Chapter XXXII: Introduction: The Public Theatres (14)

[1487] _M. S. C._ ii. 115. For the ‘turngate’ cf. _M. S. C._ ii. 114; Strype (1720), i. 3. 184. This, with the great gate, and the gates at the Thames and Fleet bridges, made up the four gates of conventual times. The gate, over which Shakespeare had a house, where Ireland Yard debouches into St. Andrew’s Hill, was probably of later date.

[1488] _M. S. C._ ii. 6, 11, 109.

[1489] The upper gate is described in a lease as ‘a gate of the Citie of London’ (_Loseley MS._ 1396, f. 44). It may have been a relic of the pre-1276 wall. Its site is shown on the Ordnance map. The lower gate is visible in the maps of Braun and Agas. It seems to have carried Charles V’s gallery over the roadway to the guest-house.

[1490] _M. S. C._ ii. 9, 107, 110; Clapham, 64.

[1491] The details for the rest of this paragraph are mainly taken from Crown surveys of 1548 and 1550 (_M. S. C._ ii. 6, 8), and from a memorandum by Cawarden on the grants anterior to his own (_M. S. C._ ii. 1, 103), and Professor Feuillerat’s notes of the original patents which illustrate this.

[1492] _M. S. C._ ii. 9, 107, 114; Clapham, 62; _London Inquisitiones Post Mortem_, ii. 115.

[1493] Ibid. 9, 10, 112.

[1494] Ibid. 111, 113.

[1495] Ibid. 110; Clapham, 63.

[1496] Ibid. 10, 110, 114.

[1497] Ibid. 3.

[1498] Some vaulted fragments stood until 1900 at a spot which must have been just east of the school-house. Possibly they formed part of the provincial’s lodging. They are shown in a plan of _c._ 1670–80 (Clapham, 71), and their condition in 1900 was carefully recorded (Clapham, 69, 70, 78). Only a fragment of wall is now _in situ_, just north of what is now the west end of Ireland Yard, but appears on the seventeenth-century plan as Cloister Court. It must, however, have run out from the south-east corner of the cloister towards the east. The name Cloister Court has now passed to a yard farther south.

[1499] Clapham, 68; cf. p. 486.

[1500] Clapham suggests, plausibly enough, that the description (_c._ 1394) of a Dominican house in _Pierce the Ploughmans Crede_ (ed. Skeat, _E. E. T. S._ 153–215) was based upon the London Blackfriars. The following passages relate to the cloister and refectory.

Þanne kam i to þat cloister . & gaped abouten
Whouȝ it was pilered and peynt . & portred well clene,
All y-hyled wiþ leed . lowe to þe stones,
And y-paued wiþ peynt til . iche poynte after oþer;
With kundites of clene tyn . closed all aboute,
Wiþ lauoures of latun . louelyche y-greithed....

... Þanne was þe chaptire-hous wrouȝt . as a greet chirche,
Coruen and couered . and queyntliche entayled;
Wiþ semlich selure . y-set on lofte;
As a Parlement-hous . y-peynted aboute....

... Þanne ferd y into fraytour . and fond þere an oþer,
An halle for an heyȝ king . an housholde to holden,
Wiþ brode bordes aboute . y-benched wel clene,
Wiþ windowes of glas . wrouȝt as a Chirche....

... Chambers wiþ chymneyes . & Chapells gaie;
And kychens for an hyȝe kinge . in castells to holden,
And her dortour y-diȝte . wiþ dores ful stronge;
Fermery and fraitur . with fele mo houses,
And all strong ston wall . sterne opon heiþe,
Wiþ gaie garites & grete . & iche hole y-glased;
And oþere houses y-nowe . to herberwe þe queene.

[1501] _M. S. C._ ii. 1.

[1502] Ibid. 13, 115.

[1503] Ibid. 6, 8, gives the texts of two surveys (_a_) of the property leased to Cawarden on 4 April 1548, (_b_) of that included in his grant of 12 March 1550.

[1504] Ibid. 7, 12, 35; cf. p. 499.

[1505] _London Inquisitiones Post Mortem_, i. 191; cf. _M. S. C._ ii. 4, 12.

[1506] Stowe (1598), i. 341; _Athenaeum_ (1886), ii. 91; _M. S. C._ ii. 2, 127; Hennessy, 88; _Loseley MSS._

[1507] _M. S. C._ ii. 103.

[1508] Ibid. 92, 117.

[1509] Ibid. 21, 31, 92, 126.

[1510] Ibid. 21, 93, 119. They were let to Henry Knowles in 1565 and had been earlier occupied by Roger Lygon, Lady Parr, and Sir Thomas Saunders. Later Nicholas Saunders had them.

[1511] Ibid. 117, 124, 125, show Anthony Browne, probably, as tenant in 1560, Henry Lord Hunsdon, probably, in 1584 and 1585, and Ralph Bowes in 1596.

[1512] Dasent, xxi. 402, gives a Privy Council letter of 18 August 1591 to the Lord Mayor requiring him to repair the supply pipe from Clerkenwell; cf. p. 494.

[1513] (1548) ‘A Cuchin yarde, an owlde Cuchyn, an entre or passage Ioyninge to the same, conteyninge in lengethe 84 fote, abuttinge to the lane aforseide on the weste side, being in breddethe at that ende 68 fote, Abuttinge ageanste an owlde butery on the easte side, being in breddethe at that ende 74 foote, Abuttinge to M^r Portynarys parler nexte the lane on the Southe side, And to my lorde Cobhames brick wall and garden on the Northe syde. An owlde buttery and an entrye or passage with a greate stayre therin, with Sellers therunder, with a hall place at the vpper ende of the stayre and an entere there to the ffrater ouer the same buttery, all which conteyne in lengethe 36 foote and in breddethe 95 foote, abuttinge to the cloyster on the Este side, the Cuchin on the weste side, to the lorde Cobhams howse on the Northe syde, and on the Sowthe side to a blynd parlour that my lorde warden did clame.

A howse called the vpper frater conteyninge in lengethe 107 foote and in breddethe 52 foote, abuttinge Sowthe and easte to my ladye Kingestons howse and garden, Northe to a hall where the kinges revelles lyes at this presente, and weste towardes the seide Duchie Chamber and M^r Portynaryes howse.

[Sidenote: Memorandum my lorde warden clamethe the seide hall, parlour, Cutchin and Chaumber.]

A hall and a parlour vnder the seide frater of the same lengethe and breddethe, A litle Cuchen conteyning in lengethe 23 foote and in breddethe 22 foote abuttinge to the aforseide lane on the weste, towardes the seide parlour on the este, to M^r Portinarys howse on the northe, and to a waye ledinge to my ladye Kingestons howse on the southe, A litle Chamber with a voyde rome therunder, conteyning in lengethe 26 fote, in breddeth 10 foote, abuttinge weste to the cuchin, este to the parlour, northe to M^r Portinarys howse, and ye seid way to my ladie Kingestons howse Sowthe, with 4 small Sellers or darke holes therunder.

