SHAKESPEARE AND THE STAGE
The interior of the Swan Theatre. Drawn by De Witt in 1596.
WITH A COMPLETE LIST OF THEATRICAL TERMS USED BY SHAKESPEARE IN HIS PLAYS AND POEMS, ARRANGED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, & EXPLANATORY NOTES
BY MAURICE JONAS
AUTHOR OF “NOTES OF AN ART COLLECTOR AND MASUCCIO.”
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
T
he beginning of the English drama dates from a late period in the history of this country. Until the reign of Elizabeth, dramatic literature was really non-existent. During the Middle Ages, the religious drama held complete sway over the populace, producing such an abiding effect that no other kind of performance was tolerated. In England the first germs of a dramatic nature emanated from the church, chiefly in connection with the festival at Eastertide. At this time of the year the ritual was solemnized in a highly theatrical fashion. Processions marched round the sacred edifice, various scenes from the Gospels were introduced, accompanied by music and song. The festivals of Christmas and Corpus Christi were observed with great enthusiasm, sacred episodes taken from church history were acted with such fervour and ecstasy that the congregation remained spellbound during the service.
The next development in the evolution of the drama is the representation of the liturgical play, written in Latin, gradually being superseded by the religious play written in the vernacular; the scenes depicted consisted chiefly of episodes in connection with the Birth of the Saviour, also of events narrating the Lives of the Saints, together with other legendary characters.
All these scenes were called Miracle Plays, a name by which in this country all religious dramas were known, regardless of the origin of their source. In course of time these first offshoots of the ordinary service had grown to such dimensions that it was found impracticable that these spectacles should be presented inside the church, consequently, a larger space outside was deemed more convenient, but still remaining within the precincts. Even this innovation was not entirely successful, as the ground allotted for the performance was not extensive enough for the numerous throng that assembled on these occasions. Then a further step was taken by transferring the scene of action from the sacred precincts to the open spaces within the town. The development of the drama was greatly accelerated by this innovation. During the period that these plays formed part of the religious service, the clergy only were allowed the privilege of assuming the different characters, but when spectacular episodes were added to the ordinary ritual they became secularized by calling in the aid of the various guilds, assisted by professional entertainers. By these means the plays gradually lost their religious significance, finally being regarded as a popular form of amusement. By an act of Pope Gregory in 1210, the priests were forbidden to officiate in these interludes in any capacity, even if held inside the church. After the act had been confirmed by the Council of Trent in 1227, the clergy were strictly prohibited from joining the open-air performance.
The important Festival of Corpus Christi, founded by Pope Urban IV in the year 1264, was ratified years later by the Council of Vienne strictly enforcing its celebration. In England this very Corpus Christi day was, above all others, chosen for the representation of important plays composed in dramatic form chiefly from events connected with the religious history of the civilized world. There are extant several groups of plays which, during the Middle Ages, were regularly performed before appreciative audiences. Four of these “cycles” as they were termed, namely, the York, Townley, Chester, and Coventry plays, have been published and edited by competent scholars. The York cycle contains forty-eight pieces, most of which are derived from biblical subjects. These plays were written during the fourteenth century, and were acted by members of the different guilds.
In the “Ordo Paginorum” of 1415 a detailed list is given of the whole forty-eight interludes. “The order of the Pageants of the Play of Corpus Christi in the time of the mayoralty of William Alne, in the third year of the reign of Henry V, anno 1415, compiled by Roger Burton, town clerk.”
Forty-eight different Companies took part in this pageant, commencing with the Tanners and ending with the Mercers. These crude compositions were still being exhibited during the greater portion of Shakespeare’s lifetime; their total suppression followed in the first decade of the seventeenth century. Although these plays continued until so late a date, signs of their waning interest were apparent in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, when a more ambitious type of drama gradually superseded the old Morality play. The New Comedy displays more inventive genius in dramatic construction, together with greater skill in treating the literary dialogue, and a wider sympathy and ingenuity in the development of character, thus appealing to a more educated section of the public. The first real comedy written in the English language is entitled “Ralph Roister Doister,” and was composed about the year 1550. By this composition an enormous stride in advance was made compared with earlier dramatic pieces.
Many of the characters are moulded on classical models, whilst others still bear traces of an allegorical nature. Other plays quickly followed based on similar types. The first English tragedy called “Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex,” produced about this period, was likewise founded on classical lines. Henceforth the Miracle play was doomed, and hereafter budded forth a new drama, the full blossom thereof culminating in the immortal works of William Shakespeare.
