Yale Center for British Art and British Studies THE LONDON STAGE. OASBICK'e DBITKT LANS. (From an old Engraving.) THE LONDON STAGE: 1576 TO 1888. BY H. BARTON BAKER, AUTHOR OF ''FRENCH SOCIETY FROM THE FRONDE TO THE GREAT REVOLUTION,' " OUR OLD ACTORS," ETC. VOL, I. LONDON : W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13 WATEELOO PLACE, PAIiL MAIL. S.W. 1889. (All Bights Beserved.) LONDON : PRINTED UT W. H. ALLEN AND CO., 13 WATERLOO PLACE. >, VV I LLC) PREFACE. The great historic theatres, Drury Lane and Covent Garden, have had many volumes devoted to them ; the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres have been exhaustively treated in various works and in maga zine articles ; some account of the minor theatres will be found in old numbers of the Era Almanack, but I think I may safely assert that no previous attempt has been made to present a consecutive history of the London stage, both major and minor, from Chelsea to Poplar, from Newington Butts to Islington, drama tic, lyric, and terpsichorean, within the limits of a single work. Adequately to perform such a task would require at least twenty volumes ; Geneste has taken ten for the records of Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Haymarket between 1660 and 1830. VI PREFACE. Only an epitome of such an extensive subject was possible within the space of six hundred pages ; yet not a theatre, of which I have been able to obtain any knowledge, that has existed in London between 1576 and 1888 has been omitted ; each, however, has been touched upon only so far as it has affected the history of theatrical art in developing its progress or retro gress, its revolutions, or the varieties of its forms. Occasionally I have been compelled to trench upon ground previously traversed in Our Old Actors, but I have done so only where it has been absolutely neces sary to the sequence of the narrative. In dealing with such an enormous number of dates, although I have spared no pains, it would be too much to expect that errors have not crept in ; indeed, I have already discovered several, which will be found in errata. In the first place, printers have a happy knack of confusing the figures 3, 5, and 8 ; and in touching upon the more obscure theatres, of which little or no data exist, I have had to depend upon per sonal memory and reminiscences. Again, the paucity and incompleteness of the sets of play-bills in the British Museum have added greatly to the difficulties of research. As an instance, it may be mentioned that PREFACE. VU there is not a full set of bills of the Phelps' manage ment of Sadler's Wells, nor a single programme of the Bancroft management at the Prince of Wales's. The book thieves, however, must at different times have made sad havoc in the collection, as Geneste refers to play-bills in the British Museum of a date many years anterior to any that are now to be found ; 1858 is the latest period at which any bills seem to have been received at Great Eussell Street. This is a great lack in the national collection ; but one which could be filled up with little difficulty by an appeal to London managers who, having received so much help from the authorities of the Museum on various occasions in mounting plays, could scarcely refuse to recognize what is really a national obliga tion. At present, to discover or verify a single date, after 1856 or 1858, volumes of newspapers may have to be searched, entailing a terrible expenditure of time. I wish, however, to take this opportunity to express my thanks to Mr. Fortescue, the superintendent of the reading-room, for the great assistance he has afforded me in placing at my disposal a mass of valuable materials ofthe existence of which, but for his courtesy. Vm PREFACE. I should have been ignorant. I have also to thank Messrs. Chatto & Windus for permission to make such use as I required of certain articles which appeared a few years since in the pages of Belgravia and The Gentleman's ; Mr. George Conquest and Mrs. Lane, for information concerning the Grecian and Bri tannia theatres, and my old friend Mr. W. E. Church for the great help he has afforded me out of the exhaustless stores of his theatrical reminiscences. NK^^^^3ac^^^5^F-» CHRONOLOGICAL LIST of The London Theatres from the Earliest Period TO the Present Time. 1. The Elizabethan and Stuart Theatres. The Theatre ,, Curtain ., Hope . Eose . Blackfriars Globe . Newington FortuneEed Bull Cockpit ) Phoenix f Whitefriars Salisbury Court * When a note of interrogation follows the date, it is doubtful. When the note stands alone the date is unknown. When a blank is left in the second column of figures the theatre is still standing. When two or more names are bracketed, it indicates that the theatre has been known by each of those titles. Built.* Destroyed. 1576 1597 1577 1628 (?) 1585 ? 1592 ? 1596 1647 (?) 1597 1644 ? ? 1599 1656 1599 ?) 1661 (?) ? 1661 (?) ? ? 1629 1666 THE LONDON STAGE. 2. The Bestoration Theatres. Vere Street, Clare Market . The Theatre Eoyal, Drury Lane . Lincoln's Inn Fields (The Duke's) Dorset Garden (Duke's) Built. 1660 166316721672 Destroyed. 1663 (?) 1743 (?) 1706 (?) The West-end Theatres. {Built during tlis Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.) The Queen's „ King's Her Majesty's The Haymarket . ,, Lyceum ,, English Opera House ,, Theatre Eoyal Lyceum Astley's Middlesex Amphitheatre 'j Olympic Pavilion I Little Drury Lane [ Olympic ) Sans Pareil) Adelphi | • • • • " Concerts of Ancient Music " Eegency Theatre of Varieties West London Queen's FitzroyQueen's (2nd time) Prince of Wales's " Eayner's New Subscription Theatre' in the Strand" New Strand Theatre Eoyal, Strand 1705 1720 — 1794 1806 — 1806 — 1809 (?) 