Chapter III: The Theatre (2)

Shortly after this fruitless interview, or late in 1598, Gyles Alleyn resolved to take advantage of the fact that Cuthbert Burbage had not removed the Theatre before the expiration of the first twenty-one years. He contended that since Cuthbert had "suffered the same there to continue till the expiration of the said term ... the right and interest of the said Theatre was both in law and conscience absolutely vested" now in himself; accordingly he planned "to pull down the same, and to convert the wood and timber thereof to some better use for the benefit" of himself.[87]

[Footnote 87: _Ibid._, pp. 277, 288.]

But, unfortunately for Alleyn, Cuthbert Burbage "got intelligence" of this purpose, and at once set himself to the task of saving his property. He and his brother Richard, the great actor, took into their confidence the chief members of the Lord Chamberlain's Company, then performing at the Curtain Playhouse, namely William Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, and William Kempe. These men agreed to form with the Burbages a syndicate to finance the erection of a new playhouse. The two Burbages agreed to bear one-half the expense, including the timber and other materials of the old Theatre, and the five actors promised to supply the other half. Together they leased a suitable plot of land on the Bankside near Henslowe's Rose, the lease dating from December 25, 1598. These details having been arranged, it remained only for the Burbages to save their building from the covetousness of Alleyn.

On the night of December 28, 1598,[88] Alleyn being absent in the country, Cuthbert Burbage, his brother Richard, his friend William Smith, "of Waltham Cross, in the County of Hartford, gentleman," Peter Street, "cheefe carpenter," and twelve others described as "laborers such as wrought for wages," gathered at the Theatre and began to tear down the building. We learn that the widow of James Burbage "was there, and did see the doing thereof, and liked well of it";[89] and we may suspect that at some time during the day Shakespeare and the other actors were present as interested spectators.

[Footnote 88: The date, January 20, 1599, seems to be an error.]

[Footnote 89: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 238.]

The episode is thus vividly described by the indignant Gyles Allen:

The said Cuthbert Burbage, having intelligence of your
subject's purpose herein, and unlawfully combining and
confederating himself with the said Richard Burbage and one
Peter Street, William Smith, and diverse other persons to
the number of twelve, to your subject unknown, did about
the eight and twentieth day of December, in the one and
fortieth year of your highness reign, and sithence your
highness last and general pardon, by the confederacy
aforesaid, riotously assembled themselves together, and then
and there armed themselves with diverse and many unlawful
and offensive weapons, as namely swords, daggers, bills,
axes, and such like, and so armed did then repair unto the
said Theatre, and then and there armed as aforesaid, in very
riotous, outrageous, and forceable manner, and contrary to
the laws of your highness realm, attempted to pull down the
said Theatre. Whereupon, diverse of your subjects, servants
and farmers, then going about in peaceable manner to procure
them to desist from that unlawful enterprise, they, the said
riotous persons aforesaid, notwithstanding procured then
therein with great violence, not only then and there
forcibly and riotously resisting your subjects, servants,
and farmers, but also then and there pulling, breaking, and
throwing down the said Theatre in very outrageous, violent,
and riotous sort.[90]

[Footnote 90: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 278-79. This document was discovered by J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps, who printed extracts in his _Outlines_. See also Ordish, _Early London Theatres_, pp. 75-76.]

The workmen, under the expert direction of Peter Street, carried the timber and other materials of the old Theatre to the tract of land on the Bankside recently leased by the new syndicate--as Gyles Alleyn puts it, "did then also in most forcible and riotous manner take and carry away from thence all the wood and timber thereof unto the Bankside, in the Parish of St. Mary Overies, and there erected a new playhouse with the said timber and wood."

The playhouse thus erected was, of course, an entirely new structure. Nearly a quarter of a century had elapsed since James Burbage designed the old Theatre, during which time a great development had taken place both in histrionic art and in play writing; and, no doubt, many improvements were possible in the stage and in the auditorium to provide better facilities for the actors and greater comfort for the spectators. In designing such improvements the architect had the advice and help of the actors, including Shakespeare; and he succeeded in producing a playhouse that was a model of excellence. The name selected by the syndicate for their new building was "The Globe." For further details as to its construction, and for its subsequent history, the reader is referred to the chapter dealing with that building.

