Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

porting the Globe, under which was written, Totus mundus agit hiftrionem. This theatre was burnt down on the 29th of June, 1613; but it was re

5 Stowe informs us, that "the allowed Stewhoufes [antecedent to the year 1545] had fignes on their frontes towards the Thames, not hanged out, but painted on the walles; as a Boares head, The Crofs Keyes, The Gunne, The Castle, The Crane, The Cardinals Hat, The Bell, The Swanne," &c. Survey of London, 4to. 1603, p. 409. The houses which continued to carry on the fame trade after the ancient and privileged edifices had been put down, probably were diftinguifhed by the old figns; and the fign of the Globe, which theatre was in their neighbourhood, was perhaps, in imitation of them, painted on its wall.

6 The following account of this accident is given by Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter dated July 2, 1613, Reliq. Wotton, p. 425, edit. 1685: "Now to let matters of ftate fleep, I will entertain you at the prefent with what hath happened this week at the Banks fide. The Kings Players had a new play called All is true, reprefenting fome principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth, which was fet forth with many extraordinary circumftances of pomp and majefty, even to the matting of the ftage; the knights of the order with their Georges and Garter, the guards with their embroidered coats, and the like: fufficient in truth within a while to make greatnefs very familiar, if not ridiculous. Now King Henry making a Mafque at the Cardinal Wolfeys houfe, and certain cannons being fhot off at his entry, fome of the paper or other ftuff, wherwith one of them was ftopped, did light on the thatch, where being thought at firft but an idle finoak, and their eyes more attentive to the fhow, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, confuming within lefs than an hour the whole houfe to the very ground. This was the fatal period of that virtuous fabrick, wherein yet nothing did perish but wood and straw, and a few forfaken cloaks."

"The

From a letter of Mr. John Chamberlaine's to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated July 8, 1613, in which this accident is likewife mentioned, we learn that this theatre had only two doors. burning of the Globe or playhoufe on the Bankfide on St. Peter's day cannot escape you; which fell out by a peal of chambers, (that I know not upon what occafion were to be ufed in the play,) the tampin or topple of one of them lighting in the thatch that covered the houfe, burn'd it down to the ground in less than two hours, with a dwelling-houfe adjoyning; and it was a great marvaile and fair grace of God that the people had fo little harm,

built in the following year, and decorated with more ornament than had been originally beftowed upon it.*

The exhibitions at the Globe feem to have been calculated chiefly for the lower clafs of people;"

having but two narrow doors to get out." Winwood's Memorials, Vol. III. p. 469. Not a fingle life was loft.

In 1613 was entered on the Stationers' books A doleful ballad of be general conflagration of the famous theatre on the Bankfide, called the Globe. I have never met with it.

See Taylor's Skuller, p. 31, Ep. 22:

"As gold is better that's in fier try'd,

"So is the Bank-side Globe, that late was burn'd; "For where before it had a thatched hide,

"Now to a stately theator 'tis turn'd."

See alfo Stowe's Chronicle, p. 1003:

"The Globe theatre, being contiguous to the Bear-Garden, when the fports of the latter were over, the fame fpectators probably reforted to the former. The audiences at the Bull and the Fortune were, it may be prefumed, of a clafs ftill inferior to that of the Globe. The latter, being the theatre of his majefty's fervants, muft neceffarily have had a fuperior degree of reputation. At all of them, however, it appears, that noife and fhew were what chiefly attracted an audience. Our author speaks in Hamlet of “ berattling the common [i. e. the publick] theatres. See alfo A Prologue spoken by a company of players who had feceded from the Fortune, p. 188, . 4; from which we learn that the performers at that theatre, " Split the ears of groundlings," ufed "to tear a paffion to tatters."

to

In fome verfes addreffed by Thomas Carew to Mr. [afterwards Sir William] D'Avenant, "Upon his excellent Play, The Juft Italian," 1630, I find a fimilar character of the Bull theatre:

"Now noife prevails; and he is tax'd for drowth

[ocr errors]

66

Of wit, that with the cry fpends not his mouth.thy ftrong fancies, raptures of the brain "Drefs'd in poetick flames, they entertain "As a bold impious reach; for they'll ftill flight "All that exceeds RED BULL and Cockpit flight. "These are the men in crowded heaps that throng "To that adulterate ftage, where not a tongue "Of the untun'd kennel can a line repeat "Of serious fenfe; but like lips meet like meat: VOL. II.

N

thofe at Blackfriars, for a more felect and judicious audience. This appears from the following prologue to Shirley's Doubtful Heir, which is inferted among his poems, printed in 1646, with this title:

"Prologue at the GLOBE, to his Comedy called The Doubtful Heir, which fhould have been prefented at the Blackfriars.

"Gentlemen, I am only fent to fay,
"Our author did not calculate his play
"For this meridian. The Bankfide, he knows,
"Is far more fkilful at the ebbs and flows
"Of water than of wit; he did not mean

"For the elevation of your poles, this fcene.