A voyde rome, beinge an entre towardes the lytle cytchin and colehowse, conteyning in lengeth 30 fote and in breddethe 17 fote.

A Chamber called the Duchie Chaumber, with a darke loginge therunder, conteyninge in lengthe 50 fote and in breddethe 16 foote, abuttinge este ageanste the north ende of the seide ffrater, abuttinge weste on M^r Portinaryes parlour ---- 66^s 8^d.’

(1550) ‘One Kitchyn yarde, an olde Kitchyn, an Entrie or passage ioyneinge to the same, Conteineinge in lengthe 84 fote, abutinge to the Lane aforesaid on the west side, beinge in bredethe at that ende three score fowrtene fote, abutinge to M^r Portinareys parler next the Lane on the southe side and to the Lord Cobham brickewall & gardeine on the Northe side. One olde Butterie & a Entrie or passage with a great staier therein, with Cellers therevnder, with a Hawle place at the vpper ende of the staiers and a entrie there to the ffrater ouer the same butterie, which all conteinethe in lengthe 95 fote and in bredethe 36 fote, abuttinge to the Cloyster on thest side, the kitchyn on the west side, to the Lorde Cobham howse on the northe side, and on the southe side to a blinde parler that my Lord warden did Clayme. One howse called the vpper ffrater conteinethe in Lengthe 107 fote and in bredethe 52 fote, Abuttinge southe and est to the Ladie Kingston howse and gardein, northe to a hawle where the Kinges Revelles Liethe at theis presentes, and west towardes the Duchie Chamber and M^r Portinareyes howse. A voide rome, beinge an Entrie towardes the Litle Kitchyn & Cole howse, conteininge in Lengthe 30 fote and in bredethe 17 fote. One Chamber called the Duchie chamber, with a darke Lodginge there vnder, conteininge in Lengthe 50 fote and in bredethe 16 fote, abuttinge est agaynst the northe ende of the said ffrater, and abuttinge west apon M^r Portinareys parler. All which premisses be valued to be worthe by yere ---- iij^{li} vj^s viij^d.’

[1514] _M. S. C._ ii. 14, 24, 116, 117, 119, 120; cf. p. 482. The stone gallery was removed in 1564.

[1515] Ibid. 13, 16, 115.

[1516] Ibid. 14, 16.

[1517] Ibid. 7, 11, ‘an entrye or passage with a greate stayre therin’ (1548, 1550), 21 ‘one entrye ledinge vnder parcell of the premysses demysed from that end of the house of William More wherin John Horleye his servaunt doth lodge’ (1560), 118, ‘the entre in the west ende of the garden openyng into the same garden’ (1560), 31, ‘an entrye leadynge from the sayde voyde ground into the sayd dwellynge howse or tenement of the sayd Sir William More’ (1576), 63, ‘the dore entry way voide ground and passage leadinge and vsed to and from the saide greate yard nexte the saide Pipe Office’ (1596), 126, ‘the gate-house with the appurtenances on the west side of the sayd monastery’ (1611), ‘the great gate near the play-house’ (1617).

[1518] _M. S. C._ ii. 20.

[1519] Ibid. 14 (cf. 116), ‘vnius paris graduum ducentium a coquina predicta vsque magnum claustrum’ (1546), 21, ‘the waye ledinge from the house and garden of William More towards the Water Lane’, ‘one entrye ledinge vnder parcell of the premysses demysed from the garden of William More to the voide grounde’ (1560), 119.

[1520] Ibid. 16.

[1521] Ibid. 115.

[1522] Ibid. 27, 29.

[1523] The whole length of the Neville-Farrant holding is given in 1560 (_M. S. C._ ii. 20) as 157½ ft., and in 1576 (_M. S. C._ ii. 29) as 156½ ft. As this included 37 ft. of the northern block, 119½ ft. or 120½ ft. seems to be left for the staircase and frater. The difference between inside and outside measurements often causes confusion in old surveys.

[1524] _M. S. C._ ii. 62, 119; cf. p. 504.

[1525] Ibid. 94.

[1526] Cf. p. 513.

[1527] _M. S. C._ ii. 105.

[1528] The room is described as ‘intrale seu le parlour’ in Cawarden’s grant of 1550.

[1529] _M. S. C._ ii. 105, 124. There was yet another room under the infirmary. One Kempe, an assign of Lady Kingston’s heir, tried to claim the Parliament Chamber from Cawarden, on the strength of her grant of the infirmary.

[1530] Cf. p. 504.

[1531] On Cheyne’s houses cf. p. 499.

[1532] _M. S. C._ ii. 42–51. This hall is doubtless the ground-floor frater referred to in a document of _c_. 1562 (_M. S. C._ ii. 105).

[1533] Cf. p. 499. The ‘blinde parler that my Lord warden did clayme’ and ‘the litle kitchyn and cole howse’ are mentioned in the survey of 1550 to define the position of other parcels. But the hall and parlour might be held to be covered by the grant of the ‘howse called the vpper frater’, and I do not know what the ‘little tenement’ near that held by Kirkham from Cheyne was, if it was not the little chamber and kitchen. It is noteworthy that the disputed rooms, after being included, with a note of Cheyne’s claim, in the survey of 1548, were left out of Cawarden’s lease of the same year.

[1534] _M. S. C._ ii. 109.

[1535] Brewer, ii. 2. 1494.

[1536] _Tudor Revels_, 7.

[1537] Feuillerat, _Edw. and Mary_, 255; Wallace, i. 140.

[1538] _Athenaeum_ (1886), ii. 91.

[1539] Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 430; cf. _M. S. C._ ii. 120; Wallace, i. 192.

[1540] _M. S. C._ ii. 35. I do not know whether More deliberately confused the Tents and Revels.

[1541] Ibid. 52.

[1542] Ibid. 105.

[1543] Ibid. 14, 116; _Hist. MSS._ vii. 603.

[1544] Ibid. 15.

[1545] Only an abstract of title at the date of the sale exists (Barrett, _Apothecaries_, 46), but Apothecaries’ Hall occupies the site of these rooms.

[1546] _M. S. C._ ii. 4, 9; Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 440. In 1552 Jane Fremownte had succeeded Barnard (_M. S. C._ ii. 115), but she cannot have had the whole of the original lodge, as her 4 ft. entry on Water Lane is too small to have been the main access to the cloister. Probably part had been granted to her neighbour, Sir George Harper. Nor did all her holding pass to Cobham in 1554. Some of it was probably added to the house on the north, which occupied the site of the old church porch.

[1547] _M. S. C._ ii. 44, 53; cf. p. 502.

[1548] Ibid. 51, 121.

[1549] Ibid. 16.

[1550] Feuillerat, _Edw. and Mary_, 210, 230, 242, 301; _Eliz._ 103, 107.

[1551] _M. S. C._ ii. 118, ‘one other grete rome or vawte next the ground next the entre in the west ende of the garden openyng into the same garden wherin now the robes of the revelles do lye’ (Lease of 12 Feb. 1560).

