like other as thei have alreadie studied or hereafter shall use or studie, as well for the recreation of our loving subjects, as for our solace and pleasure when we shall thincke good to see them, during our pleasure and the said comedies, tragedies, histories, enterludes, morals, pastorals, stage-plaies, and such like, to shew and exercise publiquely to their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague shall decrease, as well within theire nowe usuall house called the Globe, within our county of Surrey, as also within anie towne-halls or moute-halls, or other convenient places within the liberties and freedom of any other citie, universitie, toun, or boroughe whatsoever, within our said realmes and dominions. Willing and commanding you and everie of you, as you tender our pleasure, not onlie to permit and suffer them herein, without any your letts, hindrances, or molestations, during our pleasure, but also to be aiding or assistinge to them if any wrong be to them offered, and to allow them such former curtesies as hathe been given to men of their place and quallitie; and also what further favour you shall shew to theise our servaunts for our sake, we shall take kindlie at your handes. In witness whereof, &c.

"Witness our selfe at Westminster, the nynteenth daye of Maye.

"Per Breve de privato sigillo."

HAVING now, as concisely as I could, traced the History of the English Stage, from its first rude state to the period of its maturity and greatest splendor, I shall endeavour to exhibit as accurate a delineation of the internal form and economy of our ancient theatres, as the distance at which we stand, and the obscurity of the subject, will permit.

The most ancient English playhouses of which I have found any account, are, the playhouse in Blackfriars, that in Whitefriars," the Theatre, of

7 There was a theatre in Whitefriars, before the year 1580. See p. 45. A Woman's a Weathercock was performed at the private playhouse in Whitefriars in 1612. This theatre was, I imagine, either in Salisbury Court or the narrow street leading into it. From an extract taken by Sir Henry Herbert from the Officebook of Sir George Buc, his predecessor in the office of Master of the Revels, it appears that the theatre in Whitefriars was either rebuilt in 1613, or intended to be rebuilt. The entry is: "July 13, 1613, for a license to erect a new play-house in the White-friers, &c. £.20." I doubt, however, whether this scheme was then carried into execution, because a new playhouse was erected in Salisbury Court in 1629. That theatre probably was not on the site of the old theatre in Whitefriars, for Prynne speaks of it as then newly built, not re-built; and in the same place he mentions the re-building of the Fortune and the Red Bull theatres.-Had the old theatre in Whitefriars been pulled down and re-built, he would have used the same language with respect to them all. The Rump, a comedy by Tatham, was acted in 1069, in the theatre in Salisbury Court (that built in 1629). About the year 1670, a new theatre was erected there, (but whether on the site of that last mentioned I cannot ascertain,) known by the name of the Theatre in Dorset Gardens, to which the Duke of York's company, under the conduct of Sir William D'Avenant's widow, removed from Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1671. The former playhouse in Salisbury Court

8

which I am unable to ascertain the situation, and The Curtain, in Shoreditch. The Theatre, from its name, was probably the first building erected in or near the metropolis purposely for scenick exhibitions.

In the time of Shakspeare there were seven principal theatres: three private houses, namely, that in Blackfriars, that in Whitefriars, and The Cockpit

could hardly have fallen into decay in so short a period as forty years; but I suppose was found too small for the new scenery introduced after the Restoration. The prologue to Wycherley's Gentleman Dancing Master, printed in 1673, is addressed "To the city, newly after the removal of the Duke's Company from Lincoln's-Inn fields to their new theatre near Salisburycourt."

Maitland, in his History of London, p. 963, after mentioning Dorset Stairs, adds, " near to which place stood the theatre or play-house, a neat building, having a curious front next the Thames, with an open place for the reception of coaches."

It was probably situated in some remote and privileged place, being, I suppose, hinted at in the following passage of a sermon by John Stockwood, quoted below, and preached in 1578: "Have we not houses of purpose built with great charges for the maintainance of them, [the players,] and that without the liberties, as who shall say, there, let them say what they will, we will play. I know not how I might, with the godly-learned especially, more discommend the gorgeous playing-place erected in the fields, than to term it, as they please to have it called, a Theatre."

