I formerly conjectured that The Globe, though hexagonal at the outside, was perhaps a rotunda Again, in Earle's Characters, 7th edit. 1638: "Shrove-tuesday hee [a player] feares as much as the bawdes, and Lent is more dangerous to him than the butchers." 7 "[Received] of the King's players for a lenten dispensation, the other companys promising to doe as muche, 44s. March 23, 1616. "Of John Hemminges, in the name of the four companys, for toleration in the holy-dayes, 44s. January 29, 1618." Extracts from the office-book of Sir George Buc. MSS. These dispensations did not extend to the sermon-days, as they were then called; that is, Wednesday and Friday in each week. After Sir Henry Herbert became possessed of the office of Master of the Revels, fees for permission to perform in Lent appear to have been constantly paid by each of the theatres. The managers however did not always perform plays during that season. Some of the theatres, particularly the Red Bull and thẻ Fortune, were then let to prize-fighters, tumblers, and ropedancers, who sometimes added a Masque to the other exhibitions. These facts are ascertained by the following entries: "1622. 21 Martii. For a prise at the Red-Bull, for the howse; the fencers would give nothing. 10s." MSS. Astley. "From Mr. Gunnel, [Manager of the Fortune,] in the name of the dancers of the ropes for Lent, this 15 March, 1624. £1.0.0. "From Mr. Gunnel, to allowe of a Masque for the dancers of the ropes, this 19 March, 1624. £2. 0. 0.' We see here, by the way, that Microcosmus, which was exhibited in 1637, (was not, as Dr. Burney supposes in his ingenious History of Musick, Vol. III. p. 385,) the first masque exhibited on the publick stage. "From Mr. Blagrave, in the name of the Cockpit company, for this Lent, this 30th March, 1624. £2. 0. 0.❞ "March 20, 1626. From Mr. Hemminges, for this Lent allowanse, £2. 0. 0." MSS. Herbert. Prynne takes notice of this relaxation in his Histriomastix, 4to. 1633" There are none so addicted to stage-playes, but when they go unto places where they cannot have them, or when as they are suppressed by publike authority, (as in times of pestilence, and in Lent, till now of late,) can well subsist without them." P. 784. 8 within, and that it might have derived its name from its circular form. But, though the part appropriated to the audience was probably circular, I now believe that the house was denominated only from its sign; which was a figure of Hercules supporting the Globe, under which was written, Totus mundus agit histrionem. This theatre was burnt down on the 29th of June, 1613;' but it was re "After these" (says Heywood, speaking of the buildings at Rome, appropriated to scenick exhibitions,) "they composed others, but differing in form from the theatre or amphitheatre, and every such was called circus; the frame globe-like, and merely round." Apology for Actors, 1612. See also our author's prologue to King Henry V: or may we cram "Within this wooden O," &c. But as we find in the prologue to Marston's Antonio's Revenge, which was acted by the Children of Paul's in 1602: "If any spirit breathes within this round,-" no inference respecting the denomination of the Globe can be drawn from this expression. 9 Stowe informs us, that "the allowed Stewhouses [antecedent to the year 1545] had signes on their frontes towards the Thames, not hanged out, but painted on the walles; as a Boares head, The Cross 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 same trade after the ancient and privileged edifices had been put down, probably were distinguished by the old signs; and the sign of the Globe, which theatre was in their neighbourhood, was perhaps, in imitation of them, painted on its wall. 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 state sleepe, I will entertain you at the present with what happened this week at the Banks side. The Kings Players had a new play called All is true, representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth, which was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty, even to the matting of the stage; the knights of the order with their Georges and Garter, built in the following year, and decorated with more ornament than had been originally bestowed upon it.2 The exhibitions at the Globe seem to have been calculated chiefly for the lower class of people ;3 3 the guards with their embroidered coats, and the like: sufficient in truth within a while to make greatness very familiar, if not ridiculous. Now King Henry making a Masque at the Cardinal Wolsey's house, and certain cannons being shot off at his entry, some of the paper or other stuff, wherwith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where being thought at first but an idle smoak, and their eyes more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house 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 forsaken cloaks." From a letter of Mr. John Chamberlaine's to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated July 8, 1613, in which this accident is likewise mentioned, we learn that this theatre had only two doors. "The burning of the Globe or playhouse on the Bankside on St. Peter's day cannot escape you; which fell out by a peal of chambers, (that I know not upon what occasion were to be used in the play,) the tampin or stopple of one of them lighting in the thatch that covered the house, burn'd it down to the ground in less than two hours, with a dwelling-house adjoyning; and it was a great marvaile and fair grace of God that the people had so little harm, having but two narrow doors to get out." Winwood's Memorials, Vol. III. p. 469. Not a single life was lost. In 1613 was entered on the Stationers' books A doleful Ballad of the general Conflagration of the famous Theatre on the Bankside, called the Globe. I have never met with it. * See Taylor's Skuller, p. 31, Ep. xxii: "As gold is better that's in fier try'd, "So is the Bank-side Globe, that late was burn'd; See also Stowe's Chronicle, p. 1003. 3 The Globe theatre being contiguous to the Bear Garden, when the sports of the latter were over, the same spectators probably resorted to the former. The audiences at the Bull and the Fortune were, it may be presumed, of a class still inferior to those at Blackfriars, for a more select and judicious audience. This appears from the following pro that of the Globe. The latter, being the theatre of his majesty's servants, must necessarily have had a superior degree of reputation. At all of them, however, it appears, that noise and shew were what chiefly attracted an audience. Our author speaks in Hamlet of berattling the common [i. e. the publick] theatres." See also A Prologue spoken by a company of players who had seceded from the Fortune, p. 81, n. 6; from which we learn that the performers at that theatre, "to split the ears of groundlings," used" to tear a passion to tatters,' This circumstance is farther confirmed by a passage in Gayton's Notes on Don Quixote, 1654, p. 24: "I have heard, that the poets of the Fortune and Red Bull had alwayes a mouthmeasure for their actors (who were terrible teare-throats), and made their lines proportionable to their compasse, which were sesquipedales, a foot and a halfe." TODD.] In some verses addressed by Thomas Carew to Mr. [afterwards Sir William] D'Avenant," Upon his excellent Play, The Just Italian," 1630, I find a similar character of the Bull theatre; 66 "Now noise prevails; and he is tax'd for drowth "Of serious sense; but like lips meet like meat: Keep natural unstrain'd action in her throne, "Behold their benches bare, though they rehearse "The terser Beaumont's or great Jonson's verse." The true brood of actors were the performers at Blackfriars, where The Just Italian was acted. See also The Careless Shepherdess, represented at Salisbury Court; 4to. 1656: “And I will hasten to the money-box, "And take my shilling out again;— "I'll go to THE BULL, or FORTUNE, and there see "A play for two-pence, and a jig to boot." logue to Shirley's Doubtful Heir, which is inserted among his poems, printed in 1646, with this title: 66 Prologue at the GLOBE, to his Comedy called The Doubtful Heir, which should have been presented at the Blackfriars.* "Gentlemen, I am only sent to say, "Our author did not calculate his play "No shews,--no dance,-and what you most delight in, "No clown, no squibs, no devil in't.-Oh now, " And will not deaf us with lewd noise and tongues, The superior discernment of the Blackfriars audience may be likewise collected from a passage in In the printed play these 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. The common people stood in the Globe theatre, in that part of the house which we now call the pit; which being lower than the stage, Shirley calls them understanders. In the private playhouses, it appears from the subsequent lines, there were seats in the pit. Ben Jonson has the same quibble: "—the understanding gentlemen of the ground here." |