When Gyles Alleyn learned that the Burbages had demolished the Theatre and removed the timber to the Bankside, he was deeply incensed, not only at the loss of the building, but also, no doubt, at being completely outwitted. At once he instituted suit against Cuthbert Burbage; but he was so intemperate in his language and so reckless in his charges that he weakened his case. The suit dragged for a few years, was in part referred to Francis Bacon, and finally in the summer of 1601 was dismissed. Thus the history of the first London playhouse, which is chiefly the history of quarrels and litigation, came to a close.

It is not possible now to indicate exactly the stay of the different troupes at the Theatre; the evidence is scattered and incomplete, and the inferences to be drawn are often uncertain.

When the building was opened in 1576, it was, no doubt, occupied by the Earl of Leicester's troupe, of which Burbage was the manager, and for which, presumably, the structure had been designed. Yet other troupes of players may also have been allowed to use the building--when Leicester's Men were touring the provinces, or, possibly, on days when Leicester's Men did not act. This arrangement lasted about six years.

In 1582 the use of the Theatre was interrupted by the interference of Peckham. For a long time the actors "could not enjoy the premises," and Burbage was forced to keep Peckham's servants out of the building with an armed guard night and day. As a result of this state of affairs, Leicester's troupe was dissolved; "many of the players," we are told, were driven away, and the rest "forsook the said Theatre." The last notice of these famous players is a record of their performance at Court on February 10, 1583.

Shortly after this, in March, 1583, Tilney, the Master of the Revels, organized under royal patronage a new company called the Queen's Men. For this purpose he selected twelve of the best actors of the realm, including some of the members of Leicester's company.[91] The two best-known actors in the new organization were the Queen's favorite comedian, Richard Tarleton, the immortal "Lord of Mirth," and John Lanham, the leader and apparently the manager of the troupe. James Burbage, who may by this time, if not before, have retired from acting, was not included.

[Footnote 91: For a list of the Queen's Men see Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 11.]

The newly organized Queen's Men in all probability occupied the Theatre which had been left vacant by the dissolution of Leicester's company. Mr. Wallace denies this, mainly on the evidence of a permit issued by the Lord Mayor, November 28, 1583, granting the Queen's Men the privilege of acting "at the sign of the Bull [Inn] in Bishopgate Street, and the sign of the Bell [Inn] in Gracious Street, and nowhere else within this city." But this permit, I think, lends scant support to Mr. Wallace's contention. The Lord Mayor had no authority to issue a license for the Queen's Men to play at the Theatre, for that structure was outside the jurisdiction of the city. The Privy Council itself, no doubt, had issued such a general license when the company was organized under royal patronage.[92] And now, ten months later, on November 26, 1583, the Council sends to the Lord Mayor a request "that Her Majesty's players may be suffered to play ... within the city and liberties _between this and shrovetide next_"[93]--in other words, during the winter season when access to the Theatre was difficult. It was customary for troupes to seek permission to act within the city during the winter months.[94] Thus the Queen's Men, in a petition written probably in the autumn of the following year, 1584, requested the Privy Council to dispatch "favorable letters unto the Lord Mayor of London to permit us to exercise within the city," and the Lord Mayor refused, with the significant remark that "if in winter ... the foulness of season do hinder the passage into the fields to play, the remedy is ill conceived to bring them into London."[95] Obviously the Queen's Men were seeking permission to play in the city only during the cold winter months; during the balmy spring, summer, and autumn months--for actors the best season of the year--they occupied their commodious playhouse in "the fields."

[Footnote 92: Such a license would include also permission to act in the provinces. This latter was soon needed, for shortly after their organization the Queen's Men were driven by the plague to tour the provinces. They were in Cambridge on July 9, and probably returned to London shortly after. See Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_, I, 8.]

[Footnote 93: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 66.]

