many by water. To the Globe playhouse the com parings of fruit and cheefe are in the voyder, cardes and dice lie itinking in the fire, the guests are all up, the guilt rapiers ready to be hanged, the French lacquey and Irith footboy fhrugging at the doores, with their masters' hobby horfes, to ride to the new play; that's the randevous, thither they are gallopt in poft; let us take a paire of oares and row luftily after them." Guls Hornebocke, 4to. 1609. In the year 1613, the Company of Watermen petitioned his majefty," that the players might not be permitted to have a playhoufe in London or in Middlesex, within four miles of the city on that fide of the Thames." From Taylor's True Caufe of the Watermen's Suit concerning Players, and the reafons that their playing on London fide, is their [i. e. the Watermen's] extreme hindrance, we learn, that the theatres on the Bankfide in Southwark were once fo numerous, and the cuftom of going thither by water so general, that many thousand watermen were fupported by it.-As the book is not common, and the paffage contains fome anecdotes relative to the ftage at that time, I fhall tranfcribe it: "Afterwards," [i. e. as I conjecture, about the year 1596,] fays Taylor, who was employed as an advocate in behalf of the watermen, "the players began to play on the Bankfide, and to leave playing in London and Middlesex, for the most part. Then there went fuch great concourfe of people by water, that the fmall number of watermen remaining at home [the majority being employed in the Spanish war] were not able to carry them, by reafon of the court, the tearms, the players, and other employments. So that we were inforced and encouraged, hoping that this golden ftirring world would have lafted ever, to take and entertaine men and boyes, which boyes are grown men, and keepers of houfes; fo that the number of watermen, and thofe that live and are maintained by them, and by the only labour of the oare and fcull, betwixt the bridge of Windfor and Gravefend, cannot be fewer than forty thoujand; the caufe of the greater halfe of which multitude hath bene the players playing on the Bankfide; for I have known three companies, befides the bear-baiting, at once there; to wit, the Globe, the Rofe, and the Swan. And now it hath pleafed God in this peaceful time, [from 1604 to 1613,] that there is no employment at the fea, as it hath bene accustomed, fo that all thofe great numbers of men remaines at home; and the players have all (except the kings men) left their ufual refidency on the Bankfide, and doe play in Middlefex, far remote from the Thames; fo that every day in the wecke they do draw unto them three or four thousand people, that were used to spend their monies by water." pany probably were conveyed by water; to that in Blackfriars, the gentry went either in coaches," "His majefties players did exhibit a petition against us, in which they faid, that our fuit was unreafonable, and that we might as juftly remove the Exchange, the walkes in Pauls, or Moorfields, to the Bankfide, for our profits, as to confine them." The affair appears never to have been decided. "Some (fays Taylor) have reported that I took bribes of the players, to let the fuit fall, and to that purpose I had a fupper of them, at the Cardinal's hat, on the Bankfide." Works of Taylor the water-poet, p. 171, edit. 1633. 8 Sce an epilogue to a vacation-play at the Globe, by Sir William D'Avenant; Works, p. 245: "For your own fakes, poor fouls, you had not beft "I' the heat of the laft fcene, as now you may Boldly and fafely too cry down our play; "For if you dare but murmur one falfe note, So, in The Guls Hornebook, 1609: "If you can either for love or money, provide your felfe a lodging by the water-fide;—it adds a kind of flate to you to be carried from thence to the ftaiers of your playhouse." 9 See a letter from Mr. Garrard to Lord Strafford, dated Jan. 9, 1633-4; Strafford's Letters, Vol. I. p. 175: "Here hath been an order of the lords of the council hung up in a table near Paul's and the Black-fryars, to command all that refort to the playhouse there, to fend away their coaches, and to difperfe abroad in Paul's Churchyard, Carter Lane, the Conduit in Fleet Street, and other places, and not to return to fetch their company; but they muft trot a-foot to find their coaches:-'twas kept very ftrictly for two or three weeks, but now, I think, it is difordered again."-It fhould, however, be remembered that this was written above forty years after Shak fpeare's first acquaintance with the theatre. Coaches, in the time of Queen Elizabeth were poffeffed but by very few. They were not in ordinary ufe till after the year 1605. See Stowe's Annals, p. 867. In A pleafant Dialogue between Coach and Sedan, 4to. 1636, it is faid, that the first coach that was feen in England was that prefented to Queen Elizabeth by the Earl of Arundel, in which the went from Somerset-House to St. Paule's Croffe, to hear a fermon on the victory obtained against the Spaniards in 1588." or on horfeback; and the common people on foot.' "I wonder in my heart," (fays the writer, who was born in 1578,)" why our nobilitie cannot in faire weather walke the ftreets as they were wont; as I have feene the Earles of Shrewsbury, Darbie, Suffex, Cumberland, Effex, &c.-befides those inimitable prefidents of courage and valour, Sir Frances Drake, Sir P. Sydney, Sir Martin Forbisher, &c. with a number of others,-when a coach was almost as rare as an elephant." Even when the above mentioned order was made, there were no backney coaches. Thefe, as appears from another letter in the fame collection, were established a few months afterwards. "I cannot (fays Mr. Garrard) omit to mention any new thing that comes up amongst us, though never fo trivial. Here is one captain Bailey; he hath been a fea-captain, but now lives on the land, about this city, where he tries experiments. He hath erected, according to his ability, fome four hackney coaches, put his men in livery, and appointed them to ftand at the May-pole in the Strand, giving them inftructions at what rates to carry men into feveral parts of the town, where all day they may be had. Other hackney-men seeing this way, they flocked to the fame place, and perform their journeys at the fame rate. So that fometimes there is twenty of them together, which difperfe up and down, that they and others are to be had every where, as water-men are to be had by the water-fide. Every body is much pleafed with it. For whereas, before, coaches could not be had but at great rates, now a man may have one much cheaper." This letter is dated April 1, 1634.