so that our knowledge of its size, shape, and general arrangement must be derived from scattered and miscellaneous sources. That the building was large we may feel sure; the cost of its erection indicates as much. The Fortune, one of the largest and handsomest of the later playhouses, cost only L520, and the Hope, also very large, cost L360. The Theatre, therefore, built at a cost of L700, could not have been small. It is commonly referred to, even so late as 1601, as "the great house called the Theatre," and the author of _Skialetheia_ (1598) applied to it the significant adjective "vast." Burbage, no doubt, had learned from his experience as manager of a troupe the pecuniary advantage of having an auditorium large enough to receive all who might come. Exactly how many people his building could accommodate we cannot say. The Reverend John Stockwood, in 1578, exclaims bitterly: "Will not a filthy play, with the blast of a trumpet, sooner call thither a thousand than an hour's tolling of the bell bring to the sermon a hundred?"[62] And Fleetwood, the City Recorder, in describing a quarrel which took place in 1584 "at Theatre door," states that "near a thousand people" quickly assembled when the quarrel began.

[Footnote 62: The rest of his speech indicates that he had the Theatre in mind. The passage, of course, is rhetorical.]

In shape the building was probably polygonal, or circular. I see no good reason for supposing that it was square; Johannes de Witt referred to it as an "amphitheatre," and the Curtain, erected the following year in imitation, was probably polygonal.[63] It was built of timber, and its exterior, no doubt, was--as in the case of subsequent playhouses--of lime and plaster. The interior consisted of three galleries surrounding an open space called the "yard." The German traveler, Samuel Kiechel, who visited London in the autumn of 1585, described the playhouses--i.e., the Theatre and the Curtain--as "singular [_sonderbare_] houses, which are so constructed that they have about three galleries, one above the other."[64] And Stephen Gosson, in _Plays Confuted_ (_c._ 1581) writes: "In the playhouses at London, it is the fashion for youths to go first into the yard, and to carry their eye through every gallery; then, like unto ravens, where they spy the carrion, thither they fly, and press as near to the fairest as they can." The "yard" was unroofed, and all persons there had to stand during the entire performance. The galleries, however, were protected by a roof, were divided into "rooms," and were provided for the most part with seats. Gyles Alleyn inserted in the lease he granted to Burbage the following condition:

And further, that it shall or may [be] lawful for the said
Gyles and for his wife and family, upon lawful request
therefor made to the said James Burbage, his executors or
assigns, to enter or come into the premises, and there in
some one of the upper rooms to have such convenient place to
sit or stand to see such plays as shall be there played,
freely without anything therefor paying.[65]

[Footnote 63: One cannot be absolutely sure, yet the whole history of early playhouses indicates that the Theatre was polygonal (or circular) in shape. The only reason for suspecting that it might have been square, doubtfully presented by T.S. Graves in "The Shape of the First London Theatre" (_The South Atlantic Quarterly_, July, 1914), seems to me to deserve no serious consideration.]

[Footnote 64: Quoted by W.B. Rye, _England as Seen by Foreigners_, p. 88.]

[Footnote 65: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 177.]

The stage was a platform, projecting into the yard, with a tiring-house at the rear, and a balcony overhead. The details of the stage, no doubt, were subject to alteration as experience suggested, for its materials were of wood, and histrionic and dramatic art were both undergoing rapid development.[66] The furnishings and decorations, as in the case of modern playhouses, seem to have been ornate. Thus T[homas] W[hite], in _A Sermon Preached at Pawles Crosse, on Sunday the Thirde of November, 1577_, exclaims: "Behold the sumptuous Theatre houses, a continual monument of London's prodigality"; John Stockwood, in _A Sermon Preached at Paules Cross, 1578_, refers to it as "the gorgeous playing place erected in the Fields"; and Gabriel Harvey could think of no more appropriate epithet for it than "painted"--"painted theatres," "painted stage."

[Footnote 66: There is no reason whatever to suppose, with Ordish, Mantzius, Lawrence, and others, that the stage of the Theatre was removable; for although the building was frequently used by fencers, tumblers, etc., it was never, so far as I can discover, used for animal-baiting.]