The construction of the open-air stage, where the Miracle plays were exhibited, totally differed from any kind of stage adopted by Europeans for the last three hundred years. The inn-yard performance presents a greater likeness to our present theatre than the primitive shows represented before our ancestors of the Middle Ages compared with the inn-yard performances. These Miracle plays were performed for over three centuries, and formed the only dramatic fare of the English people during this long period. The Miracle play can fitly be described as an isolated production, the successive stages can be plainly regarded as an organic whole, beginning with birth, developing into maturity, eventually drifting into decline and decay, finally ending in total extinction. The plays of a later date, and the conditions under which they were produced, owed little or nothing beyond a trifling debt to their forerunners.
When the Miracle plays emerged from the church and became secularized, the performances took place in the open streets. These exhibitions consisted of two kinds, one being stationary, and generally acted in the market place, or other convenient open space, such as the village green, or they were divided into separate stations or points, or as we should now say districts, each station being visited by the several pageants or movable stages, which formed a kind of processional ceremony. The actual acting place was a kind of platform resting on trestles, with planks thrown across; this primitive stage was fixed on wheels and was drawn by horses from one street to another, and as they arrived at each station a performance was given. By this method a large concourse of people could witness the entertainment in ease and comfort. What a contrast in comparison to a performance of a Greek play, when twenty thousand people were seated in a public theatre and watched with enthusiasm and delight the tragic masterpieces of Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and the biting satirical comedies of Aristophanes, and pray remember that these great plays were written and performed about two thousand years before these puny dramatic efforts of our own people. In large towns like York, sixteen stations were erected to satisfy the demands of the public. In a small town about three or four would supply all needs. At Coventry the latter number proved sufficient. Six stations are mentioned in a pageant acted at Beverley. The length and duration of the plays varied at different places. Three days were allotted to the Chester plays, other towns managed in quicker time, finishing their programme in a single day.
These one-day performances usually commenced at daybreak. Newcastle was not quite so enthusiastic, conforming more with our modern ideas, commencing their pageant a little after mid-day, corresponding almost with our matinée. The most trustworthy account of a performance of a Miracle play is that described by Archdeacon Roger, who witnessed one of the plays at Chester during the Whitsun holidays in the year 1594.
“Every company had his pageant, or parte, which pageants weare a high scafolde with two rowmes, a higher and a lower, upon four wheels. In the lower they apparelled themselves, and in the higher rowm they played, beinge all open on the tope that all behoulders mighte heare and see them. The places where they played them was in every street. They begane first at the abye gates, and when the first pageant was played it was wheeled to the high crosse before the mayor, and so to every streete and soe every streete had a pageant playinge before them at one time, till all the pageants for the daye appointed were played, and when one pageant was neare ended, worde was brought from streete to streete that so they might come in place thereof exceedinge orderlye and all the streets have their pageants afore them, all at one time playinge together, to see which plays was great resorte, and also scafoldes and stages made in the streets in these places where they determined to play their pageants.”
The Miracle plays are frequently mentioned by Chaucer, a verse in the Miller’s Tale included among the Canterbury Tales, informs us how Joly Absolom, the parish priest, played Herod “in a Scafolde hie.” Shakespeare refers to the ranting of the actors that prevailed in these entertainments in the proverbial phrase “out Herod’s Herod,” Herod being a well-known character in the Miracle play. May we not indulge in the fancy that John Shakespeare took his eldest son, William, over to Coventry to witness one of these shows, this town being distant only a few miles from Stratford-on-Avon?
In a most fascinating book written by the late Professor Haigh, of Oxford University, entitled The Attic Theatre, the author gives an exhaustive and detailed account of the ancient Greek theatre from the earliest times until its extinction. After the perusal of this admirable work, the reader may well be amazed at the paucity of reliable information concerning our own theatre. The distinguished author analyses each of his statements with remarkable accuracy before pronouncing judgment. The wealth of illustration brought to bear on the subject is truly remarkable, placing before the reader an exact account of how a play was produced in those remote times by graphically describing the conditions with such minuteness and intelligence that the reader can visualize the acted play from the printed page. Many other points of a theatrical interest are discussed in this fascinating book, which should be read by everyone who takes the least interest in the drama. After studying this detailed account of theatrical events, existing so many centuries past, we naturally expect from the innumerable writings of the Elizabethan age an ample and exact account of how a play was represented during that era. Unfortunately in this instance our expectations will remain unrealized, stage history not being deemed worthy of chronicling in those spacious times.