1882 1832 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF LONDON THEATRES. XI Built. Destroyed St. James's Prince's ... . 1835 — St. Jarn.es's Miss Kelly's Theatre New Enghsh Opera House . 1840 New Eoyalty Eoyalty Princess's .... . 1840 — Holborn Mirror • > • . 1866 1879 Duke's Queen's ) National . 1867 1878 Queen's Globe. . 1868 — Gaiety . 1868 — Charing Cross Folly . . . 1869 — Toole's Vaudeville . . 1870 — New Chelsea ) Belgravia . 1870 1887 Eoyal Court Opera Comique . . 1870 — Alhambra . . 1871 — Criterion . 1874 — Amphitheatre, Holborn Connaught . 1874 1888 Alcazar Theatre Eoyal, Holborn Savoy .... . 1881 — Comedy . 1881 — Avenue . 1882 — Novelty (Jodrell) . 1882 — Sfof Wales's ) C--^^y ^^-^* • '««* — Empire . 1884 — Terry's . 1887 -- New Cou rt . . 1888 ¦ — ¦ Xll THE LONDON STAGE. Built. Destroyed. Shaftesbury 1888 — Lyric .... . . 1888 — 4. The Transpontine Theatres. [See also Elizabethan and Stuart Theatres.) 1780 The Eoyal Grove Astley's Amphitheatre Davis's do. Hatty's do. Theatre Eoyal, Westminster Sanger's Amphitheatre The Eoyal Circus | h rroo The Surrey \ ' ' ' • -^'"^ a^ilfl isi« i«^i The Greenwich 1864 — The Elephant and Castle . . . 1872 — The East-end Theatres. (See also Elizabethan and Stuart Theatres.) Goodman's Field's Theatre . . . 1703 (?) 1751 (?) The Eoyalty, Wellclose Square) The East London I . . 1787 1828 The Brunswick ) £ci?y?antronl^-^ Street . 1829 1836 The Pavilion 1829 — The Garrick (Leman Street) . . 1830 1875 (?) The City of London (Norton Folgate) . 1835 1868 The Eoyal Standard) ..„„„ The New Standard J ' * * ¦ i»^' CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF LONDON THEATRES. XIU Built. Deitroyed. The Effingham Saloon ] .£,_. ,„. ,„„„ The New East London} " " ' 1«54 (?) 1879 The Oriental) t> i to on The Albion | ^"^^^^ " ' • ^^^^ " 6. Miscellaneous Minor and Suburban Theatres Eoyal Sussex Eoyal Pavilion Theatre West Theatre Eoyal, Marylebone - . . 1831 Eoyal Alfred The Marylebone Clarence ) Cabinet ¦ . . . . 1832 King's Cross Eagle Saloon Grecian do. . . . 1832 Grecian Theatre j Albion Saloon — Britannia Saloon Britannia Theatre J ' . 1841 Variety Theatre (Hoxton) . . 1871 Philharmonic . 1874 Grand .... . 1883 1881 1882 7. Extinct Theatres. (See also all previoiis lists.) Sans Souci (Leicester Square) . . 1793 1884 New East London (Stepney) . . — — Shakespeare (Curtain Eoad) . . 1820 (?) — Orange Street Theatre (Chelsea) . . 1831 1882 xiv the LONDON STAGE. Built. Destroyed. Niw°n„<..r.v 1 Windmill Street . New Queen s J . 1832 1836 The Globe (The Eotunda) . . 1838 1838 The Bower Saloon . 1838 1879 The Eoyal Borough — 1836 (?) The Deptford Theatre . — — Eoyal Kent (Kensington) . 1834 1840 Colosseum Theatre (Albany Street) . 1841 1841 Alexandra (Highbury Barn) . 1865 1871 LtJS'"h.»a»Tow. . . 1871 1881 This, as far as I have been able to discover, is a complete list of the metropolitan theatres from 1576 to 1888 ; though, doubtless, others may have existed which have sunk into irretrievable oblivion. I have omitted all mention of houses which have been used only for amateur performances. The most famous of these were, one in Catherine Street, now the Echo office, and others situated in Gough Street and Eawstome Street, upon the boards of which many an afterwards great actor first tried his wings. Now, as a rule, that experiment is performed in theatres, where the public pay as much as half a guinea to witness the melancholy sight. -^.«i<>^iP>seifcfi=*^ CONTENTS OF VOL. I. PAGE Chapter I. — The Elizabethan Stage . . 1 II. — The Theatres of the Eestora- TION 32 III. — The Theatre Eoyal, Drury Lane. —1663-1741 .... 50 IV. — ^Drury Lane prom 1741 to 1791 75 v.— Drury Lane, 1794-1880 . . 97 VI, — Lincoln's Inn Fields and Covent Garden Theatres . . .119 VII. — The Second Covent Garden Theatre , 146 VIIL — The Haymarket .... 172 IX. — Dramatic Art and Literature . 212 X. — The King's Theatre (Her Ma jesty's) ; The Italian Opera AND Ballet .... 229 Note. — The Legal Status of the Actor 288 Note to Haymarket. — Sothern's First Appearance as Lord Dundreary . 293 EREAT A. Vol. I. p. 69, 1. 4,— /or 1715 read 1713. Vol. II. p. 25, 1. 28,— /or in that last-named year read 1848. p. 148, 1. 5,— for fine old veteran read fine veteran. THE LONDON STAGE. CHAPTEE I. The Elizabethan Stage. The Theatre.— The Curtain.— The Paris Garden.— The Hope.— The Globe.— Rivalry of Burbage and Alleyn.—The Swan.— The Newlng- ton.—The Blackfriars.— The Fortune.— The Red Bull.— The Cooliplt — The Whitefriars. — The Salisbury Court. — The Management of the Elizabethan Theatres. — Form and Dimensions of the Public and Private Houses. — Audiences. — Actors. — Plays. — Music. — Scenery or No Scenery ?