The building was doubtless used for dramatic performances in the autumn of 1576, although it was not completed until later; John Grigges, one of the carpenters, deposed that Burbage and Brayne "finished the same with the help of the profits that grew by plays used there before it was fully finished."[67] Access to the playhouse was had chiefly by way of Finsbury Field and a passage made by Burbage through the brick wall mentioned in the lease.[68]

[Footnote 67: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 135.]

[Footnote 68: For depositions to this effect see Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 350 ff.]

The terms under which the owners let it to the actors were simple: the actors retained as their share the pennies paid at the outer doors for general admission, and the proprietors received as their share the money paid for seats or standings in the galleries.[69] Cuthbert Burbage states in 1635: "The players that lived in those first times had only the profits arising from the doors, but now the players receive all the comings in at the doors to themselves, and half the galleries."[70]

[Footnote 69: I suspect that the same terms were made with the actors by the proprietors of the inn-playhouses.]

[Footnote 70: Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 317.]

Before the expiration of two years, or in the early summer of 1578, Burbage and Brayne began to quarrel about the division of the money which fell to their share. Brayne apparently thought that he should at once be indemnified for all the money he had expended on the playhouse in excess of Burbage; and he accused Burbage of "indirect dealing"--there were even whispers of "a secret key" to the "common box" in which the money was kept.[71] Finally they agreed to "submit themselves to the order and arbitrament of certain persons for the pacification thereof," and together they went to the shop of a notary public to sign a bond agreeing to abide by the decision of the arbitrators. There they "fell a reasoning together," in the course of which Brayne asserted that he had disbursed in the Theatre "three times at the least as much more as the sum then disbursed by the said James Burbage." In the end Brayne unwisely hinted at "ill dealing" on the part of Burbage, whereupon "Burbage did there strike him with his fist, and so they went together by the ears, in so much," says the notary, "that this deponent could hardly part them." After they were parted, they signed a bond of L200 to abide by the decision of the arbitrators. The arbitrators, John Hill and Richard Turnor, "men of great honesty and credit," held their sessions "in the Temple church," whither they summoned witnesses. Finally, on July 12, 1578, after "having thoroughly heard" both sides, they awarded that the profits from the Theatre should be used first to pay the debts upon the building, then to pay Brayne the money he had expended in excess of Burbage, and thereafter to be shared "in divident equally between them."[72] These conditions, however, were not observed, and the failure to observe them led to much subsequent discord.

[Footnote 71: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 142, 148.]

[Footnote 72: For the history of this quarrel, and for other details of the award see Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 102, 119, 138, 142, 143, 148, 152.]

The arbitrators also decided that "if occasion should move them [Burbage and Brayne] to borrow any sum of money for the payment of their debts owing for any necessary use and thing concerning the said Theatre, that then the said James Burbage and the said John Brayne should _join_ in pawning or mortgageing of their estate and interest of and in the same."[73] An occasion for borrowing money soon arose. So on September 26, 1579, the two partners mortgaged the Theatre to John Hide for the sum of L125 8_s._ 11_d._ At the end of a year, by non-payment, they forfeited the mortgage, and the legal title to the property passed to Hide. It seems, however, that because of some special clause in the mortgage Hide was unable to expel Burbage and Brayne, or to dispose of the property to others. Hence he took no steps to seize the Theatre; but he constantly annoyed the occupants by arrest and otherwise. This unfortunate transference of the title to Hide was the cause of serious quarreling between the Burbages and the Braynes, and finally led to much litigation.

[Footnote 73: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 103.]

In 1582 a more immediate disaster threatened the owners of the Theatre. One Edmund Peckham laid claim to the land on which the playhouse had been built, and brought suit against Alleyn for recovery. More than that, Peckham tried to take actual possession of the playhouse, so that Burbage "was fain to find men at his own charge to keep the possession thereof from the said Peckham and his servants," and was even "once in danger of his own life by keeping possession thereof." As a result of this state of affairs, Burbage "was much disturbed and troubled in his possession of the Theatre, and could not quietly and peaceably enjoy the same. And therefore the players forsook the said Theatre, to his great loss."[74] In order to reimburse himself in some measure for this loss Burbage retained L30 of the rental due to Alleyn. The act led to a bitter quarrel with Alleyn, and figured conspicuously in the subsequent litigation that came near overwhelming the Theatre.