Professor Lawrence, of Dublin, is specially to be congratulated on his brilliant articles and essays in Shakespearean dramatic and theatrical subjects. It would be a consummation devoutly to be wished if the erudite author would undertake to write a history of the early stage on the same lines as adopted by the author of The Attic Theatre.
AN EARLY TYPE OF STAGE
Reproduced by kind permission of Professor G. P. Baker.
W
hen Shakespeare first arrived in London, which is now generally assigned to the year 1586, there existed in the Metropolis two permanent theatres, called respectively The Theatre and The Curtain. Shakespeare’s dramatic connection with the stage commenced probably about 1590, but where his first plays were produced records are found wanting. Personally I am strongly in favour of his early plays being acted at the Theatre. Students are agreed that Shakespeare joined the company of actors known as the Earl of Leicester’s servants, in which the celebrated Burbages, both father and son, were included. The first named was the builder and manager of The Theatre; therefore, the inference is quite logical that Shakespeare acted in the playhouse to which his company was attached.
Before the public theatres were erected the actors set up their stages at the inn-yards, and many early and important plays were presented in these places. That acting took place in these localities is beyond question, and it is within the bounds of possibility that Shakespeare’s earliest contributions to the drama may have been first produced in these impromptu play places, otherwise inn-yards.
The names of several of these London inn-yards are well known, both from contemporary literature and documentary records; unfortunately little information can be gleaned of their connection with the drama. These resorts were fairly well suited for stage plays. The fore part of the yard corresponded to the pit of a modern provincial theatre, with the exception that standing room only was provided. The galleries that surrounded the yard accommodated the better class of spectators, probably a space at the back of the stage supplied the needs of a dressing room. How the play was produced, the manner in which the scenes were indicated, the number of stage properties used and other details connected with the drama are questions that cannot be satisfactorily answered; the historian in search of full information on these subjects seeks in vain. However much we may deplore the loss of written documents elucidating this period of our early drama, we possess proof that the acting companies of the Earl of Leicester, Lord Strange, the Admiral’s and other noblemen’s companies frequently gave performances in these places. Although Southwark, the pleasure seeking resort of Londoners, was plentifully supplied with inn-yards, many becoming quite famous, namely, The Tabard, White Hart, Cross Keys, George, and several others, there exists no record or reference that any company of actors set up their stage in any one of those taverns named above. As already stated, little is known of the conditions under which theatrical companies acted in those impromptu places of entertainment.
In connection with these taverns one great difficulty arises of a rather perplexing nature, namely, how was the money collected during one of these performances? Devoid of any reliable information, every reader who is interested in the question must work out a theory for himself, relying on his own conclusion for the solution. My own particular theory is that, whenever the players announced a performance they hired the premises for the afternoon, with the right of charging admission for anyone entering the yard or the rooms in the gallery surrounding the building. As these last could be entered through the inn proper, money takers were stationed at the door or doors of all the private entrances and also at the place where the general public entered. In confirmation of the above, an account of a quarrel may be quoted from Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Illustrations to Shakespeare”: “Whilst the Queen’s players were performing at Norwich a man named Wynsdon endeavoured to gain admission without payment. An altercation ensued, during which the money box was upset. The disturbance had a tragic sequel, so far as regards the originator of the quarrel, as he received a sword thrust from one of his pursuers, from which he succumbed.” The above written testimony proves that some kind of system existed, whereby money could be taken at the doors before gaining admission. The entire subject of plays produced at inn-yards requires special treatment by a trained Shakesperean scholar. The subject is a difficult one, necessitating patient research, exact knowledge of sixteenth century theatrical customs and much leisure, but finally the student will be amply rewarded by the interest and fascination which the theme evokes. Printed matter has been ransacked in the hope of throwing light on the subject, but with poor results. Original research among the MSS. of the British Museum and the documents stored at the Record Office must be henceforth the order of the day. Considering so little is known in connection with this interesting subject, reference to similar theatrical conditions in Spain during the Elizabethan period may interest the reader. In Madrid plays were performed in a corral, which, in Spanish, signifies a courtyard of a private house, corresponding in England to our inn-yard. The stage was erected at the back of the yard, in all cases being a movable one, the majority of the audience viewing the performance standing in the court-yard. From the windows of the surrounding houses the better class of spectators watched the play. The entire building was open to the sky, fine weather being absolutely necessary for a continuous performance.
