stage players of former times were very poor and ignorant in respect of this time; but being now (1583) growne very skilful and exquisite actors for all matters, they were entertained into the service of divers great lords; out of which companies there were twelve of the best chosen, and, at the request of Sir Francis Walsingham, they were sworne the Queen's servants, and were allowed wages and liveries as grooms of the Queen's chamber: and until this year 1583, the Queen had no players." Most of the actors who died before the rebellion were comparatively wealthy men, and in their wills all are styled "gentlemen." The "King's Players," from the time of James to late in the last century, were allowed four yards of "bastard scarlet cloth for a cloak and a quarter yard of crimson velvet for the cape." In the "Return from Parnassus" two Cambridge students, desirous of taking to the stage, are cheered with: "Be merry, my lads, you have happened upon the most excellent vocation in the world for money: they come north and south to bring it to our playhouses." An old play called "Covent Garden," (1638), gives the following contrasted picture of the strolling and the regular actor: Ralph. We shall be near the Cockpit and see a play now and then.

66

"Dobson. But tell me, Ralph, are those players, the ragged fellows that were at our house last Christmas, that borrowed the red blanket off my

THE SEVEN THEATRES.

11

bed to make their mayor a gown, and had the potlid for Guy of Warwick's buckler?

"Ralph. No, Dobson, they are men of credit, whose actions are beheld by everyone, and allowed for the most part with commendations. They make no yearly dramatic progress with the anatomy of a sumpter-horse laden with the sweepings of Long Lane in a dead vacation, and purchased at the exchange of their own whole wardrobes. They buy not their ordinaries for the copy of prologue; nor insinuate themselves into the acquaintance of an admiring Ningle who for his free coming in is at the expense of a tavern supper, and rinses their bawling throats with canary."

The first regular playhouse of which we find any mention, was called "The Theatre," and was situated in Shoreditch. The earliest reference to it is in an old book, date 1576, quoted by Payne Collier in his "Annals of the Stage," "Those who go to Paris Garden, the Bell Savage,* or The Theatre, to behold bear baiting, interludes or fence play, must not account of any pleasant spectacle unless first they pay one penny at the gate, another at the entry of the scaffold, and a third for a quiet standing." This house, which could have been only a very rude wooden erection, seems to have been abandoned as early as 1578. The "Curtain," in Moor Fields, so called from its sign being a * One of the inns most famous for dramatic performances.

striped curtain, was opened in 1576, and was in use until the commencement of Charles the First's reign. In Shakespeare's time there were seven regular theatres: the Curtain, the Blackfriars (built in 1578 by James Burbadge), the Whitefriars (1580), the Red Bull, St. John's Street, the Cockpit or Phoenix, Drury Lane, situated in Cock Pit Alley, now known as Pitt Court, not opened until late in James's reign, the Fortune, Golden Lane, built or rebuilt by Alleyn (1599). There were besides-the Globe, opened about 1594, the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope on Bankside (Southwark), the Paris Gardens, a summer theatre on Newington Butts, and the inn-yards in which dramatic performances continued to be given. For those seven theatres there were only six companies; the Blackfriars was a winter house, the Globe a summer, and one company sufficed for the two. The Red Bull and the Fortune seem to have been similar to the Britannia and Grecian of the present day. The performances were of an exaggerated and bombastic description, and were chiefly resorted to by citizens and the humbler classes. Blackfriars was "a private" theatre; that is to say, the performances were given by torchlight, although not at night; it was roofed in, and the pit had seats, which was not the case at the public theatres, which were thatched only over the stage, the audience part being uncovered, and without seats for "the groundlings."

SIZE AND PRICES OF ADMISSION.

1333

The aristocratic company had also boxes or rooms, of which they kept the keys, and had the privilege of sitting upon the stage. When all the seats were occupied by the ladies, the gentlemen used to lie at their feet, as we see Hamlet lie at Ophelia's, while their pages waited beside them with tobacco to replenish their pipes. Everyone smoked in the old theatres, frequently played cards; while the groundlings drank ale, ate apples, and cracked nuts. The Bankside theatres, except the Globe, were frequented by a very low class, the entertainment being probably a mixed one of singing, dancing, fencing, and buffoonery. The Swan and the Rose were shut up early in James the First's reign.

In regard to the size of these buildings, we read that the stage of the Fortune was forty-three feet wide, and, including a dressing-room at the back, thirty-nine and a half feet deep; it was three stories or tiers high, and from floor to ceiling it was thirtytwo feet; the cost of erection was five hundred and fifty pounds. The prices of admission seem to have ranged from a penny to a shilling. But in the Induction to Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," produced at the Hope in 1614, the Scrivener, in reciting certain articles of agreement says, "it shall be lawful for any man to judge his sixpen'worth, his twelvepen'worth, to his eighteenpence, two shillings, half-a-crown, to the value of

his place." From various allusions in old books, we gather that the play commenced at three,* and that the time of opening was announced by trumpets and flags. "Each playhouse advances his flag in the air, whither quickly at the waving thereof are summoned whole troops of men, women, and children." Besides the play, there was sometimes given "a jig," that is, a number of satirical coarse verses which were recited by the clown, to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor, to which he also danced.

Ophelia. "You are merry, my lord."

Hamlet. "Oh, your only jig-maker !"

There were also songs and dances between the acts, to give time for changes of dress.

The monetary arrangements of the old theatres were very simple. After so much had been deducted for the expenses of the house-those of the Blackfriars were forty-five shillings, for lighting, rent, payment of inferior actors, &c.-the residue was divided into quarter, half or whole shares, by the principals, according to their position. A share and a half at the Blackfriars in 1630 was worth £350, equal to £1,000 of our present money. The average daily takings were from twenty to thirty pounds. Whether any kind of scenery was used in our

*All that sing and say

Come to the Town- House and see the play,

At three o'clock it shall begin."-Histriomastix, 1610.