[Footnote 74: See Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 201, 239, 240, 242.]

In 1585 Burbage, having spent the stipulated L200 in repairing and rebuilding the tenements on the premises, sought to renew the lease, according to the original agreement, for the extended period of twenty-one years. On November 20, 1585, he engaged three skilled workmen to view the buildings and estimate the sum he had disbursed in improvements. They signed a formal statement to the effect that in their opinion at least L220 had been thus expended on the premises. Burbage then "tendered unto the said Alleyn a new lease devised by his counsel, ready written and engrossed, with labels and wax thereunto affixed, agreeable to the covenant." But Alleyn refused to sign the document. He maintained that the new lease was not a verbatim copy of the old lease, that L200 had not been expended on the buildings, and that Burbage was a bad tenant and owed him rent. In reality, Alleyn wanted to extort a larger rental than L14 for the property, which had greatly increased in value.

On July 18, 1586, Burbage engaged six men, all expert laborers, to view the buildings again and estimate the cost of the improvements. They expressed the opinion in writing that Burbage had expended at least L240 in developing the property.[75] Still Alleyn refused to sign an extension of the lease. His conduct must have been very exasperating to the owner of the Theatre. Cuthbert Burbage tells us that his father "did often in gentle manner solicit and require the said Gyles Alleyn for making a new lease of the said premises according to the purporte and effect of the said covenant." But invariably Alleyn found some excuse for delay.

[Footnote 75: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 229, 234, 228, 233.]

The death of Brayne, in August, 1586, led John Hide, who by reason of the defaulted mortgage was legally the owner of the Theatre, to redouble his efforts to collect his debt. He "gave it out in speech that he had set over and assigned the said lease and bonds to one George Clough, his ... father-in-law (but in truth he did not so)," and "the said Clough, his father-in-law, did go about to put the said defendant [Burbage] out of the Theatre, or at least did threaten to put him out." As we have seen, there was a clause in the mortgage which prevented Hide from ejecting Burbage;[76] yet Clough was able to make so much trouble, "divers and sundry times" visiting the Theatre, that at last Burbage undertook to settle the debt out of the profits of the playhouse. As Robert Myles deposed in 1592, Burbage allowed the widow of Brayne for "a certain time to take and receive the one-half of the profits of the galleries of the said Theatre ... then on a sudden he would not suffer her to receive any more of the profits there, saying that he must take and receive all till he had paid the debts. And then she was constrained, as his servant, to gather the money and to deliver it unto him."[77]

[Footnote 76: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 55.]

[Footnote 77: _Ibid._, p. 105.]

For some reason, however, the debt was not settled, and Hide continued his futile demands. Several times Burbage offered to pay the sum in full if the title of the Theatre were made over to his son Cuthbert Burbage; and Brayne's widow made similar offers in an endeavor to gain the entire property for herself. But Hide, who seems to have been an honest man, always declared that since Burbage and Brayne "did jointly mortgage it unto him" he was honor-bound to assign the property back to Burbage and the widow of Brayne jointly. So matters stood for a while.

At last, however, in 1589, Hide declared that "since he had forborne his money so long, he could do it no more, so as they that came first should have it of him." Thereupon Cuthbert Burbage came bringing not only the money in hand, but also a letter from his master and patron, Walter Cape, gentleman usher to the Lord High Treasurer, requesting Hide to make over the Theatre to Cuthbert, and promising in return to assist Hide with the Lord Treasurer when occasion arose. Under this pressure, Hide accepted full payment of his mortgage, and made over the title of the property to Cuthbert Burbage. Thus Brayne's widow was legally excluded from any share in the ownership of the Theatre. Myles deposed, in 1592, that henceforth Burbage "would not suffer her to meddle in the premises, but thrust her out of all."