Two years before a permanent theatre was erected in London, these “corrals” were partly roofed, besides providing seats and benches. An awning was thrown across to protect the spectators in the unroofed courtyard from the glare of the sun. From these facts it will be noted that from 1574–1576 theatrical performances were given in Madrid under better conditions than those of any other country. Regular organized theatres did not exist in France, Italy, Russia, or any other European city except England and Spain until the beginning of the seventeenth century. Although for a short period Spanish playgoers were provided with more comforts than any other known theatre, the honour of erecting the first organized theatre in Europe must be awarded to English enterprise.
The chief taverns with inn-yards in which the different companies of actors pitched their tents are seven in number, although several others, whose names are unrecorded, were similarly used for the same purpose. The seven known are “The Bull,” in Bishopsgate Street; “The Bull,” “Cross Keys,” and “The Bell,” in Gracechurch Street; “The Belle Savage” on Ludgate Hill; “The Boar’s Head,” in Eastcheap, and “The Boar’s Head” in Aldgate Without. “The Bell” was situated in Gracechurch Street. A reference to this inn is mentioned in the Revel’s Account: “A well counterfeit from ‘The Bell’ in Gracious Street.” This and two others are the only known references to this tavern being used as a playhouse. Even this quotation is rather vague. Probably “the well” refers to a play called “Cutwell,” which was performed at Court during Shrovetide, 1577, by the Earl of Warwick’s company, the actors having previously appeared at “The Bell” in the same piece.
Reproduced by kind permission from Professor G. P. Baker’s The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1907.
A Stage Play in progress at an inn-yard.
Reproduced by kind permission of Professor G. P. Baker.
A typical inn-yard in Elizabethan times used by the players for the acting of their plays.
This event is mentioned by Richard Rawlidge in a tract entitled “A Monster lately found out, or scourge of Tipplers,” published in 1628. Prynne also mentions this inn in a pamphlet against stage plays in 1632. The best known resort of the actors during the latter part of Elizabeth’s reign was “The Bull” in Bishopsgate Street, being frequently noticed in documents and literature. “The Bull” stood on the left hand side of Bishopsgate Street going towards Shoreditch from the west, exactly opposite St. Helen’s Place, formerly known as Little St. Helen’s. This inn luckily escaped the great fire in 1666, a disaster of such magnitude that, fortunately, has not befallen any other famous city of such great renown and dimensions. “The Bull” remained in situ two centuries after that disastrous event, only to be pulled down by the iconoclasts of our own day in 1866.
There exists a letter from the Earl of Warwick, dated July 1st, 1582, addressed to the Lord Mayor of London, in which he requests that his servant, John Davis, may be allowed to play at “The Bull,” in Bishopsgate Street. In answer to a second letter from the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Mayor still refuses the license on account of the plague. The restrictions in connection with the theatres in time of plague were very stringent. By command of the Authorities, all places of amusement were immediately closed if more than thirty deaths occurred during the week. On cessation of the plague the theatres, by permission, resumed their normal course. In the last years of the sixteenth century, Anthony Bacon, brother of the celebrated Francis Bacon, occupied lodgings near “The Bull,” much against the wish of his mother, who feared that his servants might be corrupted by living so near the scene of dramatic entertainment. This same inn was the resort of Hobson, the well-known Cambridge carrier. In one of the rooms hung his portrait with a hundred pound bag under his arm; underneath was written “The Fruitful Mother of a Hundred more.” The next notice is one of great importance and interest, containing a definite statement of a play being acted at “The Bull,” besides naming the title of the play, “An excellent Jest of Tarlton’s suddenly spoken at ‘The Bull’ in Bishopsgate Street.”