[1552] _M. S. C._ ii. 19.

[1553] Cf. p. 489.

[1554] _M. S. C._ ii. 105, 118.

[1555] Ibid. 119, 120.

[1556] Wallace, i. 175.

[1557] _M. S. C._ ii. 119.

[1558] Ibid. 27; Wallace, i. 175.

[1559] Wallace, i. 175.

[1560] _M. S. C._ ii. 120.

[1561] Ibid. 27.

[1562] _Jahrbuch_, xlviii. 92; Wallace, i. 131.

[1563] Ibid. 93; _M. S. C._ ii. 28; Wallace, i. 132.

[1564] On the plays performed there, cf. chh. xii, xiii (Chapel, Paul’s, Oxford’s). Collier appears to have been aware, probably from the Lyly prologues and the reference in Gosson, _P. C._ 188, of the existence of the earlier Blackfriars play-house, and to have dated it, by a singular coincidence, in 1576. He knew nothing of the real facts, but inferred (_H. E. D. P._ i. 219) that the undated petition of the Blackfriars inhabitants, which is really of 1596, was of 1576, on the strength of a reference in it to a banishment of the players from the City, which an incorrect endorsement on a _Lansdowne MS._ (cf. App. D, No. lxxv) had led him to place in 1575. This did not prevent him from also assigning the petition, with a forged reply from the players, to 1596 (cf. p. 508). He proceeded to forge (_a_) an order dated 23 Dec. 1579 for the toleration of Leicester’s men at the Blackfriars (_New Facts_, 9), and (_b_) a memorial by Shakespeare and others as Queen’s men and Blackfriars ‘sharers’ in 1589 (_New Facts_, 11; cf. Ingleby, 244, 249).

[1565] Cf. ch. xii (Chapel).

[1566] _Jahrbuch_, xlviii. 99; Wallace, i. 152 (Will of Farrant, 30 Nov. 1580), 153 (Anne Farrant to More, 25 Dec. 1580), 154 (Leicester to More, 19 Sept. 1581), 158 (Anne Farrant to Walsingham, _c._ 1583), 159 (Court of Common Pleas, _Farrant v. Hunnis_ and _Farrant v. Newman_, 1583–4), 160 (Court of Requests, _Newman and Hunnis v. Farrant_, 1584), 177 (Wolley to More, 13 Jan. 1587), 174 (Memoranda by More, _c._ 1587; cf. Dasent, xv. 137).

[1567] _M. S. C._ ii. 123. More’s rental of 1584 includes £50 from Hunsdon for the mansion house, £20 from Oxford, £8 from Lyly; that of 1585 the same three sums, all from Hunsdon. But the two smaller sums represent twice Farrant’s rent, which was £14.

[1568] Kempe, 495; _M. S. C._ ii. 123; Wallace, i. 186 (More to Hunsdon, 8 April 1586; Hunsdon to More, 27 April 1586; Hunsdon to More, 14 April 1590; More to Hunsdon, draft, 17 April 1590; More to Hunsdon, 18 April 1590). Did the Paul’s ‘boyes’ keep up connexion with the Blackfriars by learning dancing and perhaps playing in Frith’s school?

[1569] _M. S. C._ ii. 61, 93, 94, 98.

[1570] Ibid. 123 (Skinner to More, 11 Oct. 1591).

[1571] Ibid. 50, 54.

[1572] This may have been Thomas Hale, Groom of the Tents, who was a witness in the case (ibid. 44), or the Thomas Hall, musician, who in 1565 was sub-tenant of Frith’s garrets (ibid. 119).

[1573] Ibid. 35 (memorandum by More), 36 (award by arbitrators), 40 (depositions of More’s witnesses), 122 (notes of evidence by Pole’s witnesses).

[1574] On Bonetti’s career as a fencer, cf. Wallace, i. 187; _M. S. C._ ii. 122; Reyher, 257; G. Silver, _Paradoxes of Defence_, 64.

[1575] _M. S. C._ ii. 56; Wallace, i. 188 (Willoughby to More, July 1584), 190.

[1576] Wallace, i. 189; _M. S. C._ ii. 122. I do not think the lease of the fencing-school was in question between More and Bonetti. Both Raleigh’s letter and the workmen’s petition imply house-building, not mere internal repairs. Bonetti could have added no building to the fencing-school except perhaps the kitchen which adjoined in 1596 (ibid. 61). But the western house had been extensively rebuilt by 1584.

[1577] Ibid. 55.

[1578] Ibid. 56. The whole description from ‘All w^{ch} six foote & a halfe’ (l. 18) to ‘xxxix foote & viij inches’ (l. 29) is parenthetic, a point which the punctuation obscures.

[1579] Cf. chh. ii, xiii (Chamberlain’s).

[1580] _M. S. C._ ii. 124; cf. p. 490.

[1581] Ibid. 62; cf. p. 504.

[1582] _M. S. C._ ii. 36, 47, 51, 122.

[1583] Ibid. 36, 38, 56 (‘the tenemente of Margrett Poole on the south and weste’), 70, 77, 81, 85, 125. Here must have been the chamber which Thomas Blagrave, finding the butler’s lodging too small, hired of Parson Wythers, Cheyne’s servant, from 1552 to 1560, and which Pole still had in 1572 (ibid. 53). But if it was strictly ‘adjoininge’ to his house he must have had the ‘little kitchen’ as well as the ‘little chamber’.

[1584] Ibid. 63, 71.

[1585] Ibid. 125. An unfortunate hiatus in a document (ibid. 70) leaves it uncertain whether Tice occupied one of Mrs. Pole’s houses or More’s enlarged ‘little kitchen’.

[1586] Ibid. 50.

[1587] Cf. p. 504.

[1588] Kempe, 496; Wallace, i. 195; _M. S. C._ ii. 125, misdated 1595. The ‘other’ house was probably the mansion house, which was let to Ralph Bowes on 3 March 1596 (cf. p. 497). Hunsdon died on 22 July 1596.

[1589] Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 299, from enrolment in R. O.; _M. S. C._ ii. 60, from counterpart executed by Burbadge in _Loseley MS._ 348.

[1590] I suppose that this was the old lavatory. If so, probably Burbadge’s use terminated when this became a glass-house in 1601; cf. p. 506.

[1591] The account in Wallace, ii. 37, is not trustworthy; it assumes, in lieu of the Duchy Chamber and staircase tower, a ‘north section’ of the building 40 ft. from north to south.

[1592] Cf. p. 498.

[1593] Wallace, i. 196; ii. 38, is misleading here.

[1594] _M. S. C._ ii. 70.

[1595] Ibid. 76 (conveyance by Sir Richard Michelborne, George Pole, and Charles Pole), 84 (conveyance by Richard and Elizabeth Mansell), 125.

[1596] _Variorum_, iii. 62; Birch, ii. 426.

[1597] H. R. Plomer, _The King’s Printing House under the Stuarts_ (_2 Library_ ii. 353).