This led at once to a suit, in which Robert Myles acted for the widow. He received an order from the Court of Chancery in her favor, and armed with this, and accompanied by two other persons, he came on November 16, 1590, to Burbage's "dwelling house near the Theatre," called to the door Cuthbert Burbage, and in "rude and exclamable sort" demanded "the moiety of the said Theatre." James Burbage "being within the house, hearing a noise at the door, went to the door, and there found his son, the said Cuthbert, and the said Myles speaking loud together." Words were bandied, until finally Burbage, "dared by the same Myles with great threats and words that he would do this and could do that," lost his temper, and threatened to beat Myles off the ground.[78]

[Footnote 78: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 57, 60, 62.]

Next the widow, attended by Robert Myles and others, visited the home of the Burbages "to require them to perform the said award" of the court. They were met by James Burbage's wife, who "charged them to go out of her grounds, or else she would make her son break their knaves' heads." Aroused by this noise, "James Burbage, her husband, looking out a window upon them, called the complainant [Widow Brayne] murdering whore, and ... the others villaines, rascals, and knaves." And when Mistress Brayne spoke of the order of the court, "he cryed unto her, 'Go, go. A cart, a cart for you! I will obey no such order, nor I care not for any such orders, and therefore it were best for you and your companions to be packing betimes, for if my son [Cuthbert] come he will thump you hence!'" Just then Cuthbert did "come home, and in very hot sort bid them get thence, or else he would set them forwards, saying 'I care for no such order. The Chancery shall not give away what I have paid for.'" And so, after "great and horrible oathes" by James Burbage and his son, the widow and her attendants "went their ways."[79]

[Footnote 79: _Ibid._, p. 121.]

Receiving thus no satisfaction from these visits to the home of James Burbage, the widow and Robert Myles came several times to the Theatre, bearing the order of the court in their hands; but each time they were railed upon and driven out. Finally, the widow, with her ever-faithful adjutant Robert Myles, his son Ralph, and his business partner, Nicholas Bishop, went "to the Theatre upon a play-day to stand at the door that goeth up to the galleries of the said Theatre to take and receive for the use of the said Margaret half of the money that should be given to come up into the said gallery." In the Theatre they were met by Richard Burbage, then about nineteen years old, and his mother, who "fell upon the said Robert Myles and beat him with a broom staff, calling him murdering knave." When Myles's partner, Bishop, ventured to protest at this contemptuous treatment of the order of the court, "the said Richard Burbage," so Bishop deposed, "scornfully and disdainfully playing with this deponent's nose, said that if he dealt in the matter, he would beat him also, and did challenge the field of him at that time." One of the actors then coming in, John Alleyn--brother of the immortal Edward Alleyn--"found the foresaid Richard Burbage, the youngest son of the said James Burbage, there with a broom staff in his hand; of whom when this deponent Alleyn asked what stir was there, he answered in laughing phrase how they came for a moiety, 'But,' quod he (holding up the said broom staff) 'I have, I think, delivered him a moiety with this, and sent them packing.'" Alleyn thereupon warned the Burbages that Myles could bring an action of assault and battery against them. "'Tush,' quod the father, 'no, I warrant you; but where my son hath now beat him hence, my sons, if they will be ruled by me, shall at their next coming provide charged pistols, with powder and hempseed, to shoot them in the legs.'"[80]

[Footnote 80: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 63, 97, 100, 101, 114.]

But if the Burbages could laugh at the efforts of Myles and the widow to secure a moiety of the Theatre from Cuthbert, they were seriously troubled by the continued refusal of Gyles Alleyn to renew the lease. James Burbage many times urged his landlord to fulfill the original agreement, but in vain. At last, Alleyn, "according to his own will and discretion, did cause a draft of a lease to be drawn, wherein were inserted many unreasonable covenants." The new conditions imposed by Alleyn were: (1) that Burbage should pay a rental of L24 instead of L14 a year; (2) that he should use the Theatre as a place for acting for only five years after the expiration of the original twenty-one-year lease, and should then convert the building to other uses; (3) that he should ultimately leave the building in the possession of Alleyn.[81] The first and third conditions, though unjust, Burbage was willing to accept, but the second condition--that he should cease to use the Theatre for plays--he "utterly refused" to consider.