—The Unrivalled Position of the Black friars. It was James Burbage, or Burbadge, or Burbidge — the name is spelt half a dozen different ways — the father of the great tragedian, Eichard Burbage, an actor in the Earl of Leicester's company, and the first Englishman to whom a theatrical license was ever granted (1574) — who erected the first London theatre. In mediaeval times the Miracle Plays, Mysteries, and Moralities were represented in churches or on wooden movable platforms raised in the market-places ; but from Henry the Seventh's reign, I. 1 2 the LONDON STAGE. when a passion for dramatic amusements began to develop among all classes, to the earlier years of " the Virgin Queen," the trained companies of actors, which many noblemen attached to their households, when not required by their lords, would roam from town to town giving public performances, usually in inn yards; and it was the ancient inn yard, with its open area, its two or three tiers of galleries with rooms at the back, that was taken as a model for the first English theatre, a model that has never since been departed from. Upon the site of what is now Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, dm-ing the middle ages, stood the Priory of St. John the Baptist ; at the Eeformation it shared the common fate of religious houses, and after it had lain in ruins for some time one Giles Allen purchased the ground and leased it out for building. One of these plots was taken by James Burbage, who was originally a joiner by trade, for the purpose of raising thereon a wooden building to be devoted to theatrical and other amusements ; the lease was signed April 13th, 1576, and the structure was opened a few months afterwards. It cost between £600 and iJ700, and was emphatically named the Theatre.* * It is said that Burbage borrowed the money from his father-in- law, John Braynes, who, from a document recently discovered among the Middlesex County Records, would seem to have been his partner in the speculation, and from the fact that his name is put first in the parchment, which is a summons for the two managers to appear before the magistrates to answer for certain riots which had taken place in their play-houses, would seem to have been the principal. Whether or not John Braynes himself was an aetor, is doubtful. THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 3 Not for long, however, did this novel venture enjoy its dramatic monopoly ; during the following year a rival house sprang up in its immediate neighbourhood, and was called the Curtain ; the name still survives in Curtain Eoad. Writing at this time. Stow says: " Many houses have been there builded (on the site of the Priory) for the lodgings of noblemen, of strangers born, and otherwise. And near unto are builded two publique houses for the acting and shew of Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories for recreation. Whereof the one is called the Courtein and the other the Theatre, both standing on the south side towards the field." The entertainment provided at the Theatre and the Curtain was, at first, of a somewhat rude and diversi fied kind ; the Elizabethan drama, as we understand the term, was not yet born ; Marlowe, the first of the great dramatists, did not produce his Tamburlaine untU about ten years afterwards, and the earliest known plays of John Lyly and George Peele do not date farther back than 1584 ; Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer Gurton's Needle, the earliest of our dramatic works that have any pretensions to the name of comedies, and Gordubuc, the first regular tragedy in the English language, had been written some years previous to the erection of the Theatre,* but they stood alone among " Moralities," " Jigs," " Inter ludes," and a barbarous medley of tragedy and * The dates of these plays, as far as can be ascertained, are, respectively, 1550, 1566, and 1561-2. 1 * 4 THE LONDON STAGE. buffoonery, such as we have in the old plays of Damon and Pithias, Appius and Virginia, and Cambyses — which Shakespeare has immortalized by his reference to " the King Cambyses vein," in Henry the Fourth. From these and similar specimens of the pre-Marlowe drama that have descended to us, we can form a tolerably accurate idea of the dramatic portion of the entertainment given at the earliest theatres. But the plays were varied with singing, dancing, and in some places with bear-baiting and athletic sports, as we gather from a passage in Lambard's Perambulations *f Kent (1576). This same book also affords a curious hint as to the prices charged for admission. " Those who go to Paris Gardens, the Bell Savage,* or the Theatre to behold bear-baiting, interludes, or fence play, must not account of any pleasant spectacle unless first they pay one penny at the gate, another at the entry to the scaffold, and a third for a quiet sitting." The last must, indeed, have been, a desideratum in these early theatres, since the unruliness of the audience, who frequently in dulged in riots and tumults, was continually getting the managers into hot water with the civic authorities, most of whom were leavened with Puritanism. In 1580 the Lord Mayor appea,led agaiast Braynes and Burbage to the Lords of the Council, who at that very time had under consideration certain disturbances * The inn yards continued to be used for dramatic exhibitions for some years after this time, and the Belle Sauvage on Ludgate Hill was one of the most famous of these extemporized play-houses. THB ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 5 which had occurred on a certain Sunday* in the April of that year, and in this memorial his Lord ship disdainfully alludes to " the players of playes and tumblers " as being " a very superfluous sort of men," and opines that " the exercise of those playes is a great hindrance of the service of God." Here we have the germ of that fanaticism which grew year by year, until it was strong enough, under the gloomy reign of the Saints, tp sweep every pleasure out of existence. The Theatre enjoyed but a brief career. In 1597 Giles-Allen, the ground landlord, perhaps under pressure of the Puritan citizens, intimated to Messrs. Braynes and Burbage that he required the land for other purposes. Now, according to the stipulations