[1598] _M. S. C._ ii. 83 (Recital of conveyance by trustees of Lady Howard); cf. p. 512.

[1599] Ibid. 98 (Recital of lease in deed of sale of 1609).

[1600] Ibid. 93, ‘all that greate Vault or lowe roome adioyneing to the said greate Garden lyeing and being at the south west end of the said greate garden nowe vsed and imployed for a glassehowse’ (1609). By 26 June 1601 (_M. S. C._ ii. 70) the way south of the kitchen yard has become ‘the yard or way ... which leadeth towardes the glassehouse nowe in the tenure of Sir Ierom Bowes’. Bowes had obtained a patent for making drinking-glasses in 1592 and occupied a warehouse under the church in 1597 (_D. N. B._). Dekker, _Newes from Hell_ (1606, _Works_, ii. 97), says, ‘Like the Glass-house Furnace in Blacke-friers, the bonefiers that are kept there neuer goe out’.

[1601] _M. S. C._ ii. 92 (Deed of Sale).

[1602] Ibid. 126. There is some confusion as to the position of Mrs. Basil’s house. I think it was west of the gate-house.

[1603] Ibid. 88 (Deed of Sale, misdated 1602).

[1604] Ibid. 64.

[1605] Ibid. 83; _S. P. D. Jac. I_, viii. 18 (Grant to trustees for Lady Kildare). An _inquisitio_ on Cobham’s Blackfriars property (_1 Jac. I_) appears to be amongst the Special Commissions and Returns in the Exchequer (R. O. _Lists and Indexes_, xxxvii. 61).

[1606] C. R. B. Barrett, _History of the Society of Apothecaries_, 42. The existing Hall dates from 1669–70. John Downes (cf. App. I, No. iii) and Pepys, i. 336, record the use of the older building by Davenant for plays at the Restoration. So Farrant’s tradition survived.

[1607] For text and discussion of bona fides cf. App. D, No. cvii. Collier, having already assigned the document to 1576 (cf. p. 496), uses it again for 1596 (_H. E. D. P._ i. 287). With it, in his first edition (i. 297), he printed a reply, now in _S. P. D. Eliz._ cclx. 117, by Pope, Richard Burbadge, Heminges, Phillips, Shakespeare, Kempe, Sly, and Tooley, on behalf of the players, which is palaeographically a forgery (Ingleby, 289) and could not be genuine in substance, since it refers to the Globe, which did not exist in 1596.

[1608] Cf. p. 511. Wallace, ii. 53, thinks this an error or invention of the City in 1619, because the Privy Council registers ‘giving all the official acts of that body, record no such order’. But the Privy Council registers notoriously do not record all the official acts of that body (cf. ch. ii). The petitioners of 1619 are not likely to have invented the ‘petition and indorsemente’ of 1596 to which they appealed.

[1609] In the _Sharers Papers_ of 1635 (Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 317) Cuthbert and the other Burbadges then living say ‘now for the Blackfriers, that is our inheritance; our father purchased it at extreame rates, and made it into a play-house with great charge and troble’. Further, Cuthbert was associated with Richard in buying subsidiary property in 1601, 1610, 1612, and 1614 (cf. p. 505). But the leases of 1600 and 1608 were by Richard alone, and under one of these Cuthbert became his tenant.

[1610] Cf. p. 511.

[1611] Fleay, 211, 234, 240.

[1612] Cf. ch. xii.

[1613] Fleay, 224, 230, 245, 250. Evans maintained that the assignment to Hawkins was absolute, to cover his liability under the bond to Burbadge. But the court appears to have held that a reassignment was intended, but that ‘the conveyance was never perfected and sealed’.

[1614] Wallace, ii. 89, from unpublished document; _Evans v. Kirkham_ in Fleay, 214.

[1615] Ibid. 235.

[1616] Ibid. 221, 231, 235, 246.

[1617] The Burbadges say in the _Sharers Papers_ of 1635, ‘the more to strengthen the service, the boys daily wearing out, it was considered that house would be as fit for ourselves, and so purchased the lease remaining from Evans with our money, and placed men players, which were Hemings, Condall, Shakspeare, etc.’. They also say that the players had their shares ‘of us for nothing’. Very likely they paid no fine, but they had to pay their quota towards rent. It is reasonable to infer that Thomas Evans was a relative and nominee of Henry Evans. Kirkham’s allegation in the 1612 litigation that Henry Evans had shared in the Blackfriars profits during the past four years (Fleay, 225) was not seriously contested.

[1618] Cf. ch. xiii. Collier (_New Facts_, 16) printed a document professing to set out action taken by the City against scurrilities of Kempe and Armin at Blackfriars in 1605. But this cannot be traced in the City archives (S. Lee in _D. N. B._ s.v. Kempe), and the City did not obtain control of the Blackfriars until 1608 (cf. p. 480). It is probably a forgery.

[1619] Cf. vol. i, p. 357.

[1620] C. W. Wallace, _Advance Sheets from Shakespeare, the Globe, and Blackfriars_ (p.p. 1909).

[1621] _Sharers Papers_ in Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 312. Collier, _Alleyn Memoirs_, 105, conjectures that Alleyn bought Shakespeare’s interest in April 1612, and it appears from G. F. Warner, _Dulwich MSS._ 115, 172, 174, that he forged entries in documents relating to other property of Alleyn’s in Blackfriars, as a support to this conjecture.

[1622] Cf. p. 480.

[1623] Text in Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 311, and Harrison, iv. 323, from City _Repertory_, xxxiv, f. 38^v. The two petitions of the officials and inhabitants are in _M. S. C._ i. 90, from _Remembrancia_, v. 28, 29. They are undated, but can be identified from a recital in the order. The officials allege ‘that whereas in November 1596 divers both honorable persons and others then inhabiting the said precinct made knowne to the Lordes and others of the privie Counsell, what inconveniencies were likelie to fall vpon them, by a common Play-house which was then preparinge to bee erected there, wherevpon their Honours then forbadd the vse of the said howse for playes, as by the peticion and indorsemente in aunswere thereof may appeare.... Nevertheles ... the owner of the said play-house doth vnder the name of a private howse (respectinge indeed private comoditie only) convert the said howse to a publique play-house.’ They dwell on the inconvenience caused by the congested streets and the difficulty of getting to church ‘the ordinary passage for a great part of the precinct aforesaid being close by the play house dore’.

[1624] Text in _M. S. C._ i. 280.

[1625] Text in Collier, i. 455, from _S. P. D. Car. I_, ccv. 32, where it is accompanied by copies of the Privy Council order and letter of 22 June 1600 (App. D, No. cxxiv) and the City order of 21 Jan. 1619. Probably the copy of the petition of Blackfriars inhabitants in 1596 (cf. p. 508), now in _S. P. D. Eliz._ cclx. 116, originally belonged to this set of documents.

[1626] _M. S. C._ i. 386.

