Blackfriars;

the Globe; the Fortune; the Red Bull; the Cockpit or Phoenix, and a theatre in Salisbury-court, White-friars.

All the plays of Shakspeare appear to have been performed either at The Globe, or the theatre in Blackfriars. I fall therefore confine my inquiries principally to thofe two. They belonged, as I have already obferved, to the fame company of comedians, namely his majesty's fervants, which title they obtained after a licence had been granted to them by King James in 1603. having before that time, I apprehend, been called the fervants of the Lord Chamberlain. Like the other fervants of the household, the performers enrolled into this company were fworn into office, and each of them was allowed four yards of bastard scarlet for a cloak, and a quarter of a yard of velvet for the cape, every fecond year."

6 It has been repeated again and again that Prynne enumerates feventeen playhoufes in London in his time; but this is a mistake; he exprefsly fays that there were only fix, (fee his Epiftle Dedicatory,) and the office-book of Sir Heury Herbert confirms his affertion.

Mr. Dodfley and others have fallen into this miftake of fuppofing there were feventeen play-houfes open at one time in London; into which they were led by the continuator of Stowe, who mentions that between 1570 and 1630 feventeen playhouses were built, in which number however he includes five inns turned into playhoufes, and St. Paul's fingingfchool. He does not fay that they were all open at the fame time. A late writer carries the matter till further, and afferts that it appears from Rymer's MSS. in the Mufcum that there were twenty-three playhouses at one time open in London !

7 "Thefe are to fignify unto your lordship his majefties pleafure, that you caufe to be delivered unto his majesties players whofe names follow, viz. John Hemmings, John

The theatre in Blackfriars was fituated near the prefent Apothecaries - hall, in the neighbourhood of which there is yet Playhoufc-yard, not far from which the theatre probably flood. It was, as has been mentioned, a private houfe; but what were the diftinguishing marks of a private playhouse, it is not eafy to afcertain. We know only that it was fmaller than those which were called publick theatres; and that in the private theatres plays were ufually prefented by candle-light."

In this theatre, which was a very ancient one, the Children of the Revels occafionally performed.* Lowen, Jofeph Taylor, Richard Robiafon, John Shank, Robert Benfield, Richard Sharp, Eliard Swanfon, Thomas Pollard, Anthony Smith, Thomas Hobbes, William Pen, George Vernon, and James Horne, to each of them the feveral allowance of foure yardes of baftarde fcarlet for a cloake, and a quarter of a yarde of crimfon velvet for the capes, it being the ufual allowance graunted unto them by his majefty every fecond yeare, and due at Eafter last past./ For the doing whereof theis fhall be your warrant. May 6th. 1629." MS. in the Lord Chamberlain's Office.

8 Wright, in his Hift. Hiftrion. informs us, that the theatre in Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and that in Salisbury-Court, were exactly alike both in form and fize. The fmailnefs of the latter is afcertained by thefe lines in an epilogue to Tottenham Court, a comedy by Nabbes, which was acted there:

When others' fill'd rooms with neglect difdain ye,
My little house with thanks fhall entertain ye.'

9 "All the city looked like a private play-house, when the windows are clapt downe, as if fome nocturnal and difmal tragedy were presently to be acted." Decker's Seven Deadly Sinnes of London, 1606. See alfo Hiftoria Hifirionica.

2

Many pieces were performed by them in this theatre before 1580. Sometimes they performed entire pieces; at others, they reprefented fuch young characters as are found in many of our poet's plays. Thus we find Nat. Field, John Underwood, and William Oftler, among the children of the

It is faid in Camden's Annals of the reign of King James the Firft, that the theatre in Blackfriars fell down in the year 1623. and that above eighty perfons were killed by the accident; but he was mifinformed.' The room which gave way was in

Revels, who reprefented feveral of Ben Jonfon's comedies at the Blackfriars in the earlier part of King James's reign, and alfo in the lift of the actors of our author's plays prefixed to the first folio, published in 1623. They had then become men.