“There was a play of Henry the Fifth, wherein the Judge was to take a box of the eare, and because he was absent that should take the blow, Tarlton himselfe, ever forward to please, tooke upon him to play the same Judge, and Kenel then playing Henry the Fifth, hit Tarlton a sound boxe indeed, which made the people laugh, the more because it was he, but anon the Judge goes in and immediately Tarlton, in his clownes cloathes, comes out and asks the actor what news? O, saith one, hadst thou been here thou shouldst have seen Prince Henry hit the Judge a terrible box of the eare. What, man, said Tarlton, strike a judge! It is true in faith said the other. No other like, said Tarlton, and it could not be but terrible to the Judge when the report so terrifies me that methinks the blow remains still on my cheeke that it burns againe. The people laughed at this mightily, and to this day I have heard it commended for rare, for no marvel, for he had many of these. But I would see our clowns do the like in these days, no I warrant ye, and yet they thinke well of themselves too.” The play in which the prince strikes the judge is taken from “The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth containing the Honourable Battell of Agincourt. As it was played by the Queens Majesties Players, London. Printed by Thomas Creede, 1598.” A unique copy of this book is in the Bodleian Library. This play is much earlier than Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fifth,” and may be considered the source out of which Shakespeare created one of his great masterpieces. Gosson, in his “School of Abuse,” published in 1559, refers to a comedy entitled “The Jew,” performed at “The Bull,” describing the “greediness of worldly chusers and venomous minds of Usurers.” There is hardly a shadow of a doubt that this play is the same on which, many years later, Shakespeare founded his own “Merchant of Venice.” The plot of the “worldly chusers,” or what is now termed the “casket scene,” is related in the Gesta Romanorum a collection of tales and jests written originally in Latin, an English translation of which existed, circa, 1515, printed by the famous Wynkyn de Worde, several reprints appearing between 1571–1601. I possess a copy in black letter dated 1672, proving the popularity of the book during many generations. The Bond, or pound of flesh, story is taken from a collection of tales called “Il Pecorone by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino,” written in the year 1378; the first printed edition appeared in 1558. A copy of this rare book is in the Grenville collection, bequeathed by the owner to the British Museum. I was thus able to read the story in the beautiful original edition. I possess a copy of this book, which formerly belonged to Professor Dowden, bearing the imprint “In Milano, 1554,” with the name of the publishers of the genuine edition of 1558, four years previously to the genuine first edition. This imprint is a false one, the entire book being issued in 1740. I also possess a thick quarto edition of a book entitled The Orator, containing one hundred discourses on various subjects. In each essay the pros and cons of the case in dispute are thoroughly investigated after the manner of books on rhetoric, which were fashionable with the early Greek writers. Declamation numbered 96 strikingly resembles the trial scene in the “Merchant of Venice”; this book may have been read by Shakespeare before he composed the “Merchant of Venice,” which is assigned by most students to the year 1597. The Declamation opens as follows: “Of a Jew who would have for his debt a pound of flesh of a Christian.” Spenser, the famous poet, when writing to his friend, Gabriel Harvey, the well-known Cambridge scholar, signs himself “He that is fast bound unto thee in more obligations than any merchant of Italy to any Jew there.” This letter was in reply to one of Harvey’s, dated 1579; enclosed therein was a whimsical bond between the two friends in allusion to the bond of the Jew in the play. Evidently these two students had witnessed a performance of the Jew at “The Bull,” in which the bond story played a prominent part. When Shakespeare’s play was entered at Stationer’s Hall the description ran thus: “A book of the Merchant of Venyce or otherwise called the Jew of Venyce.” John Florio, an Italian refugee, refers to “The Bull” in a book called the First Frutes, published in 1578: “Shall we go to a playe at ‘The Bull’ or else to some other place?” By the above reference plays continued to be acted at inn-yards even after the erection of public theatres.
“The Bell Savage” was situated on the north side of Ludgate Hill, immediately outside the City gates. The site is now occupied by the publishing firm of Cassell and Co. This inn is included in the five enumerated by Rawlidge, where stage plays were enacted. The inn is not mentioned by name, but simply as one on Ludgate Hill. Stephen Gosson notes that at this inn two prose plays were acted, further adding that these plays were free from all immorality and obscenity. “The two prose plays played at ‘The Belsavage.’ Where you shall find never a word without wit, never a line without pith, never a letter placed in vain. Neither with amorous gestures wounding the eye, nor with slovenly talk hurting the ears of the chaste hearer.” George Gascoigne, in the prologue to one of his plays, called the “Glass of Government,” 1575, refers to this inn: “The Belsavage fair as affording merry jests and vain delights.” In Lamborde’s “Perambulation of Kent” there is another reference to this inn as a place of amusement: “Those who go to Paris Garden, the Belsavage or Theatre to behold bear baiting, interludes, or fence plays must not account of any pleasant spectacle unless they first pay one penny at the gate, another at the entry of the scaffold, and a third for a quiet standing.” In Shakespeare’s play of “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” in answer to a question a boy replies: “Why, sir, is this such a piece of study the dancing horse will tell you.” This horse, named Morocco, was a famous draw in Elizabethan times, being shown at “The Bull,” in Bishopsgate Street. One Banks, a Staffordshire man, exhibited him throughout England and a great part of the continent. When in Rome, Banks and his horse were supposed to have been burnt for witchcraft, but this is doubtful. The author of the above statement is Ben Jonson, in one of his epigrams, “Old Banks the Juggler and his learned horse burned beyond the sea.” Morocco was a bay horse and performed some very clever tricks; amongst them was counting how much money was in a man’s purse, signalling the answer by stamping with his hoof an equal number of times as there were coins in the purse. When his master told him to fetch the veriest knave in all the company he would always make towards his own keeper, thereby causing much merriment. The well-known Elizabethan dramatist, Thomas Dekker, mentions him as the dancing horse who stood on the top of Saint Paul’s whilst a number of asses stood braying below. Many writers of the period refer to this animal, and he may well be dubbed the literary horse. A curious tract, entitled “Moroccius Extaticus, or Bank’s Bay Horse in a Trance,” with a woodcut depicting the horse on his hind legs and two dice in front of him, was published in 1596. Three copies of this pamphlet are known, one is in the British Museum. The Huth exemplar, sold in 1911, fetched £110. I read the copy in the British Museum, but nothing is related about the horse. The book is a political satire on the land question. The name of the La belle sauvage has given rise to many ingenious guesses respecting the derivation, and Stow says the owner was named Isabella Savage and that she bequeathed the inn to the Cutlers’ Company. The Spectator would name it after a French play entitled “La Belle Sauvage.” Another states it was christened after Lady Arabella Savage, with a sign of a wild man and a bell. By the discovery of a document the matter was finally set at rest, wherein it was stated that the tavern was known as “Savage’s Inn,” otherwise called “The Bell on the Hoop.” By degrees the two names became confused, eventually becoming known as “The Bell Savage.”
