The The

public playhouse in London, called The Theatre, was built in 1576 by James Burbadge, father of Richard Burbadge, the great actor of tragic atres. parts in Shakespeare's day. Next in date of building was The Curtain.1 The Rose was opened in 1592 on the Bankside. At Newington Butts there was a playhouse known by the name of that locality. The Globe, most famous of all the London playhouses, was erected in 1599 from the material of the old Theatre, torn down after its owner had built the new Blackfriars Theatre in 1596. The Red Bull, The Fortune, The Cockpit, and The Swan were also standing in Shakespeare's time. In all, the city boasted some dozen theatres of varying use and fame.

If one would reconstruct an early London playhouse, he should think first of one of those round, or manysided structures, familiar now in all large cities as used for the exhibition of cycloramas and realistic battle pictures. In buildings similarly shaped, but not Interior entirely roofed over, the greatest English Equipdramas were first performed. A shed-roof ment. projected a little way inside the circle, thus protecting the stage and the tiers of seats that corresponded to our balconies and boxes; the large centre of the theatre was unprotected commonly from either sun or shower, and here the "groundlings" stood elbowing one another throughout the progress of the play. This part of the theatre was strewn with rushes; in time it received the not inappropriate name of the pit. The stage itself was plainly furnished; there was little thought of decoration or of setting. There was always an elevated platform or balcony overlooking the stage at the rear; and upon this elevation were presented the frequent plays within plays, as in Hamlet. This

Derived from the Latin curtina, a little court; hence a local name.

platform also furnished the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, and served to suggest the walls of a city, as in King John and in the "histories." Gayly dressed and boisterous representatives of the court usually occupied stools upon the stage itself, where they displayed their finery, their fashions, and their manners, often to the great annoyance of audience and actors. Coarsevisaged, hoarse-voiced women sold oranges and apples to the mechanics and apprentices who crowded the pit. Tradesmen and gentlemen commoners filled the little pens which served for private boxes. Very few women were seen in this public audience; those of any reputation were closely masked. The gallants on the stage played cards and smoked, talked with one another, and insolently commented on actors and auditors alike. The performances were usually at three in the afterA flag flying from the roof indicated that a play was on the stage. With a flourish of trumpets the customary Prologue was introduced, and then the action proceeded. Scarcely any scenery was employed. A card was hung announcing the scene in a wood, a castle, a field of battle, France, Bohemia, Paris, Venice, or London. Articles of common furnishing were utilized, and sometimes more elaborate efforts were made to give a realistic effect to the scene; but for the most part a frank appeal was made to the imagination of the spectators, and the liveliness of the imagination in the Elizabethan age seems to have been entirely adequate to all demands.1 There are many who assert

noon.

1 "Can this cockpit hold

The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques

That did affright the air at Agincourt?

that this condition was favorable in every way, and that the performance grew vastly more impressive through the very absence of mechanical details, which possibly distract attention rather than emphasize the actor's art. No attempt was made to reproduce the costumes historically suggestive of the character or scene; yet the actor's wardrobe was as luxurious and costly as that of the courtier himself. The women's parts were played by boys or men, who were often famous for their skill. If one would have the comment of the best possible authority on the methods of the Elizabethan stage, let him turn to the third act of Hamlet and follow carefully the instructions to the players. In many a comic scene, besides, has Shakespeare burlesqued the rude craft of some early player, as well as the general poverty of the stage in his time.

The Com

panies.

The ser

Professional actors were banded into companies distinguished by the title of some patron. There were the Lord Leicester's Players, the Queen's Players, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, etc. vice of the patron does not seem usually to have included much more than the securing of the royal license for the company, although the Queen's and the King's companies enjoyed some further privileges, and were honored with some special obligations in presenting their plays at court. A single company might be known by different names at various times. The Earl

Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;

Into a thousand parts divide one man,

And make imaginary puissance;

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;

For 't is your thoughts that now must deck our kings," etc.

Prologue to King Henry V.

of Leicester's Men became Lord Strange's in 1588. In 1592 Lord Strange became Earl of Derby, and the players changed their title accordingly. In 1594 the Earl of Derby died, and his company of actors became Lord Hunsdon's or the Lord Chamberlain's Men. In 1596 the earl died, and his son, the second Lord Hunsdon, became their patron; he also became Chamberlain in 1597. After the accession of James in 1603, this same company was honored with the title of King's Players. William Shakespeare was certainly a member of this company in 1594, and one of its foremost men in 1598. It is probable that he joined it on his first arrival in London. Richard Burbadge, greatest actor of his time, was Shakespeare's colleague and first interpreted his great tragic characters. William Kemp, the best comedian of his day, was a member of this same company. John Heming and Henry Condell were fellow actors with the poet, who collected Shakespeare's plays and edited the famous first folio text in 1623. This notable company first occupied The Theatre in Moorfields, and then the Rose, on Bankside; but it is the Globe Theatre with which they were especially identified, and of which Shakespeare himself was part

owner.

Shakespeare's

Prede

cessors.

Something of the development of the English drama has been outlined in the foregoing paragraphs; something remains to be said concerning the group of men who actually possessed the London stage at the moment of Shakespeare's entrance on professional life. Their influence on his career was not insignificant.

First in point of time came John Lyly. His distinction rests upon his romances and his pastoral comedies, which made him the most popular writer of his day. Lyly's earliest work appeared in 1579, when he

THE INTERIOR OF THE SWAN THEATRE AS SKETCHED BY JOHANNES DE WITT, A DUTCH SCHOLAR, ABOUT 1596

(At the rear of the stage, which is uncovered, is the tiring-room, to which the two large doors give entrance. Above the tiring-room extends a covered balcony, now occupied by spectators, but used by the actors, when required, in the presentation of a play. At the door of the chamber near the gallery roof stands a trumpeter to announce the beginning of an act. The flag, with the emblem of the swan, is flying, as a sign to those outside that a play is in progress. The disposition of boxes and galleries is plain, but unfortunately the "groundlings " are unrepresented in the picture. The form of the building is oval. No other drawing of the interior of an Elizabethan theatre is known to exist, says Dowden. The original sketch was discovered recently in the University Library, Utrecht.)