of the lease, Burbage had the power to remove the build ing at the end of his term ; but Allen denied this right, and evidently thought he had the power of evading it. One morning, however, the actors and some assistants set about pulling down the house, and, in spite of the armed resistance of the ground land lord, amidst a great tumult, succeeded in carrying off the materials to Bankside, Southwark, and the timber thus saved helped to erect another theatre, which was afterwards called the Globe. The Curtain survived until 1623, that being the • The play-houses were open in London on Sundays, even in Charles the First's time ; though it would appear that such amusements were never lawful on the Sabbath, and were forbidden by enactments at different periods. In 1595 there were performances on Christmas Day. 6 THE LONDON STAGE. latest date at which, so far as can at present be ascer tained, it is mentioned in contemporary documents or literature. During the latter years of its exist ence it rose considerably in reputation, and was occupied at different times by some of the most esteemed companies of the nobility. In the meantime theatrical amusements had been migrating southward, and at the close of the sixteenth and the opening of the seventeenth centuries, the Bankside, Southwark, was the great centre of thea trical London. In the petition of John Taylor " the Water Poet," to James the First (1615) for the sup pression of all theatres on the Middlesex side of the Thames, he states that such was the number of watermen who plied for hire between Windsor and Gravesend, half of whom had been called into exis tence by the Southwark theatres and other places of amusement, which visitors always approached by the Thames, that he estimates that, with those dependent upon the bread-winners, some 40,000 persons will be deprived of a living if theatres are allowed to be erected within four miles of the city. The most popular place of amusement, however, on Bankside, was not a theatre but the Paris Garden, afterwards better known as the Bear Garden.* About 1585, in order to vary the brutal amusements * The Bear Garden survived even the Puritan rule, and continued to flourish until the early decades of the eighteenth century, when it was superseded iu popular favour by the notorious Hockley-in-the- Hole, in Smithfield. THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 7 of bull-baiting and cock-fighting, a theatre, which was called the Hope, was opened here ; it was little more than a wooden frame set on tressles and wheels, so that it could be pushed aside to make room for the sports. The dramatic fare provided at the Hope doubtless consisted only of Jigs,* and those short pieces called " Interludes," that somewhat resembled the farces of the last century, and were first intro duced by John Heywood, in the reign of Henry VII. In 1592 another theatre was built within the pre cincts of the Garden, and christened the Eose. Now, between Edward Alleyn, f master of the Bear Garden and proprietor of the Hope, and James Bur bage there seems to have been a strong rivalry, and it was to oppose Alleyn that the manager of the Theatre transported the materials of the building to Bankside, and there erected the Globe. Alleyn took up the challenge by raising a third theatre in Paris Garden, or in the immediate neighbourhood, and this was known as the Swan. The Globe, which was close by, was opened m 1597, just in the lusty spring of the Elizabethan drama. Marlowe, Greene and Peele had done their work and passed away ; Shake speare had written his earlier plays, and Ben Jonson Every Man in His Humour ; ere the century closed * A Jig was made up of » number of satirical verses recited or sung by the clown to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor, to which he danced. t Edward Alleyn was afterwards the great actor of the Fortune Theatre, Philip Henslowe's son-in-law, and the founder of Dulwich College. 8 THE LONDON STAGE. Chapman, Thomas Heywood, and several minor lights, had begun to wield their pens ; and within the next ten years our glorious dramatic literature had attained its meridian. During the twenty-two years that had elapsed since the wooden walls of the Theatre were raised in Holywell Lane, theatrical amusements had made giant strides. A German traveller * who visited England m 1598 gives us the following curious description of the theatres of that period, and of Paris Garden : — " Within the city are some theatres where English actors represent almost every day tragedies and comedies to very numerous audiences ; these are combined with excellent music and variety of dances. There is still another place built in the form of a theatre, which serves for the baiting of bulls and bears, that are fastened behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs, but not without great risk to the dogs, from the horns of the one and the teeth of the other ; and it sometimes happens they are killed upon the spot ; fresh ones are immediately supplied in the place of those that are wounded or tired. To this entertainment, there often follows that of whipping a blinded bear, which is performed by five or six men, standing circularly with whips, which they exercise upon him without any mercy, as he cannot escape from them on account of his chain ; he defends himself with all his force and skill, throwing down all who come * Paul Hentznerus's Journey into England in 1598, translated by Horace Walpole. THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 9 within his reach, and are not