[1627] The report of the commissioners is printed by Collier, _New Facts_, 27, and _H. E. D. P._ i. 477. It is confirmed by a memorandum of Secretary Windebank in _S. P. D. Car. I_, ccli. p. 293, and I think Ingleby, 304, is wrong in suspecting a forgery (cf. _M. S. C._ i. 386). The commissioners allowed (_a_) £700 to Cuthbert and William Burbadge for 14 years’ purchase of the rent of £50 reserved to them by lease, (_b_) £1,134 for 14 years’ purchase of an interest in four tenements rated at £75 and a piece of void ground to turn coaches at £6, (_c_) £1,066 13_s._ 4_d._ for 100 marks apiece to 16 players for ‘the interest that some of them haue by lease in the said Play-house, and in respect of the shares which others haue in the benefits thereof’, and for compensation for removal. Collier, _Reply_, 39, mentions but does not print another document containing a summary of the players’ claim, with notes by Buck. But Buck was long dead. A third valuation published by Collier, in which Laz. Fletcher’s name occurs, is certainly a forgery (Ingleby, 246).

[1628] _M. S. C._ i. 386.

[1629] Fleay, 211, 213. I suppose it was on this that Evans spent £11 0_s._ 2_d._ in Dec. 1603 (Wallace, ii. 89).

[1630] In _The Times_ of 12 Sept. 1906 Professor Wallace gives the number of new suits as four; in _The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars_ (1908), 36, as twelve. Presumably the Court of Requests suit of _Keysar v. Burbadge et al._, printed in _Nebraska University Studies_, x. 336, is one of these.

[1631] Wallace, ii. 39, 40, 41, 43, 49.

[1632] Cf. p. 511.

[1633] _M. S. C._ ii. 31, ‘all the Leds couerynge the premysses’ (1576), 61, ‘the stone staires leadinge vpp vnto the Leades or route over the saide seaven greate vpper romes oute of the saide seaven greate vpper romes’ (1596).

[1634] Wallace, ii. 40.

[1635] Marston, _The Dutch Courtesan_, v. iii. 162.

[1636] Cf. p. 425.

[1637] R. Flecknoe, _Miscellania_ (1653), 141, ‘From thence passing on to the Black-fryers, and seeing never a Play-bil on the Gate, no Coaches on the place, nor Doorkeeper at the Play-house door, with his Boxe like a Churchwarden, desiring you to remember the poor Players, I cannot but say for Epilogue to all the Playes were ever acted there:

Poor House that in dayes of our Grand-sires,
Belongst unto the Mendiant Fryers:
And where so oft in our Fathers dayes
We have seen so many of Shakspears Playes,
So many of Johnsons, Beaumonts & Fletchers.’

[1638] I do not know what value to attach to a print in the Gardiner collection, reproduced by Baker, 44, 78, as representing the theatre. It shows a Renaissance façade, which can have been no part of the mediaeval building. Adams, 197, reproduces a painting of mediaeval fragments found in rebuilding _The Times_ in 1872, small ground-floor rooms divided by entries. But _The Times_ must cover the site of Hunsdon House as well as that of the theatre.

[1639] As an epilogue to this narrative and an example of how popular history is written, I quote D. E. Oliver, _The English Stage_ (1912), 9, ‘Blackfriars House, a deserted monastery on the Thames side, was granted by Edward VI in 1596 to the Court Players for their use as a play-house, but it was not until the accession of Elizabeth that it received official sanction as a recognized place of public entertainment’.

[1640] Jonas, 132, however, quotes from the register of St. Dunstan’s, Whitefriars, with the date 29 Sept. 1607, ‘Gerry out of the play-house in the Friars buried’, which suggests use of the theatre before 1608. The King’s Revels may well have started by 1607. He also quotes, without date, ‘We present one play-house in the same precinct, not fitting these to be now tolerable’.

[1641] I do not know why Adams, 312, identifies the play-house with a cloister shown in Clapham’s plan. Surely it is more likely to have been the hall also shown at the north-west corner.

[1642] _P. C. Acts_ (1613–14), 166. One Sturgis had leased a house and garden from Sir Edward Gorge, and sublet the garden to ‘one Rossetoe Kynman and others, who goe aboute to erecte a p[l]aye house thereupon’.

[1643] _M. S. C._ i. 91; cf. ch. xvii. The Blackfriars is still the ‘private house’ of the King’s men in the patent of 1619 issued to them after this controversy.

[1644] It is true that, when the prentices took up Whitefriars for _The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl_ in 1613, the admission _per bullettini_ is said to have been ‘for a note of distinction from ordinary comedians’. But the companies had no need to continue any special system of admission after they had the protection of their patents; Dekker (_vide_ p. 523) speaks of gatherers at private houses in 1609. After the Restoration, ‘ballatine, or tickets sealed for all doors and boxes’ were introduced at the Duke’s Theatre in 1660 (R. W. Lowe, _Thomas Betterton_, 75).

[1645] Lawrence, i. 230; cf. App. D, No. xxxii.

[1646] The earliest example is _The Troublesome Reign of King John_ (1591).

[1647] But ‘priuately’ is also used of strictly private performances on the title-pages of _Caesar’s Revenge_ (1607) acted at Trinity College, Oxford, and, later, W. Montague’s _Shepherd’s Paradise_ (1659) acted by amateurs at Court.

[1648] T. M., _Black Book_ (1604), in Bullen, _Middleton_, viii. 42, ‘arch tobacco-taker of England ... upon stages both common and private’; _Malcontent_ (1604), ind., ‘we may sit upon the stage at the private house’; _Sophonisba_ (1606), _ad fin._, ‘it is printed only as it was represented by youths, and after the fashion of the private stage’; Dekker, _Gull’s Horn Book_ (cf. App. H), ‘Whether therefore the gatherers of the publique or priuate Play-house stand to receiue the afternoones rent’; Dekker, _Seven Deadly Sins_ (1606, _Works_, ii. 41), ‘All the Citty lookt like a priuate Play-house, when the windowes are clapt downe’; _Roaring Girl_ (1611), ii. 1, ‘the private stage’s audience, the twelve-penny stool gentlemen’; _Daborne to Henslowe_ (1613, _Henslowe Papers_, 79), ‘as good a play for your publique howse as ever was playd’.

[1649] Cf. Wright (App. I).

[1650] Lawrence (_Fortnightly_, May 1916) has shown that the rebuilt Fortune of 1623 and Red Bull of _c._ 1632 were probably roofed, and Wright’s description confuses the two phases of these houses.

[1651] Chapman’s _Byron_ (1625) is said to have been acted ‘at the Blacke-Friers and other publique Stages’, Heywood’s _English Traveller_ (1633), _A Maidenhead Well Lost_ (1634), and _Love’s Mistress_ (1636) to have been ‘publikely acted’ at the Cockpit, and Shirley’s _Martyred Soldier_ (1638) to have been acted ‘at the Private House in Drury Lane and at other publicke Theaters’. This is exceptional terminology, but shows the obsolescence of the distinction.

[1652] Cf. ch. xvi.