[Footnote 94: Lord Hunsdon, on October 8, 1594, requested the Lord Mayor to permit the Chamberlain's Men "to play this winter time within the city at the Cross Keys in Gracious Street." See The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 67.]

[Footnote 95: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 170, 172.]

That this playhouse for a time, at least, was the Theatre is indicated by several bits of evidence. Thus the author of _Martin's Month's Mind_ (1589) speaks of "twittle-twattles that I had learned in ale-houses and at the Theatre of Lanham and his fellows." Again, Nash, in _Pierce Penniless_ (1592), writes: "Tarleton at the Theatre made jests of him"; Harrington, in _The Metamorphosis of Ajax_ (1596): "Which word was after admitted into the Theatre with great applause, by the mouth of Master Tarleton"; and the author of _Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatory_ (_c._ 1589) represents Tarleton as connected with the Theatre. Now, unless Lanham, Tarleton, and their "fellows" usually or sometimes acted at the Theatre, it is hard to understand these and other similar passages.

The following episode tends to prove the same thing. On June 18, 1584, William Fleetwood, Recorder, wrote to Lord Burghley:[96]

Right honorable and my very good lord. Upon Whitsunday there
was a very good sermon preached at the new churchyard near
Bethelem, whereat my Lord Mayor was with his brethren; and
by reason no plays were the same day, all the city was
quiet. Upon Monday I was at the Court.... That night I
returned to London and found all the wards full of watchers;
the cause thereof was for that very near the Theatre or
Curtain, at the time of the plays, there lay a prentice
sleeping upon the grass; and one Challes, at Grostock, did
turn upon the toe upon the belly of the same prentice.
Whereupon the apprentice start up.

[Footnote 96: The letter is printed in full in The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 164.]

In the altercation that followed, Challes remarked that "prentices were but the scum of the world." This led to a general rising of apprentices, and much disorder throughout the city. Fleetwood records the upshot thus:

Upon Sunday my Lord [Mayor] sent two aldermen to the court
for the suppressing and pulling down of the Theatre and
Curtain. All the Lords [of the Privy Council] agreed
thereunto saving my Lord Chamberlain and Mr.
Vice-Chamberlain. But we obtained a letter to suppress them
all. Upon the same night I sent for the Queen's Players [at
the Theatre?] and my Lord Arundel's Players [at the
Curtain?] and they all willingly obeyed the Lords's letters.
The chiefest of Her Highness's Players advised me to send
for the owner of the Theatre [James Burbage[97]], who was a
stubborn fellow, and to bind him. I did so. He sent me word
he was my Lord of Hundson's man, and that he would not come
at me; but he would in the morning ride to my lord.

[Footnote 97: This could not have been Hide, as usually stated. Hide had nothing to do with the management of the Theatre, and was not "my Lord of Hunsdon's man." Hide's connection with the Theatre as sketched in this chapter shows the absurdity of such an interpretation of the document.]

The natural inference from all this is that the Queen's Men and Lord Arundel's Men were then playing _outside the city_ where they could be controlled only by "the Lords's Letters"; that the Queen's Men were occupying the Theatre, and that James Burbage was (as we know) not a member of that company, but merely stood to them in the relation of "owner of the Theatre."

What Burbage meant by calling himself "my Lord of Hunsdon's man" is not clear. Mr. Wallace contends that when Leicester's Men were dissolved, Burbage organized "around the remnants of Leicester's Company" a troupe under the patronage of Lord Hunsdon, and that this troupe, and not the Queen's Men, occupied the Theatre thereafter.[98] But we hear of Hunsdon's Men at Ludlow in July, 1582; and we find them presenting a play at Court on December 27, 1582. Since Leicester's troupe is recorded as acting at Court as late as February 10, 1583, it seems unlikely that Mr. Wallace's theory as to the origin of Hunsdon's Men is true. It may be, however, that after the dissolution of Leicester's Men, Burbage associated himself with Hunsdon's Men, and it may be that he allowed that relatively unimportant company to occupy the Theatre for a short time. Hunsdon's Men seem to have been mainly a traveling troupe; Mr. Murray states that notices of them "occur frequently in the provinces," but we hear almost nothing of them in London. Indeed, at the time of the trouble described by Fleetwood, Hunsdon's Men were in Bath.[99] If Burbage was a member of the troupe, he certainly did not accompany them on their extended tours; and when they played in London, if they used the Theatre, they must have used it jointly with the Queen's Men.