active enough to get out of it, and tearing the whips out of their hands and breaking them. At these spectacles, and every where else, the English are constantly smoking tobacco, and in this manner they have pipes on purpose made of clay, into the further end of which they put the herb, so dry that it may be rubbed into powder, and putting fire to it, they draw the smoke into their mouths, which they puff out through their nostrils, like funnels, along with it plenty of phlegm and defluxion from the head. In these theatres fruits, such as apples, pears, and nuts, according to the season, are carried about to be sold, as well as ale and wine." * The Globe was a round, or rather a hexagonal * A paragraph in the Times, iu May 1888, contains an account of a very important discovery by Dr. Gadertz, of the Royal Library, Berlin, iu connection with the Elizabethan theatres, which would seem to put an entirely new aspect upon them. The date of the papers containing the discovery alluded to is 1596, aud they especially relate to the Swan Theatre. John De Witt, the learned canon of St. Mary's Church, Utrecht, visited London in the above year, and wrote his impressions of the various sights he saw. Among other places he mentions are " four large and splendid play-houses " ; The Theatre and the Curtain towards the north, and the Rose and tho Swan in the south. He describes each as being oval in form, a beautiful structure, not of wood, but built or faced with flint and marble, and of considerable size, the boxes and galleries containing 8,000 seats. There is a sketch of the Swan, showing the audience, the actors on the stage, the lord's room, the doors and the tiring room at the back. I have not had an opportunity of consulting Dr. Gadertz's book ; but if these documents be genuine, they certainly give us a far more exalted idea of the resources and architectural pretensions of these early English theatres than has ever before been entertained, and contradict all previous authorities. 10 THB LONDON STAGE. buUding, and had for its sign* Atlas supporting the world, and underneath was written Totus mun dus agit histrionem, which motto, as As You Like It was first produced at this house, probably suggested the famous speech commencing " All the world 's a stage." In 1618, just after Shakespeare had retired, during the performance of a play on the subject of Henry VIIL, entitled, AU is true,f the wadding of one of the cannons used for firing salutes lodged in the thatch of the roof, and in two hours the house was a mass of smouldering ruins. The theatre was immediately rebuilt at a cost of £1,400. In a contemporary letter we read : "I hear much speech about this new play-house, which is said to be the fairest that ever was in England." The Globe, after the suppression of all places of amusement by the Puritans, was puUed down on the 15th of April 1644 ; thirty-two years afterwards Eichard Baxter was preaching in the wooden meeting house raised upon the site, which is now covered by Barclay and Perkins brewery. A house that stood very nearly upon the site of the Elephant and Castle Theatre, called " The New ington," of which little is known except that this also was the property of Edward Alleyn and Philip * Not only did every trade and profession in those days mount a sign at its door, but even the theatres adopted the same fashion. t It is doubtful whether this was Shakespeare's Henry the Eighth. THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 11 Henslowe, completes the list of the Southwark play houses. Of all the Ehzabethan theatres the Globe and the Blackfriars are the most supremely interesting, on account of Shakespeare's close association with them as author, actor, and manager, and from the fact that all his dramatic works were first produced upon those stages. During the last few years documents have been brought to light that afford new and very important information regarding the history of the famous house, the site of which is now covered by the office of the Times and Playhouse Yard ; information that com pletely refutes Mr. Payne CoUier's dates. Within the precincts of the Blackfriars at the time of the Eeforma tion stood a church dedicated to St. Ann, which, at the dissolution of the monastery under Henry VIIL, was seized upon by Sir Thomas Cawardine and con verted into a store-house for the properties used in the Court entertainments, and a place where the children employed in these spectacles might be rehearsed. In the next reign two tennis courts were opened here, but were soon afterwards suppressed on account of the disorderly conduct of the frequenters. When Elizabeth came to the throne the place seems again to have reverted to theatrical purposes. It was some time in 1596 that James Burbage obtained a lease of the premises from Sir Thomas's executor. Sir William More, and set about converting them into a theatre. The first tenants of the new play-house were 12 THE LONDON STAGE. the Children of the Chapel, afterwards styled the Children of His Majesty's Eevels.