-Strafford's Letters, Vol. I. p. 227. A few months afterwards hackney chairs were introduced: "Here is also another project for carrying people up and down in lefe chairs, for the fole doing whereof, Sir Sander Duncombe, a traveller, now a penfioner, hath obtained a patent from the king, and hath forty or fifty making ready for ufe." Ibid. p. 336. This fpecies of conveyance had been ufed long before in Italy, from whence probably this traveller introduced it. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. Carrivola: "A kinde of chaire covered, used in Italie for to carrie men up and downe by porters, unfeene of anie bodie." In his fecond edition, 1611, he defines it, "A kind of covered chaire ufed in Italy, wherein men and women are carried by porters upon their shoulders." See p. 260, n. 6. In an epigram by Sir John Davies, perfons of an inferior rank are ridiculed for prefuming to imitate noblemen and gentlemen in riding to the theatre: Plays in the time of King James the First, (and probably afterwards,) appear to have been performed every day at each theatre during the winter feafon, except in the time of Lent, when they were not permitted on the fermon days, as they were called, that is, on Wednesday and Friday; nor on the other days of the week, except by fpecial licence; which however was obtained by a fee paid to the Mafter of the Revells. In the fummer feafon the stage exhibitions were continued, but during the long vacation they were lefs frequently repeated. However, it appears from Sir Henry Herbert's Manufcript, that the king's company usually brought out two or three new plays at the Globe every fummer.+ "Fauftus, nor lord, nor knight, nor wife, nor old, "He rides into the fields, plays to behold; "He rides to take boat at the water-fide." Epigrams, printed at Middleburg, about 1598. 3 See Taylor's Suit of the Watermen, &c. Works, p. 171: "But my love is fuch to them, [the players,] that whereas they do play but once a day, I could be content they fhould play twice or thrice a day." The players have all (except the Kings men,) left their ufual refidency on the Bankfide, and doe play in Middlesex far remote from the Thames, fo that every day in the week they do draw unto them three or four thousand people." Ibidem. In 1598, Hentzner fays, plays were performed in the theatres which were then open, almost every day. "Sunt porro Londini extra urbem theatra aliquot, in quibus hiftriones Angli comœdias et tragoedias fingulis fere diebus in magna hominum frequentia agunt." Itin. 4to. 1598. 4 In D'Avenant's Works we find "an Epilogue to a vacation play at the Globe." See alfo the Epistle to the Reader, prefixed to Andromache, a tragedy acted at the Duke's theatre, in 1675; This play happening to be in my hands in the long vacation, a time when the playhoufes are willing to catch at any reed to fave themfelves from finking, to do the house a kindness, and to ferve the gentleman who it seemed was defirous to fee it on the stage, I Though, from the want of newspapers and other periodical publications, intelligence was not fo speedily circulated in former times as at present, our ancient theatres do not appear to have laboured under any disadvantage in this refpect; for the players printed and expofed accounts of the pieces that they intended to exhibit,' which, however, did not contain a lift of the characters, or the names of the actors by whom they were represented." willingly perufed it. The play deferved a better liking than it found; and had it been acted in the good well meaning times, when the Cid, Heraclius, and other French playes met with fuch applaufe, this would have paffed very well; but fince our audiences have tafted fo plentifully the firm English wit, these thin regalios will not down.' 5" They ufe to fet up their billes upon pofts fome certaine days before, to admonish the people to make refort to their theatres, that they may thereby be the better furnished, and the people prepared to fill their purfes with their treasures." Treatise against Idleness, vaine Playes and Interludes, bl. 1. (no date). The antiquity of this cuftom likewife appears from a ftory recorded by Taylor the water-poet, under the head of Wit and Mirth. 30. "Mafter Field, the player, riding up Fleet-ftreet a great pace, a gentleman called him, and asked him, what play was played that day. He being angry to be ftaied on fo frivolous a demand, anfwered, that he might fee what play was plaied upon every pofte. I cry you mercy, faid the gentleman, I tooke you for a pofte, you rode fo faft." Taylor's Works, p. 183. Ames, in his Hiftory of Printing, p. 342, fays that James Roberts [who published fome of our author's dramas] printed bills for the players. It appears from the following entry on the Stationers' books that even the right of printing play-bills was at one time made a subject of monopoly: "Oct. 1587. John Charlewoode.] Lycenfed to him by the, whole confent of the affiftants, the onlye ymprinting of all manner of billes for players. Provided that if any trouble arife herebye, then Charlewoode to beare the charges." This practice did not commence till the beginning of the prefent century. I have feen a play-bill printed in the year 1697, which expreffed only the titles of the two pieces that were to be exhibited, and the time when they were to be reprefented. Notices |