31. 6s. 8d. each. At that time there were eight being now [in 1583] growne very skilfull and exquifite actors for all matters, they were entertained into the fervice of divers great lords; out of which companies there were twelve of the best chofen, and, at the request of Sir Francis Walfingham, they were fworne the queenes fervants, and were allowed wages and liveries as groomes of the chamber: and until this yeare 1583. the queene had no players. Among thefe twelve players were two rare men, viz. Thomas Wilfon, for a quicke, delicate, refined, extemporall witt, and Richard Tarleton, for a wondrous plentifull pleafant extemporal wit, he was the wonder of his tyme. lieth buried in Shoreditch church." "He was fo beloved,' adds the writer in a note, that men ufe his picture for their fignes." Stowe's Chron. published by Howes, fub. ann. 1583. edit. 1615.

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He

The above paragraph was not written by Stowe, not being found in the laft edition of his Chronicle published in his life-time, 4to. 1605. and is an interpolation by his continuator, Edmund Howes.

Richard Tarleton, as appears by the regifter of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, was buried there, September the third, 1588. The following extract from Strype fhews in how low a flate the ftage was at this time:

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Upon the ruin of Paris Garden, [the fall of a scaffold there in January 1583-4] fuit was made to the Lords [of the Council] to banish plays wholly in the places near London and letters were obtained of the Lords to banish them on the Sabbath days.

:

Upon thefe orders againft the players, the Queens players petitioned the Lords of the Councel, That whereas the time of their fervice drew very near, fo that of neceffity they muft needs have exercife to enable them the better for the fame, and alfo for their better keep and relief in their poor livings, the feafon of the year being paft to play at any of the houfes without the city: Their humble petition was, that the Lords would vouchfafe to read a few articles annexed to their fupplication, and in confideration [that] the matter contained the very ftay and ftate of their living, to grant unto them confirmation of the fame, or of as many as should be to their honours good liking; and withal, their favourable letters to the Lord Maior, to permit them to exercife

companies of comedians, each of which performed twice or thrice a week.

7

King James the First appears to have patronized the ftage with 'as much warmth as his predeceffor. In 1599. while he was yet in Scotland, he folicited Queen Elizabeth (if we may believe a modern biftorian) to send a company of English comedians to Edinburgh; and very foon after his acceffion to the throne, granted the following licence to the company at the Globe, which is found in Rymer's Fadera. Pro LAURENTIO FLETCHER & WILLIELMO SHAKESPEARE & aliis.

"A. D. 1603. Pat.

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1. Jac. P. 2. m. 4. James by the grace of God, &c. to all juftices, maiors, fheriffs, conftables, headboroughs, and other our officers and loving fubjects, greeting. Know you that wee, of our special grace, certaine knowledge, and meer motion, have licensed and authorifed, and by these prefentes doe licence and authorize theife our fervaunts, Laurence Fletcher, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Richard, Burbage, Auguftine Phillippes,

within the city; and that their letters might contain fome orders to the Juftices of Middlesex in their behalf." Strype's Additions to Stowe's Survey, Vol. I. p. 248.

6 Household-book of Queen Elizabeth in 1584. in the Museum, MSS. Sloan, 3194. The continuator of Stowe fays, she had no players before, (fee n. 5.) but I fufpect that he is miftaken, for Q. Mary, and K. Edward the Sixth, both had players on their establishments. See p. 45.

7 For reckoning with the leafte the gaine that is reaped of eight ordinarie places in the citie, (which I know,) by playing but once a weeke, (whereas many times they play twice, and fometimes thrice,) it amounteth to two thoufand pounds by the year. A Sermon preached at Paules Croffe, by John Stockwood, 1578.

John Hemings, Henrie Condel, William Sly, Robert Armin, Richard Cowly, and the rest of their affociates, freely to ufe and exercife the art and faculty of playing comedies, tragedies, hiftories, interludes, morals, paftorals, ftage-plaies, and fuch like other as thei have alreadie ftudied or hereafter fhall ufe or ftudie, as well for the recreation of our loving fubjects, as for our folace and pleasure when we fhail thincke good to see them, during our pleafure: and the faid comedies, tragedies, hiftories, enterludes, morals, paftorals, ftage-plaies, and fuch like, to fhew and exercise publiquely to their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague fhall decrease, as well within theire nowe ufuall houfe called the Globe, within our county of Surrey, as alfo within anie towne-halls or moute-halls, or other convenient places within the liberties and freedom of any other citie, univerfitie, toun, or boroughe whatfoever, within our faid realmes and dominions. Willing and commanding you and everie of you, as you tender our pleasure, not onlie to permit and suffer them herein, without any your letts,' hindrances, or moleftations, during our pleasure, but also to be aiding or affiftinge to them if any wrong be to them offered, and to allow them fuch former curtèfies as hathe been given to men of their place and qualitie; and alfo what further favour you fhall fhew to theife our fervaunts for our fake, we shall take kindlie at your handes. In witnefs whereof, &c.