* Papers relating to a Chancery suit recently dis covered in the Eecord Office, and alluded to in the Aihenceum for March 3rd, 1888, throw much new light upon the early history of the Blackfriars Theatre. The suit was brought against Eichard Burbage, John Heminges and others, in respect of the lease of this house, which the said Burbage, by deed dated 2nd September, 42 of Elizabeth (1600), demised to Henry Evans, " who intended then presently to erect and sett upp a companye of boys ... or others, to playe playes and interludes in the saide playhouse iu such sort before tyme had been there vsued." By reason of the plague in anno 1, James I., Evans " grewe wearye " of the play-house and desired to give up his interest in it. He surrendered the lease * These celebrated juvenile performers, as well as others called the Children of the Queen's Chapel, the Children of St. Paul's, were then attached to cathedrals and collegiate churches, and by au edict of Elizabeth (1585) were compulsorily trained for masques and other dramatic representations. Many of the plays of our greatest drama tists were originally represented by these youngsters, notably Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, The Poetaster, most of John Lyly's, several of Chapman's, Dekker's, Marston's, Middleton's, &c. &o. Their great popularity excited the jealousy of the adult actors ; references to them abound in the Elizabethan drama, and everyone will remember the passage in Hamlet : " There is, sir, au aiery of children, little eyasses who cry out on the top of the question, and are most tyrannically clapped for 't : these are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages (so they call them), that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goose quills and dare scarce come hither." These juvenile companies, however, were good training schools, and gave many fine actors to the stage. THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. IB in August, anno 6, following. The complainant, in his replication, states that "during such time as the saide defendantes Heminges and Burbage and their companye contynewed playes and interludes in the said great hall in ffryers . . . they gott, and as yet dothe, more in one winter in the said greate Hall by a thousand powndes than they were vsed to gett in the Banckside." The use of the word " Hall " is very suggestive as to the original form of the building. And very curious is another passage, which goes, on to state that Evans, in the 43 of Elizabeth, "was cen sured by the Eight Honrable Courte of Starr Chamber for his vnorderlie carriage and behauior in takinge vp of gentlemens childeren against their wills and to ymploy them for playes." We likewise learn that the buUding was leased to this Henry Evans for forty pounds a year. The documents are given in full in the Aihenceum for April 7th and 21st, 1888, and,. besides the interesting side-lights they throw upon the history of the theatre, seem fully to establish the fact that it was in 1600 that Shakespeare and his. colleagues, Eichard Burbage, Lowin, Condell, Armin,. succeeded the chUdren of the Heminges and King's Eevels Company as actors at the Blackfriars. When Burbage's company first appeared at the Globe it was- known as the Lord Chamberlain's, but in the year 1603* James allowed them to take the title of the * In the earlier days of the drama each company of actors was attached to some nobleman's household, and was known as his " ser vants." After the building of regular theatres, however, these 14 THE LONDON STAGE. King's Servants. They were enrolled in the Eoyal household, and each man was allowed four yards of " bastard scarlet," and a quarter of a yard of velvet for a cape. In an ancient letter, dated 1591, a por tion of a volume of correspondence that passed between the English and Scotch Courts during the negotiations for the marriage of James with Anne of Denmark, it is stated that the king had ex pressed a great desire for the Queen's Company — Eurbage's troupe — to visit Edinburgh, they being at that time in Lancashire; and we afterwards read that they had arrived as far as Carhsle. Although we are vouchsafed no further information upon the subject, there is little doubt that the royal request was complied with, and might account for King James's favour being afterwards so particularly ex tended to this company. It is only conjecture, but :it is a feasible one. The next theatre in importance to the Blackfriars was the Fortune, so called from the image of the god dess which surmounted the principal entrance ; this house was built by Alleyn in 1599, in Golden Lane, St. Luke's. Although as an aristocratic resort it could not compare with the Blackfriars, the greatest dramatists of the day, always excepting Shakespeare, wrote for its stage, and Alleyn was an actor who ¦stood shoulder to shoulder with the great Burbage distinctions became only nominal, and were simply the titles -under which the companies were licensed, and under which they performed :at different theatres. THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 15 himself. The Fortune was destroyed by fire in 1621, but immediately rebuUt. In 1656, as it had fallen into decay under the Puritan regime, it was pulled down, and some idea may be formed of the area it occupied when it is stated that a street — now Play house Yard, was cut through it, and twenty-three tenements, with gardens, raised upon the ground. The remainder of the theatres erected before the great rebellion may be very briefly touched upon ; conspicuous among these was the Eed Bull, the site of which is now covered by Woodbridge Street, that faces one side of the Clerkenwell House of Detention. Of its date and origin nothing is known, though from the name we may conjecture that it was originally an inn yard. The earliest reference to the Eed Bull that I can find is 1599, in which year a portion of the auditorium fell, possibly one of the inn galleries, during the performance of a puppet play ; but later on, frequent allusions to this house, mostly dispa