[Footnote 98: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 11.]

[Footnote 99: Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_, I, 321.]

Late in 1585 the Theatre was affiliated with the adjacent Curtain. Burbage and Brayne made an agreement with the proprietor of that playhouse whereby the Curtain might be used "as an easore" [easer?] to the Theatre, and "the profits of the said two playhouses might for seven years space be in divident between them." This agreement, we know, was carried out, but whether it led to an exchange of companies, or what effect it had upon the players, we cannot say. Possibly to this period of joint management may be assigned the witticism of Dick Tarleton recorded as having been uttered "at the Curtain" where the Queen's Men were then playing.[100] It may even be that as one result of the affiliation of the two houses the Queen's Men were transferred to the Curtain.

[Footnote 100: _Tarlton's Jests_, ed. by J.O. Halliwell, p. 16. Tarleton died in 1588.]

In 1590, as we learn from the deposition of John Alleyn, the Theatre was being used by the Admiral's Men.[101] This excellent company had been formed early in 1589 by the separation of certain leading players from Worcester's Men, and it had probably occupied the Theatre since its organization. Its star actor, Edward Alleyn, was then at the height of his powers, and was producing with great success Marlowe's splendid plays. We may suppose that the following passage refers to the performance of the Admiral's Men at the Theatre:

He had a head of hair like one of my devils in _Dr.
Faustus_, when the old Theatre crackt and frightened the
audience.[102]

[Footnote 101: Wallace, _op. cit._, pp. 101, 126.]

[Footnote 102: _The Black Booke_, 1604.]

Late in 1590 the Admiral's Men seem to have been on bad terms with Burbage,[103] and when John Alleyn made his deposition, February 6, 1592, they had certainly left the Theatre. Mr. Greg, from entirely different evidence, has concluded that they were dispersed in 1591,[104] and this conclusion is borne out by the legal document cited above.

[Footnote 103: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 101.]

[Footnote 104: Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_, II, 83. The Admiral's Men were reorganized in 1594, and occupied the Rose under Henslowe's management.]

The next company that we can definitely associate with the Theatre was the famous Lord Chamberlain's Men. On April 16, 1594, Lord Strange, the Earl of Derby, died, and the chief members of his troupe--William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, John Heminges, William Kempe, Thomas Pope, George Bryan, and Augustine Phillips--organized a new company under the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain. For ten days, in June, 1594, they acted at Newington Butts under the management of Philip Henslowe, then went, probably at once, to the Theatre, which they made their home until the Burbage lease of the property expired in the spring of 1597. Here, among other famous plays, they produced the original _Hamlet_, thus referred to by Lodge in _Wit's Miserie_, 1596:

He looks as pale as the visard of the ghost which cries so
miserably at the Theatre, like an oyster-wife, "Hamlet,
revenge!"

And here, too, they presented all of Shakespeare's early masterpieces.

Their connection with the building ceased in 1597 at the expiration of the Burbage lease; but their association with the proprietors of the Theatre was permanent. Their subsequent history, as also the history of the Burbage brothers, will be found in the chapters dealing with the Globe and the Second Blackfriars.[105]

[Footnote 105: For other but unimportant references to the Theatre see The Malone Society's _Collections_, vol. I: disorder at, October, 1577, p. 153; disorder at, on Sunday, April, 1580, p. 46; fencing allowed at, July, 1582, p. 57; fencing forbidden at, May, 1583, p. 62; to be closed during infection, May, 1583, p. 63; complaint against, by the Lord Mayor, September, 1594, p. 76. And see Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 363, for a special performance there by a "virgin," February 22, 1582.]