9 The Theatre and The Curtain are mentioned in "A Sermon preached at Paules-Cross on St. Bartholomew day, being the 24th of August, 1578, by John Stockwood," and in an ancient Treatise against Idleness, vaine Plaies and Interludes, by John Northbrook, bl. 1. no date, but written apparently about the year 1580. Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, p. 90, edit. 1583, inveighs against Theatres and Curtaines, which he calls Venus' Palaces. Edmund Howes, the continuator of Stowe's Chronicle, says, (p. 1004,) that before the year 1570, he "neither knew, heard, nor read of any such theatres, set stages, or play-houses, as have been purposely built within man's memory,"

or Phoenix,' in Drury-Lane; and four that were called publick theatres; viz. The Globe on the Bankside, The Curtain2 in Shoreditch, The Red Bull, at the upper end of St. John's Street, and The Fortunes

This theatre had been originally a Cockpit. It was built or rebuilt not very long before the year 1617, in which year we learn from Camden's Annals of King James the First, it was pulled down by the mob: " 1617, Martii 4. Theatrum ludionum nuper erectum in Drury-Lane à furente multitudine diruitur, et apparatus dilaceratur." I suppose it was sometimes called The Phanix, from that fabulous bird being its sign. It was situated opposite the Castle tavern in Drury Lane, and was standing some time after the Restoration. The players who performed at this theatre in the time of King James the First, were called the Queen's Servants, till the death of Queen Anne, in 1619. After her death, they were, I think, for some time denominated the Lady Elizabeth's Servants; and after the marriage of King Charles the First, they regained their former title of the Queen's players.

See Skiuletheia, an old collection of Epigrams and Satires, 16mo. 1598:

"Or Curtain,

The Curtain is mentioned in Heath's Epigrams, 1610, as being then open; and The Hector of Germany was performed at it by a company of young men in 1615. The original sign hung out at this playhouse (as Mr. Steevens has observed) was the painting of a curtain striped. The performers at this theatre were called The Prince's Servants, till the accession of King Charles the First to the crown. Soon after that period it seems to have been used only by prize-fighters.

The Fortune theatre, according to Maitland, was the old est theatre in London. It was built or re-built in 1599, by Edward Alleyn, the player, (who was also the proprietor of theBear Garden, from 1594 to 1610,) and cost 520l. as appears from the following memorandum in his hand-writing:

"What The Fortune cost me, Nov. 1599. "First for the leas to Brew,

240.

"Then for building the play-hous,

520.

"For other privat buildings of myn owne,

120.

"So that it hath cost me for the leasse,

£.880."

in Whitecross Street. The last two were chiefly

It was a round brick building, and its dimensions may be conjectured from the following advertisement in The Mercurius Politicus, Tuesday Feb. 14, to Tuesday Feb. 21, 1661, for the preservation of which we are indebted to Mr. Steevens: "The Fortune play-house situate between Whitecross-street and Golding-lane, in the parish of Saint Giles, Cripplegate, with the ground thereto belonging, is to be lett to be built upon; where twenty-three tenements may be erected, with gardens; and a street may be cut through for the better accommodation of the buildings."

The Fortune is spoken of as a playhouse of considerable size, in the prologue to The Roaring Girl, a comedy which was acted there, and printed in 1611:

"A roaring girl, whose notes till now ne'er were,

"Shall fill with laughter our vast theatre.”

See also the concluding lines of Shirley's prologue to The Doubtful Heir, quoted below.

Howes, in his continuation of Stowe's Chronicle, p. 1004, edit. 1631, says, it was burnt down in or about the year 1617: "About foure yeares after, [i. e. after the burning of the Globe] a fayre strong new-built play-house near Golden-lane, called the Fortune, by negligence of a candle was cleane burnt to the ground, but shortly after re-built far fairer." He is, however, mistaken as to the time, for it was burnt down in December, 1621, as I learn from a letter in Dr. Birch's collection in the Museum, from Mr. John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, dated Dec. 15, 1621, in which is the following paragraph: "On sunday night here was a great fire at The Fortune, in Goldinglane, the first play-house in this town. It was quite burnt downe in two hours, and all their apparell and play-books lost, whereby those poore companions are quite undone. There were two other houses on fire, but with great labour and danger were saved." MS. Birch, 4173. It does not appear whether this writer, by" the first play-house in this town," means the first in point of size or dignity, or the oldest. I doubt much of its being the oldest, though that is the obvious meaning of the words, and though Maitland has asserted it: because I have not found it mentioned in any of the tracts relative to the stage, written in the middle of Elizabeth's reign.

Prynne says that the Fortune on its re-building was enlarged, Epistle Dedicat. to Histriomastix, 4to. 1633.

Before this theatre there was either a picture or statue of Fortune. See The English Traveller, by Heywood, 1633 :