raging, are to be found in the contemporary drama tists, who refer to it much in the same strain as did the burlesque writers of our own time to the old Victoria ; from which we may gather that its plays were of the blood-and-thunder school, and that its players were the " perriwig-pated fellows, who tore a passion to rags, to very tatters," animadverted upon by Shakespeare. Another notable theatre of the period was the Cockpit, in Drury Lane ; the spot on which it stood was, until late years, marked by « squalid court; 16 THE LONDON STAGE. called Pitt Place ; it is now covered by model lodging houses. When the Cockpit was first used for thea trical purposes is not known ; the name sufficiently explains its origin, and probably after the actors had taken possession of the place, mains might have been fought as a relief to Melpomene or Thalia. Although the Cockpit was a private and therefore an aristo cratic theatre, it seems to have been closely connected with the Eed Bull, the company of which frequently performed there. On Shrove Tuesday, 1616-17, while " Queen Anne's Servants " (the Queen of James I.) were performing, the London apprentices sacked and set fire to the house. The Cockpit seems to have been in ill odour, and it is a significant fact that Shrovetide was the season when " the flat caps " con sidered it a privilege of their order to attack brothels and bagnios ; but it has also been suggested that jealousy of the privileges of a private theatre may have had something to do with the riot. The Cockpit was speedily rebuilt, and appropriately renamed the Phoenix. Towards the close of the Protectorate, the rigorous edicts against theatrical amusements were relaxed ; and in 1658, Davenant obtained permission to bring out an " Opera," called The Cruelty of ihe Spaniards, at this house. The Cockpit continued to be used for dramatic representation after the Eestora- tion, until the opening of the new theatre in Drury Lane, and was frequently patronized by the King and Court.* * See Pepys' Diary, in which the Cockpit is frequently referred to. THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 17 In theatrical annals, frequent allusion is made to a play-house called the Whitefriars ; recent researches, however, lead to the conclusion that this place was no more than the refectory ofthe old Carmelite monastery, which had almost adjoined the Temple, fitted up for occasional dramatic exhibitions. There is no authentic record of plays being represented here previous to 1610, and after being dispossessed of the Blackfriars, the Children of the Eevels would seem to have made it their head-quarters. Apprentices and mechanics frequently played here, and might have furnished Shakespeare with types of Bottom and his associates, whom they probably much resembled ; but if it were ever a regular theatre it seems to have been far inferior to its contemporaries. Salisbury Court, built in 1629, was the last theatre erected previous to the Eestoration. This occupied a portion of the site of Dorset House, now covered by Salisbury Square, Fleet Street. It was suppressed in 1644 ; fell into decay, and was rebuUt in 1660 ; its second lease of life was a brief one, as it was destroyed in the great fire of 1666. And now, having thus briefly sketched the history of the pre-Eestoration theatres, let me endeavour to possess the reader with some conception of their arrangements, their audiences, and the manner in which plays were there represented. The circular or hexagonal form seems to have been the favourite amongst the builders of the Elizabethan theatres. As the Globe was largely constructed of 2 18 THE LONDON STAGE. the materials of the Theatre, the latter was probably of that shape ; and the first Fortune Theatre was modelled exactly upon the lines of the Bankside house ; when it was rebuilt after the fire, however, according to the pictures extant, it had a flat fa(^ade. As the dimensions of the first of the Golden Lane houses have been handed down to us they will serve for the Globe as well. The stage was forty-three feet wide, and, including the tiring-room at the back, thirty-nine feet and a half deep ; although it was only thirty-two feet from floor to ceiling it had three tiers of galleries ; the cost of the erection was d£550, while that of the Globe was £600 ; but the latter was painted, and the Fortune was not. Both houses after being rebuilt were probably greatly enlarged; the word " great " is frequently used by contemporaries when referring to the Globe. There was a marked distinction made between the public and private theatres ; the latter were only three in number, the Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and Salisbury Court, and the performances given in them seem to have been in lieu of those which formerly took place in the great mansions. They were chiefly patronized by the nobility, who rented private boxes or rooms, of which they kept the keys, and enjoyed the privilege of sitting upon the stage during the performance. At the private houses the performances were given by candle or torchlight ; whereas in the public ones, which were open only in summer, they commenced at three o'clock in the afternoon, at which hour a flag THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 19 was hoisted on the roof, and trumpets blown to announce the openmg-time. The Blackfriars was completely roofed in, and the pit was furnished with seats ; while the Globe was only partly covered, and " the groundlings " or " undertakers," as the pittites were called, had to stand. The