“The Cross Keys” stood on the north side of Gracechurch Street, adjacent to the well-known Elizabethan tavern “The Queen of Saba,” kept by the Queen’s famous jester, Richard Tarlton. Many said he was a frequent visitor at “The Cross Keys” in order to note the fashions of the day, not in apparel only, but in manners, morals and customs of the period. This inn is not mentioned by Rawlidge as one of the public inn-yards where plays were performed before the year 1580. We catch a glimpse of “The Cross Keys” by an order of the Lord Mayor, dated November, 1589, forbidding the players acting in the City on account of having appeared in a controversial play in connexion with the Martin Marprelate affair. This Marprelate question occupied a similar position amongst the Elizabethan public as the Pusey tract controversy in mid-Victorian days. The discussion ranged over a theological question which was taken up by the dramatists of the Tudor period, with much acrimonious feeling and much throwing about of brains on both sides. Shakespeare abstained from taking part in this fierce and bitter controversy. When the order was executed only two companies were playing in the City, The Admiral’s and Lord Strange’s men, the latter company included Shakespeare as a member. Both companies were promptly summoned before the Court. The Admiral’s men obeyed the summons, but Lord Strange’s company deliberately refused and acted the same afternoon at “The Cross Keys.” Again they were summoned, and two of their number committed to prison. “The Cross Keys” was certainly one of the City’s regular play places, in proof of which the same company, but under different patronage, is found five years later playing in this identical inn-yard. A petition to the Lord Mayor, dated October the eighth, 1594, emanating from Lord Hunsdon, who was then Lord Chamberlain, prays the Lord Mayor if he would allow his players to continue acting at “The Cross Keys,” “where my company of players have accustomed for the better exercising their quality and for the service of Her Majesty, if need so require, and may your Lordship permit and suffer them so to do the which I pray you, rather to do for that they have undertaken to me, that there heretofore they began not their plays till towards four o’clock they will now begin at two and have done towards four o’clock and five, and will not use any drum or trumpet at all for the calling of the people together, and shall contribute to the poor of the parish where they play according to their abilities.”
This is one of the few authentic notices concerning Lord Strange’s men setting up their stages at an inn-yard. If it could be proved definitely that “The Cross Keys” was their principal place of acting between the years 1589–1594, then we must be prepared to admit that many of Shakespeare’s early plays were first acted under these primitive and rough and ready conditions. I am not an adherent of this theory, holding the opinion that all his plays were first produced at regular built theatres; afterwards there may have been a revival performance at inn-yards for want of better accommodation, but all this is very problematical. Not possessing any records designating the actual place of the first performance of Shakespeare’s plays, we are forced, therefore, to indulge in speculative theories. As I have repeatedly stated, this important question has not been sufficiently investigated, and a monograph on the subject by a Shakesperean scholar would be specially welcome.
At “The Cross Keys,” Banks exhibited his wonderful performing horse.