Lily's Campafpe was acted at the theatre in Blackfriars in 1584. and The Cafe is Altered, by Ben Jonfon, was printed in 1609. as acted by the children of Black-friers. Some of the children of the Revels alfo acted occafionally at the theatre in Whitefriars; for we find A Woman's a Weathercock performed by them at that theatre in 1612. Probably a certain number of thefe children were appropriated to each of thefe theatres, and inftructed by the elder performers in their art; by which means this young troop became a promptuary of actors. In a manufcript in the Inner Temple, No 515. Vol. VII. entitled "A booke conteyning feveral particulars with relation to the kings fervants, petitions, warrants, bills, &c. and fuppofed to be a copy of fome part of the Lord Chamberlain of the Houthold's book in or about the year 1622." I find "A warrant to the fignet-office (dated July 8th. 1622.) for a privie feale for his majesties licenfing of, Robert Lee, Richard Perkins, Ellis Woorth, Thomas Baffe, John Blany, John Cumber, and William Robbins, late comedians of Queen Anne deceafed, to bring up children in the qualitie and exercife of playing comedies, hiftories, interludes, morals, paftorals, fiage-plaies, and fuch like, as well for the follace and pleafure of his majeftie, as for the honeft recreation of fuch as fhall defire to fee them; to be called by the name of The Children of the Revels; and to be drawne in fuch a manner and forme as hath been used in other lycenfes of that kinde.' Thele very perfons, we have feen, were the company of the Revels in 1622. and were then become men.

3 66 1623. Ex occafu domûs fcenicæ apud Black-friers Londini, 81 perfonæ fpectabiles necantur." Camdeni Annales ab anno 1603 ad annum 1623. 4to. 1691. p. 82. That this

1

a private houfe, and appropriated to the fervice of religion.

4

I am unable to afcertain at what time the Globe theatre was built. Hentzner has alluded to it as exifting in 1598. though he does not exprefsly mention it. I believe it was not built long before the year 1596.' It was fituated on the Bankside, (the fouthern fide of the river Thames,) nearly oppofite to Friday-ftreet, Cheapfide. It was an hexagonal wooden building, partly open to the weather, and writer was misinformed, appears from an old tract, printed in the fame year in which the accident happened, entitled, A Word of Comfort, or a difcourfe concerning the late lamentable accident of the fall of a Room at a Catholick fermon in the Black-friers, London, whereby about four-fcore perfons were oppreffed, 4to. 123.

See alfo verfes prefixed to a play called The Queen, publifhed by Alexander Goughe, (probably the fon of Robert Goughe, one of the actors in Shakspeare's company,) in 1653. we dare not fay

66

66

that Blackfriers we heare, which in this age
Fell, when it was a church, not when a flage;
Or that the puritans that once dwelt there,
Prayed and thriv'd, though the play-houfe were fo

near."

Camden had a paralytick ftroke on the 18th of Auguft 1623. and died on the 9th of November following. The above-mentioned accident happened on the 24th of October; which accounts for his inaccuracy. The room which fell, was an upper room in Hunfdon-Houfe, in which the French Ambaffador then dwelt. See Stowe's Chron.

edit. 1631.

p. 1035.

4 "Non longe ab uno horum theatrorum, quæ omnia lignéa funt, ad Thamefin navis eft regia, quæ duo egregia habet conclavia,' &c. Itin. P. 132. By navis regia he means the royal barge called the Gallyfoift. See the South View of London, as it appeared in 1599.

A

See The Suit of the Watermen against the Players," in the Works of Taylor the Water-poet, p. 171.

VOL. III.

F

partly thatched." When Hentzner wrote, all the other theatres as well as this were compofed of wood.

The Globe was a publick theatre, and of confiderable fize, and there they always acted by day

6 In the long Antwerp View of London in the Pepyfian. Library at Cambridge, is a reprefentation of the Globe theatre, from which a drawing was made by the Rev. Mr. Henley, and tranfmitted to Mr. Steevens. From that drawing this cut was made.

7 The Globe, we learn,from Wright's Hiftoria Hiftrionica,