[Footnote 81: See Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 195, 212, 216, 250, 258, _et al._]

Finally, perceiving that it was useless to deal further with Alleyn, he made plans to secure a new playhouse in the district of Blackfriars, a district which, although within the city walls, was not under the jurisdiction of the city authorities. He purchased there the old Blackfriars refectory for L600, and then at great expense made the refectory into a playhouse. But certain influential noblemen and others living near by protested against this, and the Privy Council ordered that the building should not be used as a public playhouse. All this belongs mainly to the history of the Second Blackfriars Playhouse, and for further details the reader is referred to the chapter dealing with that theatre.

Shortly after the order of the Privy Council cited above, Burbage died, just two months before the expiration of his lease from Alleyn; and the Theatre with all its troubles passed to his son Cuthbert. By every means in his power Cuthbert sought to induce Alleyn to renew the lease: "Your said subject was thereof possessed, and being so possessed, your said servant did often require the said Alleyn and Sara his wife to make unto him the said new lease of the premises, according to the agreement of the said indenture." Cuthbert's importunity in the matter is clearly set forth in a deposition by Henry Johnson, one of Alleyn's tenants. It was Alleyn's custom to come to London at each of the four pay terms of the year, and stop at the George Inn in Shoreditch to receive his rents; and on such occasions Johnson often observed Cuthbert's entreaties with Alleyn. In his deposition he says that he "knoweth that the said complainant [Cuthbert Burbage] hath many times labored and entreated the defendant [Gyles Alleyn] to make him a new lease of the premises in question, for this deponent sayeth that many times when the defendant hath come up to London to receive his rents, he, this deponent, hath been with him paying him certain rent; and then he hath seen the plaintiff with his landlord, paying his rent likewise; and then, finding opportunity, the plaintiff would be intreating the defendant to make him a new lease of the premises in question; and sayeth that it is at least three years since [i.e., in 1597] he, this deponent, first heard the plaintiff labor and entreat the defendant for a new lease."[82] Cuthbert tells us that Alleyn did not positively refuse to renew the lease, "but for some causes, which he feigned, did defer the same from time to time, but yet gave hope to your subject, and affirmed that he would make him such a lease."[83]

[Footnote 82: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 246.]

[Footnote 83: _Ibid._, p. 184.]

Cuthbert's anxiety in this matter is explained by the fact that the old lease gave him the right to tear down the Theatre and carry away the timber and other materials to his own use, provided he did so before the expiration of the twenty-one years. Yet, relying on Alleyn's promises to renew the lease, he "did forbear to pull downe and carry away the timber and stuff employed for the said Theatre and playing-house at the end of the said first term of one and twenty years." A failure to renew the lease would mean, of course, the loss of the building.

Alleyn, though deferring to sign a new lease, allowed Burbage to continue in possession of the property at "the old rent of L14." Yet the Theatre seems not to have been used for plays after the original lease expired.[84] The Lord Chamberlain's Company, which had been occupying the Theatre, and of which Richard Burbage was the chief actor, had moved to the Curtain; and the author of _Skialetheia_, printed in 1598, refers to the old playhouse as empty: "But see, yonder, one, like the unfrequented Theatre, walks in dark silence and vast solitude."[85]

[Footnote 84: The lease expired on April 13, 1597; on July 28 the Privy Council closed all playhouses until November. The references to the Theatre in _The Remembrancia_ (see The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 78) do not necessarily imply that the building was then actually used by the players.]

[Footnote 85: The same fact is revealed in the author's remark, "If my dispose persuade me to a play, I'le to the Rose or Curtain," for at this time only the Chamberlain's Men and the Admiral's Men were allowed to play.]

To Cuthbert Burbage such a state of affairs was intolerable, and on September 29, 1598, he made a new appeal to Alleyn. Alleyn proffered a lease already drawn up, but Cuthbert would not "accept thereof" because of the "very unreasonable covenants therein contained."[86]

[Footnote 86: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 216, 249.]