[1653] _Old Fortunatus_ (Rose, 1599), prol. 81, ‘this small circumference’; _Warning for Fair Women_ (? Curtain, 1599), prol. 83, 88, ‘all this fair circuit ... this round’; _Hen. V_ (Curtain or Globe, 1599), prol. 11, ‘this cockpit ... this wooden O’; _E. M. O._ (Globe, 1599), prol. 199, epil. 4406, ‘this thronged round ... this faire-fild Globe’; _Sejanus_ (Globe, 1603), comm. v, ‘the Globe’s fair ring’; _Three English Brothers_ (Curtain or Red Bull, 1607), epil., ‘this round circumference’; _Merry Devil of Edmonton_ (Globe, 1608), prol. 5, ‘this round’. On the other hand, _Whore of Babylon_ (Fortune, 1607), prol. 1, ‘The charmes of Silence through this Square be throwne’.

[1654] Ordish, 12.

[1655] Before the Swan was built, Nashe wrote in _The Unfortunate Traveller_ (1594), ‘I sawe a banketting house belonging to a merchant that was the meruaile of the world.... It was builte round of green marble like a Theater without’ (_Works_, ii. 282).

[1656] Cf. chh. iv, xvi (introd.).

[1657] _Atlantic Monthly_ (1906), xcvii. 369.

[1658] Kirkman also says in the preface to _The Wits_ (1672), ‘I have seen the Red Bull Play-house, which was a large one’; but he is referring, more certainly than Wright, to the rebuilt house.

[1659] Cf. Albright, 40; Lawrence, i. 12, and _E. S._ xxxii. 44.

[1660] There is a dot in Wheatley’s facsimile over the second well-marked ‘r’ of the word ‘orchestra’. Is it possible that Van Buchell misread it ‘orchestia’?

[1661] Cf. Brereton in _Homage_, 204.

[1662] Cf. ch. xvi.

[1663] The _Theatrum_ of Jonson’s 1616 Folio t.p. is oval, rather than round, but it is safer to take this, in spite of its hut, as representing Jonson’s notion of a classical theatre.

[1664] Cf. ch. xvi. Graves, 32, tries to minimize the structural influence of inn-yards on the theatres, and even doubts whether the actors preferred to act in these ‘rather than in the great halls’. But I do not think that he makes much of a case. Had the inns, indeed, ‘great halls’ at all?

[1665] Gosson, _P. C._ (1582), ‘it is the fashion of youthes to go first into the yarde, and to carry theire eye through every gallery’; _Hamlet_, III. ii. 10, ‘tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise’; Dekker, _G. H. B._ (1609), ‘your _Groundling_ and _Gallery-Commoner_ buyes his sport by the penny ... neither are you to be hunted from thence, though the Scar-crows in the yard hoot at you, hisse at you, spit at you, yea, throw durt euen in your teeth’; _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614), ind. 51, ‘the vnderstanding Gentlemen o’ the ground here, ask’d my iudgement’, 59, 79; _The Hog Has Lost His Pearl_ (1614), prol.:

We may be pelted off for ought we know,
With apples, egges, or stones,
from thence belowe;

W. Fennor, _Descriptions_ (1616):

the understanding, grounded, men for their just reward,
Shall gape and gaze among the fools in the yard.

So later, _Vox Graculi_ (1623), ‘they will sit dryer in the galleries then those who are the understanding men in the yard’;

Shirley, _The Changes_ (1632):

Many gentlemen
Are not, as in the days of understanding,
Now satisfied with a Jig;

Shirley, _The Doubtful Heir_ (1640), prol.:

No shews, no frisk and, what you most delight in,
Grave understanders, here’s no target-fighting.

[1666] _Proscenium_ is the proper classical word for the space in front of the _scena_; cf. p. 539.

[1667] Albright has no justification for introducing into his reconstruction of a typical Shakespearian stage the tapering, instead of quadrangular, platform which characterizes the late engraving in _The Wits_, and to a less degree those in _Roxana_ and _Messallina_.

[1668] Wegener, 125, collects examples of the use of traps. They served, _inter alia_, for the representation of ‘hell-mouth’, which the Elizabethan stage inherited from the miracle-plays (cf. p. 544), and the space under the stage was known as ‘hell’; cf. Dekker, _News from Hell_ (1606, _Works_, ii. 92, 139), ‘Mary the question is, in which of the _Play-houses_ he [the Devil] would have performed his prize.... Hell being vnder euerie one of their _Stages_, the Players (if they had owed him a spight) might with a false Trappe doore haue slipt him downe, and there kept him, as a laughing stocke to al their yawning spectators.... Tailors ... (as well as Plaiers) haue a hell of their owne, (vnder their shop-board).’

[1669] Cf. Graves, 41. The register of the association of Masters of Defence (_Sloane MS._ 2530; cf. extracts in A. Hutton, _The Sword and the Centuries_, 259) records many ‘prizes’ played at theatres and theatrical inns during the sixteenth century; cf. App. D, Nos. lx-lxii, _Case is Altered_, II. vii. 28, ‘First they [maisters of defence] are brought to the publicke _Theater_’, and for later periods Henslowe, i. 98 (the Rose, 1598), the fatal contest at the Swan in 1602, and Herbert, 47, 81. For acrobats cf. App. D, No. cxxiii, on the use of the Swan by Peter Bromvill in 1600. Henslowe, i. 98, 106, records loans in connexion with vaulting performances with a horse, perhaps at the Rose, in 1598 and 1599 by John Haslett or Hassett, who was also paid for court performances (App. B) in 1603 and 1608.

[1670] T. M. _Black Book_ (1604, Bullen, _Middleton_, viii. 7) opens with _Lucifer ascending, as Prologue to his own Play_:

Now is hell landed here upon the earth,
When Lucifer, in limbs of burning gold,
Ascends the dusty theatre of the world,...

... my tortured spleen
Melts into mirthful humour at this fate,
That heaven is hung so high, drawn up so far,
And made so fast, nailed up with many a star;
And hell the very shop-board of the earth,...

... And now that I have vaulted up so high
Above the stage-rails of this earthen globe,
I must turn actor and join companies.

Rails are shown in the late _Roxana_ and _Messallina_ engravings of indoor stages.

[1671] Cf. H. Logeman in _Anglia_, xix. 117.

[1672] Dekker, _G. H. B._ (1609), ‘on the very Rushes where the Commedy is to daunce ... must our fethered _Estridge_ ... be planted’ ... ‘Salute all your gentle acquaintance, that are spred either on the rushes, or on stooles about you ... take vp a rush, and tickle the earnest eares of your fellow gallants’; _1 Hen. IV_, III. i. 214, ‘She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down’. In _The Gentleman Usher_ (_c. 1604_, Blackfriars), II. i. 72, ‘Enter Bassiolo with Servants, with rushes and a carpet’, and Bassiolo says,

lay me ’em thus,
In fine smooth threaves; look you, sir, thus, in threaves.
Perhaps some tender lady will squat here,
And if some standing rush should chance to prick her,
She’d squeak, and spoil the songs that must be sung.’