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Witness our felfe at Weftminster, the nynteenth daye of Maye.

"Per Breve de privato figillo."

HAVING

AVING now, as concifely as I could, traced the hiftory of the English Stage, from its firft rude flate to the period of its maturity and greatest fplendor, 1 fhall endeavour to exhibit as accurate a delineation of the internal form and economy of our ancient theatres,, as the diflance at which we fland, and the obfcurity of the fubject, will permit.

The most ancient English playhouses of which I have found any account, are, the playhouse in Blackfriars, that in Whitefriars, the Theatre, of

8 There was a theatre in Whitefriars, before the year 1580. See p. 46. A Woman's a Weathercock was performed at the private playhoufe in White-friars in 1612. This theatre was, I imagine, either in Salisbury court or the narrow ftreet leading into it. From an extract taken by Sir Henry Herbert from the office-book of Sir George Buc, his predeceffor in the office of Mafter of the Revels, it appears that the theatre in Whitefriars was either rebuilt in 1613, or intended to be rebuilt. The entry is: "July 13. 1613. for a license to erect a new play-houfe in the White-friers, &c, £20." I doubt however whether this fcheme was then carried into execution, becaufé a new playhouse was erected in Salisbury-court in 1629. That theatre probably was not on the fite of the old theatre in White-friars, for Prynne fpeaks of it as then newly built, not re-built; and in the fame place he mentions the re-building of the Fortune and, Red Bull theatres. Had the old theatre in Whitefriars been pulled down and re-built, he would have used the fame language with refpect to them all. The Rump, a comedy by Tatham, was acted in 1669. in the theatre in Salisbury-court (that built in 1629). About the year 1670 a new theatre was erected there, (but whether on the fite of that laft mentioned I cannot afcertain,) known by the name of the Theatre in Dorfet Gardens, to which the Duke of York's company under the conduct of Sir William D'Avenant's widow removed from Lincoln's-inn-fields in 1671. The former playhouse in Salisbury-court could hardly have fallen into decay in

2

which I am unable to ascertain the fituation, and The Curtain, in Shoreditch. The Theatre, from its name, was probably the first building erected in or near the metropolis purpofely for fcenick exhibitions.

In the time of Shakspeare there were feven principal theatres; three private houses, namely, that

fo fhort a period as forty years; but I fuppofe was found too fmall for the new fcenery introduced after the Reftoration. The Prologue to Wycherley's Gentleman Dancing Mafter, printed in 1673. is addreffed "To the city, newly after the removal of the Duke's Company from Lincoln's Inn fields to their new theatre near Salisbury-court."

26

Maitland in his Hiftory of London, p. 963. after mentioning Dorfet Stairs, adds, near to which place ftood the theatre or playhoufe, a neat building, having a curious front next the Thames, with an open place for the reception of coaches." 9 It was probably fituated in fome remote and privileged place, being, I fuppofe, hinted at in the following paffage of a fermon by John Stockwood, quoted below, and preached in 1578. "Have we not houfes of purpose built with great charges for the maintainance of them, [the players,] and that without the liberties, as who fhall fay, there, let them fay what they will, we will play. I know not how I might, with the godly-learned efpecially, more difcommend the gorgeous playing-place erected in the fields, than to term it, as they pleafe to have it called, a Theatre."

2 The Theatre and The Curtain are mentioned in "A Sermon preached at Paules-Crofs on St. Bartholomew day, being the 24th of Auguft, 1578. by John Stockwood," and in an ancient Treatife against Idleness, vaine Plaies and Interludes, by John Northbrook, bl. 1. no date, but written apparently about the year 1580. Stubbes, in his Antony of Abuses, p. 90. edit. 1583, inveighs againft Theatres and Curtaines, which he calls Venus' Palaces, Edmund Howes, the continuator of Stowe's Chronicle, fays, (p. 1004.) that before the year 1570. he "neither knew, heard, nor read of any fuch theatres, fet ftages, or play-houses, as have been purpofely built within man's memory."