The most famous of all inns where plays were acted was unhesitatingly “The Boar’s Head,” in Eastcheap, exactly where now stands the statue of William the Fourth. The old site was swept away when the new approach was made to London Bridge. The only instance of a play being produced there is fortunately extant, and is contained in a letter to the Lord Mayor from the Lords of the Council, dated March 31st, 1608, granting permission to the servants of the Earl of Oxford and the Earl of Worcester to play at “The Bore’s Head,” in Eastcheap. This letter is preserved in the “Remembrancia,” a collection of papers now safely housed in the Guildhall. On the succession of James the First the Worcester men became the servants of Queen Anne, the consort of the King. Among the Calendars and State Papers is a licence for the actors to perform plays in their usual houses, “The Curtain” and “The Bore’s Head.” This tavern is, above all others, specially renowned, as it was here that Shakespeare selected as the meeting place of Falstaff, Prince Hal, and their boon companions. The tavern is alluded to in Shakespeare’s play of “King Henry the Fourth” in the following lines: “Doth the old boar feed in the old Frank,” and Bardolph answers: “At the old place, my Lord, in Eastcheap.”
Several inns existed in this locality, namely, “The Plough,” “The Chicken,” “The Three Kings,” and many others, but none with any sign that could be confounded with “The Boar’s Head.” The nocturnal roysterings of Prince Hal are not the invention of the poet. Stow relates how the Prince, with his two brothers, created such a riot in Eastcheap that they were brought before the magistrate. William Gascoigne, the Chief Justice, required the Mayor and Aldermen for the citizens to justify the Prince’s arrest and put themselves in the King’s grace. The Aldermen answered they had done their best according to the law to maintain the peace, therefore the Chief Justice in the King’s name remitted his ire and dismissed them. This William Gascoigne is the same judge who, according to tradition, was struck in the face by Prince Hal, whereupon the Prince, at the Judge’s order, was committed to the King’s Bench. Maitland, the historian of London, states that an inscription under the sign of “The Boar’s Head” notified that “this is the chief tavern in London.” The original inn was burnt to the ground in the great fire, immediately being rebuilt, and having for its sign a large boar’s head of stone, with the date underneath—1668; the sign is now exhibited in the crypt of the Guildhall. This second building was likewise destroyed, but in this instance not by fire, being demolished when an improvement scheme was formed for the widening of the approach to London Bridge. Many years before its demolition, this tavern had been converted into two houses, numbered respectively 2 and 3, Great Eastcheap; one of these houses was occupied by a gunsmith. A curious relic of “The Boar’s Head” is a carved figure about 12 inches high representing Falstaff. This figure stood on a bracket placed on one side of the doorway, outside the inn, another figure of the same period representing Prince Hal, stood on the opposite side. A water-colour drawing of Falstaff was presented to the Guildhall by Mr. Burgin, Dean of Chichester. A more important memento of this inn is a carved boxwood bas-relief of a boar’s head, set in a circular frame formed by the tusks of two boars, mounted in silver. An inscription at the back reads “Wm. Brooke, Landlord of ‘The Bore’s Head,’ Eastcheap, 1566.” The relic was sold at Christie’s in 1855, and is now in the possession of Mr. Burdett Coutts. In Shakespeare’s time the landlord at “The Bore’s Head,” was one John Rhodway, of Ventnor, who was buried in the churchyard of St. Michael’s, Crooked Lane, 1623. This church was also demolished in making improvements in this district. There are several allusions to this tavern in the literature of the day; one of special significance is mentioned in Gayton’s Festivous Notes, 1654: “Sir John of ‘The Bore’s Head,’ in Eastcheap.” Was it a coincidence or of a set purpose that Sir John and his wild companions assembled at this inn for their midnight revels? There was another “Boar’s Head” in Southwark, the property of a real Sir John Falstaff, who died in 1460.
“The Red Bull” in Clerkenwell is mentioned, by Larwood and Hotten in their history of sign-boards, as a place where the players acted. This is surely an error, as “The Red Bull” was always a regular playhouse from its opening in 1600 until all the theatres were closed by Act of Parliament.
A “Boar’s Head” tavern existed in Aldgate Without, where plays were represented. The following notice is copied from the Harleian MSS., No. 285: “At St. James’s the V day of September, 1557, A letter to the Lord Mayor of London to give order forthwith that some of his officers do forthwith repair to the Boreshed Without Aldgate, where the Lords are informed a lewd play called ‘A sack full of News’ shall be played this day, the Players whereof he is willed to apprehend and comit to safe warde, until he shall hear further from hence and to take their playbooks from them and to send the same hither. At Westr. the VI day of September, 1557.” Neither this inn nor the one of the same name in Eastcheap is mentioned by Rawlidge. The number of taverns in the City of London at this period must be reckoned by hundreds, most of them having inn-yards adjoining the premises, thus affording a convenient acting place for the players. That so many inns abounded in London may account for the meagre notice taken of them, scenes of everyday occurrence being less likely to be chronicled than events which rarely happen.