[1673] Lawrence, i. 39, 161.

[1674] G. Harvey (1579, _Letter Book_, 67), ‘sum maltconceivid comedye fitt for the Theater, or sum other paintid stage whereat thou and thy liuely copesmates in London may lawghe ther mouthes and bellyes full for pence or twoepence apeece’; Spenser, _Tears of the Muses_ (1591), 176, ‘That wont with comick sock to beautefie The painted Theaters’; cf. Graves, 68. Coryat, i. 386, in 1608, found a Venice play-house ‘very beggarly and base in comparison of our stately Play-houses in England: neyther can their Actors compare with us for apparell, shewes and musicke’. So in _Case is Altered_, II. vii. 30, the plays in Utopia (= England) are ‘set foorth with as much state as can be imagined’.

[1675] App. I; but cf. p. 524, n. 1.

[1676] _Malcontent_ (_1604_, Globe), ind., ‘Good sir, will you leave the stage? I’ll help you to a private room’; cf. Sir J. Davies’ epigram, _infra_.

[1677] Wright, _Hist. Hist._ 407, ‘The prices were small (there being no scenes)’.

[1678] L. Wager’s _Mary Magdalene_ (1566) has a prologue which says that the actors will take ‘halfpence or pence’ from the audience, but this was probably used by strolling actors and continues the miracle-play tradition. At almost the same date, a jest in _Merry Tales, Wittie Questions and Quick Answers_ (1567, Hazlitt, _Jest Books_, i. 145) tells how men stood at the gate of a play at Northumberland Place, ‘with a boxe (as the facion is) who toke of euery persone that came in a peny or an half peny at the least’.

[1679] J. Mayne in _Jonsonus Virbius_ (1638):

So when thy Fox had ten times acted been,
Each day was first, but that ’twas cheaper seen;
And so thy Alchemist played o’er and o’er,
Was new o’ the stage, when ’twas not at the door.

[1680] G. Harvey (p. 530, _supra_); Lyly, _Pappe with an Hatchet_ (_Works_, iii. 408); cf. _Martin’s Month’s Mind_ (1589, App. C, No. xl). Lodge, _Scillaes Metamorphosis_ (1589), will not ‘tie my pen to Pennie-knaves delight’, and S. Rowlands, _Letting of Humour’s Blood in the Head Vein_ (1600), bids poets not ‘To teach stage parrots speak for penny pleasure’; cf. _Case is Altered_, I. i. 104, ‘Tut, giue me the penny, giue me the peny, I care not for the Gentlemen, I, let me haue a good ground’.

[1681] Cf. ch. xvi, introd. Field says in 1583 (App. C, No. xxxi), ‘Euery dore hath a payment, & euery gallerie maketh a yearely stipend’.

[1682] _E. M. O._ (1599), ind. 425, ‘Let me neuer liue to looke as highe as the two-pennie roome, againe’; T. Garzoni, _Hospitall of Incurable Fooles_ (tr. 1600), epist., ‘a Player that in speaking an Epilogue makes loue to the two pennie roume for a plaudite’; _Satiromastix_ (1602), epil. 2690, ‘Are you pleas’d?... if you be not, by’th Lord Ile see you all--heere for your two pence a peice agen before Ile loose your company.... Good night, my two-penny Tenants’; _Mad World, my Masters_ (_c._ 1604–6), v. ii. 36, ‘some ... that ... took a good conceit of their parts into th’ two-penny room’; _Woman Hater_ (1607), prol. 5, ‘I do pronounce this, to the utter discomfort of all two-penny Gallery men, you shall have no bawdery’; _Fleire_ (1607), ii. 30, ‘They (like your common players) let men come in for twopence a peece’; Dekker, _News from Hell_ (1606, _Works_, ii. 96), ‘You may take him ... in the afternoones, in the twopeny roomes of a Play-house, like a Puny, seated Cheeke by Iowle with a punke’, _Seven Deadly Sins_ (1606, ii. 53), ‘_Sloth_ ... will come and sit in the two-pennie galleries amongst the gentlemen, and see their knaveries and their pastimes’, _The Dead Term_ (1608, iv. 55), ‘Players ... prostitute themselues to the pleasures of euery two-penny drunken Plebeian’, _Lanthorn and Candle-Light_ (1608, iii. 216), ‘Pay thy twopence to a Player, in his gallerie maist thou sitte by a Harlot’, _Raven’s Almanac_ (1609, iv. 184), ‘As if you sat in the moste perspicuous place of the two-penny gallerie in a play-house’; _Roaring Girl_ (1611), v. 1, ‘One of them is a nip; I took him once i’ the two-penny gallerie at the Fortune’; &c., &c.

[1683] Dekker, _Seven Deadly Sins_ (1606, _Works_, ii. 53), ‘Their houses smoakt euery after noone with Stinkards who were so glewed together in crowdes with the steames of strong breath, that when they came foorth, their faces lookt as if they had beene per boyld’, _Raven’s Almanac_ (1609, iv. 194), ‘Hee shall be glad to play three houres for two pence to the basest stinkard in London, whose breth is stronger than garlicke, and able to poison all the twelve penny roomes’, _Work for Armourers_ (1609, iv. 96), ‘tearme times, when the Twopeny Clients and Peny Stinkards swarme together to heere the Stagerites’; _vide_ n. 2, _infra_, and p. 534, n. 1.

[1684] _Satiromastix_ (1602), 1669, ‘a Gentleman or an honest Cittizen shall not sit in your pennie-bench Theaters, with his Squirrell by his side cracking nuttes ... but he shall be Satyr’d and Epigram’d vpon’; T. M. _Black Book_ (1604), ‘penny-rooms at theatres’; T. M. _Ant and Nightingale_ (1604), ‘stinkards sitting in the penny galleries of a theatre, and yawning upon the players’; Dekker, _Gull’s Horn Book_ (1609, _Works_, ii. 208), ‘thou ... hast vouchsafed to be acquainted with penny galleries’; _Wit Without Money_ (_c._ 1614), iv. 1, ‘break in at plays like prentices for three a groat, and crack nuts with the scholars in peny rooms again’.

[1685] A. Copley, _Wits, Fits and Fancies_ (1595; ed. 1614, p. 124), tells of a man cast off by his brother, an actor, who sent him sixpence in a sheet of paper, to show that, ‘though his brother had vowed not in seven years to see him, yet he for his sixpence could come and see him upon the stage at his pleasure’. If Platter’s 3_d._ was the highest normal charge in the sixteenth century, the 6_d._ may represent a first night’s charge.