"No fhews,-no dance,-and what you moft delight in,
"Grave understanders, here's no target-fighting
"Upon the ftage; all work for cutlers barr'd;
"No bawdry, nor no ballads;-this goes hard:
"But language clean, and, what affects you not,
"Without impoffibilities the plot;

"Whilft the true brood of actors, that alone
"Keep natural unftrain'd action in her throne,
"Behold their benches bare, though they rehearse
"The terfer Beaumont's or great Jonfon's verfe."

The true brood of actors were the performers at Blackfriars, where The Juft Italian was acted.

See alfo The Careless Shepherdess, reprefented at Salisbury-court; 4to. 1656:

And I will haften to the money-box,
"And take my filling out again;-

"I'll go to THE BULL, OF FORTUNE, and there fee
"A play for two-pence, and a jig to boot."

8 In the printed play thefe words are omitted; the want of which renders the prologue perfectly unintelligible. The comedy was performed for the first time at the Globe, June 1, 1640.

9 The common people ftood in the Globe theatre, in that part of the house which we now call the pit; which being lower than the ftage, Shirley calls them understanders. In the private playhouses, appears from the fubfequent lines, there were feats in the pit. Ben Jonfon has the fame quibble: "the understanding gentle men of the ground here."

it

"No clown, no fquibs, no devil in't.—Oh now,
"You fquirrels that want nuts, what will you do?
Pray do not crack the benches, and we may
"Hereafter fit your palates with a play.

[ocr errors]

"But you that can contract yourselves, and fit,
"As you were now in the Blackfriars pit,

"And will not deaf us with lewd noife and tongues,
"Because we have no heart to break our lungs,
"Will pardon our vaft itage, and not difgrace

"This play, meant for your perfons, not the place."

The fuperior difcernment of the Blackfriars audience may be likewife collected from a paffage in the preface prefixed by Heminge and Condell to the first folio edition of our author's works: "And though you be a magiftrate of wit, and fit on the ftage at Blackfriers, or the Cockpit, to arraigne plays dailie, know thefe plays have had their trial already, and ftood out all appeales."

A writer already quoted informs us that one of these theatres was a winter, and the other a fummer, houfe. As the Globe was partly expofed to the weather, and they acted there ufually by day-light, it appeared to me probable (when this Effay was originally published) that this was the fummer theatre; and I have lately found my conjecture confirmed by Sir Henry Herbert's Manufcript. The king's company ufually began to play at the Globe in the month of May. The exhibitions here seem to have been more frequent than at Blackfriars,

2 Wright.

3 His account is confirmed by a paffage in an old pamphlet, entitled Holland's Leaguer, 4to. 1632: "She was moit taken with the report of three famous amphy theators, which flood fo neere fituated, that her eye might take view of them from her lowest turret. One was the Continent of the World, becaufe halfe the yeere a world of beautics and brave fpirits reforted unto it. The other was a building of excellent Hope; and though wild beats and gladiators did moft poffeffe it," &c.

4

• King Lear, in the title-page of the original edition, printed in

till the year 1604 or 1605, when the Bankfide appears to have become lefs fashionable, and lefs frequented than it formerly had been.'

Many of our ancient dramatick pieces (as has been already obferved) were performed in the yards of carriers' inns, in which, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the comedians, who then firft united themselves in companies, erected an occafional stage." The form of these temporary playhouses seems to be preferved in our modern theatre. The galleries, in both, are ranged over each other on three fides of the building. The fmall rooms under the loweft of thefe galleries anfwer to our prefent boxes; and it is obfervable that these, even in theatres which were built in a fubfequent period exprefsly for dramatick exhibitions,

1608, is faid to have been performed by his majefties servants, playing ufually at the Globe on the Bank fide.-See alfo the licence granted by King James in 1603: "and the faid comedies, tragedies, &c.-to fhew-as well within their now ufual house called the Globe," No mention is made of their theatre in Blackfriars; from which circumftance I fufpect that antecedent to that time our poet's company played only at the Globe, and purchased the Blackfriars theatre afterwards. In the licence granted by King Charles the First to John Heminge and his affociates in the year 1625, they are authorized to exhibit plays, &c. " as well within these tw their most usual houfes called the Globe in the county of Surrey, and their private houfes fituate within the precinct of the Blackfryers, as alfo," &c. Had they poffeffed the Blackfriars theatre in 1603, it would probably have been mentioned in the former licence. In the following year they certainly had poffeffion of it, for Marfton's Malecontent was acted there in 1604.

5 See The Works of 'Taylor the Water-poet, p. 171, edit. 1633. 6 Fleckno, in his Short Difcourfe of the English Stage, published in 1664, fays, fome remains of thefe ancient theatres were at that day to be feen in the inn-yards of the Cross-keys in Gracechurchftreet, and the Bull in Bishopfgate-street.

In the feventeen playhoufes erected between the years 1570 and 1630, the continuator of Stowe's Chronicle reckons "five innes of common offeries turned into play-houses."

« FöregåendeFortsätt »