U
nfortunately for lovers of Shakespearean drama no vestige of any early Elizabethan theatre exists; in some instances even the very sites are forgotten; in others, the plots of ground on which each theatre stood are disputed. When the Shakespeare Reading Society placed a tablet on the site of the first Globe Theatre, the handsome bronze plaque was erected on the south side of Park Street, which has lately been proved to be a palpable error, the real site of this historic building being situated on the north side. The localities where stood the early English theatres have changed so out of all recognition during the last two centuries that only an antiquarian who has access to old deeds can with any degree of certainty fix the limits of old houses and public buildings. Nothing remains to-day but the bare names of the streets, indicating in a few cases the places of entertainment in Elizabethan times. During Shakespeare’s lifetime there existed in London eleven regular theatres, a brief account of each of these will be chronicled in the following pages:
The first public theatre in London was situated in the parish of Shoreditch and quite appropriately named “The Theatre.” When visiting to-day this depressing neighbourhood, similar districts being dotted over all the London area, an observer immediately concludes that the governing authorities of the London districts must be a most corrupt body; how else can one account for the state of the filthy slums and the appalling ignorance of the inhabitants? Which, after all, is not so surprising when only the gorgeous gin-palace is allowed to flourish. As for demolishing a slum alley, perish the thought! It would offend the aristocratic and titled owner, whose property must be protected at all costs. If I were on a Board Council, not only would I confiscate the property and quickly sweep it off the face of the earth, but would heavily fine and imprison the owners as being pests to society. Shoreditch, God help us! is an awful place. The thought that Shakespeare’s plays were first produced in this neighbourhood seems to cast a stigma on his name, and that the present state of affairs should exist after three hundred years of social progress! Something is rotten in the parish of Shoreditch. How could any modern institution or artistic building flourish in such a fetid and vicious locality, where the London County Council only permits the public-house to flaunt its vile face before the public gaze. A new terror is now added to the grand historic city of London and its outer boundaries by the glaring posters of the Cinema theatre depicting every sort of horrid crime so that a stranger must conclude that Englishmen are for the most part thieves and vicious characters, caring for little else but scenes of a most depraved nature.
Until quite recently the site of the theatre was identified with a plot of ground formerly occupied by Deane’s Mews, situated in the neighbourhood of the present King John’s Court. This site had never been questioned until the appearance of the London County Council pamphlet giving the details where the structure was erected. Halliwell-Phillipps first described the site as being on the Deane’s Mews property in his Illustrations to Shakespeare. The pamphlet mentioned above is the work of Mr. W. W. Braines, whose untiring efforts and keen critical research have succeeded in revealing the exact spot on which the first theatre was erected. For years past I had searched in vain for Deane’s Mews but without success; in fact, this place was becoming to be regarded as a myth, no one having heard of such a name. A friend of mine, Mr. Charles Edwards, a fellow member of the Stock Exchange, had presented me with a handsome folio volume, giving details of all improvements in the Metropolitan area within the last fifty years. This compilation has been enriched with a wealth of plans, exact measurements and the necessary explanatory notes reflecting the greatest credit on the accomplished editor, Mr. Percy Edwards, a brother of my friend. On referring to this book I found Deane’s Mews plainly marked, which stood about 200 ft. south of the true site. The Mews was swept away in the construction of Gt. Eastern St. in 1873–76, and its site is now covered by the latter thoroughfare.
On leaving the City at the junction between Wormwood Street and Camomile Street, where formerly stood the gate entrance to the City, called Bishopsgate, we will proceed down Bishopsgate towards Norton Folgate, thence passing into High Street, Shoreditch. From the High Street we soon reach New Inn Yard, turning up this lane, at a distance of 120 yards we arrive near the site of The Theatre, which was situated about fifty feet north of this street and within a few feet of the east side of the Curtain Road. In earlier times this district formed part of the celebrated Holywell Priory. A detailed account of this ancient abbey would be a welcome addition to the ecclesiastical and topographical history of London. I hope this little volume from which the above details are taken will be consulted by all Londoners, a perusal of which might instil into their minds a greater interest in the past history of their wonderful city. Actual experience teaches me that few people take any intelligent interest in the subject or any other which does not in some particular manner add to their commercial prosperity. Naturally, where so many neglect the pleasures of the mind, the ignorance and stupidity of the majority of the people pass unnoticed, otherwise any person totally unacquainted with the history of the City of London would be looked upon as a common lout, fitting only to herd with the base-minded.