[1686] Most of the allusions to 6_d._ charges relate to private houses (cf. p. 556), but Beaumont’s grammar lecture (cf. ch. xxiii) gives this price for the Bankside, and T. M. _Black Book_ (1604, Bullen, _Middleton_, viii. 41) has ‘I give and bequeath to you Benedick Bottomless, most deep cut-purse, all the benefit of ... the sixpenny rooms in play-places, to cut, dive and nim’. Later, _The Actors Remonstrance_ (1643) professes that the players will not admit into their ‘sixpenny rooms those unwholesome enticing harlots that sit there merely to be taken up by prentices or lawyers’ clerks’; cf. Lawrence, i. 36, who thinks that the lord’s rooms became the sixpenny rooms. For the 1_s._ charge, cf. p. 533, n. 1, and _Malcontent_ (1604), ind. 63, ‘I say, any man that hath wit may censure, if he sit in the twelve-penny room’; Dekker, _G. H. B._ (1609), ‘When at a new play you take up the twelve-penny rome next the stage; (because the Lords and you may seeme to be haile fellow wel-met) there draw forth this booke, read alowd, laugh alowd, and play the _Antickes_, that all the garlike mouthed stinkards may cry out, _Away with the fool_’; _Hen. VIII_ (_1613_), prol., ‘may see away their shilling’; Overbury, _Characters_ (ed. Rimbault, 154, _The Proud Man_), ‘If he have but twelvepence in ’s purse he will give it for the best room in a play-house’.

[1687] They include women, and certainly look more like spectators than actors or musicians.

[1688] E. Guilpin, _Skialetheia_ (1598), ep. 53:

See you him yonder, who sits o’re the stage,
With the Tobacco-pipe now at his mouth?

In _E. M. O._ (_1599_), 1390 (Q_{1}), Brisk is said to speak of lords ‘as familiarlie as if hee had ... ta’ne tabacco with them ouer the stage i’ the Lords roome’. Dekker-Wilkins, _Jests to Make you Merry_ (1607, _Works_, ii. 292), has a jest of ‘one that sat ouer the stage’ on a wench in the two-penny room. _Farmer-Chetham MS._ (seventeenth-century, ed. Grosart, i. 104) has an epigram on Spongus, who ‘Plays at Primero over the stage’.

[1689] _Satiromastix_ (1602), 2612, ‘You must forsweare to venter on the stage when your play is ended, and to exchange curtezies and complements with gallants in the Lordes roomes’. The subject is well discussed by Lawrence (i. 29), _The Situation of the Lords’ Room_.

[1690] Sir J. Davies, _Epigrams_ (prob. < 1596), ep. 28, _In Sillam_, ‘He that dares take Tobacco on the stage’; ep. 3, _In Rufum_:

Rufus the Courtier at the theatre
Leauing the best and most conspicuous place,
Doth either to the stage himselfe transfer,
Or through a grate doth show his doubtful face,
For that the clamorous frie of Innes of court
Filles vp the priuate roomes of greater prise:
And such a place where all may haue resort
He in his singularitie doth despise.

It is not, I think, sitting on the stage that is satirized in J. Hall, _Virgedemiarum_ (1597), i. 3, but a performance by illiterate amateurs on a ‘hired Stage’.

[1691] _C. Revels_ (_1601_), ind. 138:

‘3. Child ... Here I enter.

1. What, vpon the stage too?

2. Yes: and I step forth like one of the children, and ask you, Would you have a Stool, Sir?

3. A Stoole Boy?

2. I Sir, if you’le giue me sixe Pence, I’le fetch you one.

3. For what I pray thee? what shall I doe with it?

2. O God Sir! will you betraye your Ignorance so much? why, throne your selfe in state on the stage, as other Gentlemen vse Sir’;

_All Fools_ (_c. 1604_), prol. 30:

if our other audience see
You on the stage depart before we end,
Our wits go with you all and we are fools.

_Isle of Gulls_ (_1606_), ind., ‘But come boy, furnish us with stools’.... ‘He [the author] is not on the stage amongst gallants preparing a bespoke Plaudite’.

_K. B. P._ (_1607_), ind. 41:

_Wife below Rafe below._

_Wife._ Husband, shall I come vp husband?

_Citizen._ I cunny. Rafe helpe your mistresse this way: pray gentlemen make her a little roome, I pray you sir lend me your hand to helpe vp my wife.... Boy, let my wife and I haue a cupple stooles.... Come vp Rafe.

It must not be assumed from this burlesque that women usually sat on the stage, even at the private houses.

[1692] _What You Will_ (1602), ind., ‘Let’s place ourselves within the curtains, for good faith the stage is so very little, we shall wrong the general eye else very much’; _Faery Pastoral_ (1603), author’s note, ‘If so be that the Properties of any of These, that be outward, will not serue the turne by reason of concourse of the People on the Stage, Then you may omit the sayd Properties’. In _Wily Beguiled_ (possibly a Paul’s play), 2021, comes the s. d. ‘Stands vpon a stoole’, in a wood scene.

[1693] _E. M. O._ (_1599_), 585 (Q_{1}), ‘Sit o’ the stage and flout; prouided, you haue a good suit’; 1784, ‘rich apparell ... takes possession of your stage at your new play’; _A Mad World, my Masters_ (_c. 1604–6_), v. ii. 38, ‘The actors have been found i’ th’ morning in a less compass than their stage, though it were ne’er so full of gentlemen’; _Woman Hater_ (1607), i. 3, ‘All the Gallants on the stage rise, vail to me, kiss their hand, offer me their places’. It is true that _Roaring Girl_ (1611), ii. 1, has ‘the private stages audience, the twelve-penny stool gentlemen’, but this may only point to a higher price for a stool at the private house, and in any case cannot outweigh the allusions of Davies and Jonson before the Blackfriars, or probably Paul’s, were reopened, or T. M. _Black Book_ (1604, Bullen, _Middleton_, viii. 42), ‘Barnaby Burning-glass, arch tobacco-taker of England, in ordinaries, upon stages both common and private’; Dekker, _G. H. B._ (1609), ‘Whether therefore the gatherers of the publique or priuate Play-house stand to receiue the afternoones rent, let our Gallant (hauing paid it) presently aduance himselfe vp to the Throne of the Stage’ (cf. the whole passage on the procedure and advantages of sitting on the stage, where Dekker clearly mingles traits of both types of house, in App. H). Wallace, ii. 130, argues that the custom was started at Blackfriars and was confined to the private houses, but is hopelessly confuted by C. R. Baskervill in _M. P._ viii. 581.

[1694] _Malcontent_ (1604, Globe), ind.:

‘Enter W. Sly, a Tire-man following him with a stool.

_Tire-man._ Sir, the gentlemen will be angry if you sit here.

_Sly._ Why, we may sit upon the stage at the private house. Thou dost not take me for a country gentleman, dost? dost think I fear hissing?...

_Lowin._ Good sir, will you leave the stage? I’ll help you to a private room.

_Sly._ Come, coz, lets take some tobacco’;

_M. D’Olive_ (1606, Blackfriars), IV. ii. 173, ‘I’ll take up some other fool for the Duke to employ: every ordinary affords fools enow; and didst not see a pair of gallants sit not far hence like a couple of bough-pots to make the room smell?’

[1695]