difference between the two audiences is set forth in Shirley's prologue to The Doubtful Heir (1640), which, written for the Blackfriars, was, for some reason, produced at the Globe:— No shew, no dance, and what you most delight in. Grave undertakers, here 's no target fighting . . . No clown, no squibs, no devil in 't . . . But you that can content yourselves and sit. As you were now in the Blackfriar's pit. But will not deafen us with loud noise and tongues. Because we have no heart to break our lungs, Will pardon our vast stage, and not disgrace The play meant for your persons, not your place. The private theatres, according to the Historia Histrionica of Wright, were very small, and, " all these were built almost exactly alike for form and bigness." The public theatres were the resort of the commonality, who formed a noisy and unruly audience, romping, smoking, nut-cracking, drinking, playing at cards. The prices of admission to the two classes of theatres ranged from twopence to half-a-crown ; but a shilling seems to have been ordinarily the highest price charged in Shakespeare's time to any part of the house. Ben Jonson calls the stools upon the stage twelvepenny seats. 2 * 20 THE LONDON STAGE. A further testimony to those already quoted regarding the superiority of the English theatres is to be found in that curious book of travels, during the year 1608, called Coryat's Crudities. During his stay in Venice the author writes : " I was at one of their playhouses, where I saw a comedy acted. The house is very beggarly and bare in comparison with our stately playhouses in England, neither can their acting compare with ours for apparell, shews, and musick. Here I observed certain things that I never saw before, for I saw women act, a thing I never saw before, though I have heard that it hath been sometimes used in London,* and they performed it with as good grace, action, gesture, and whatso ever convenient for a play as ever I saw a masculine actor." Each company had its own dramatists, who wrote plays for its exclusive use ; the Blackfriars and the Globe had incomparably the finest repertory ; Shake speare wrote only for those, and most of the master pieces of Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Webster, Ford, Massinger, Middleton, Chapman, Cyril Torneur, Shirley, &c. were there produced. After the two houses just named, the best plays were given at the Fortune, for which all the dramatists of the time wrote, except Shakespeare. ¦* The italics are my own ; as the first English actress is generally- supposed not to have appeared until after the Restoration, the suggestion in the text is curious, but no confirmation of it has been discovered. THB ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 21 And what of the actors who interpreted these marvellous dramas ? To judge from contemporary opinion, they were worthy of the verses set down for them. The Elizabethan dramatists wrote for the day, without a thought of posterity, for the stage not for the closet, and therefore it is highly improbable that Shakespeare and his associates would have given to the stage such gigantic con ceptions as Macbeth, Lear, Hamlet, Volpone, Arbaces, Vittoria Corombona, Deflores, Vindice, and scores of others, unless the actors were capable of embodying them. And how thoroughly the art of acting was understood by these writers is proved by Hamlet's speech to the players, which has been, and will be to all time, the text-book of the profession, and so perfect a one that succeeding generations never have, nor ever will be able to add one word to it. Therefore, as a natural corollary to these arguments, we must believe that the greatest of all dramatic ages was the greatest of all histrionic. Upon the acting of Eichard Burbage and Edward Alleyn, the first interpreters of some of the greatest of the poets' creations, the most glowing eulogies have descended -to posterity ; indeed, all the principal actors of the -time are highly praised in contemporary literature. And it would be strange indeed if those glorious dramas, hot from the imagination of the writers, had not inspired a kindred genius in the souls of the players, so many of whom were dramatists them selves, imparting to their interpretations a power. 22 THE LONDON STAGE. a freshness, and an originality which even in the greatest of their successors could exist only as a borrowed light. Concerning their private Hfe, Wright, in the Historia Histrionica, tells us that " all the actors lived in reputation, especially those of the Black friars, who were men of grave and sober behaviour." And it is worthy of remark that in all legal docu ments in which they are mentioned, the leading actors are invariably styled " gentlemen," which is a complete refutation of the common error that a certain statute of Elizabeth dubbed the entire pro fession as rogues and vagabonds, whereas such terms applied only to wandering and unlicensed players. Indeed, such men as Burbage, Shakespeare, Alleyn, and many others, held a high social position, and were the friends and companions of the first nobUity in the days when the aristocracy were not in the habit of consorting with their inferiors. From their proximity to the city, the Blackfriars actors were particularly exposed to the attacks of the Puritans, who generally affected that neighbourhood ; these were continually petitioning the King to suppress the theatre on account of the great injury done to their business by the vast concourse of vehicles, and the crowds of people that flocked to the house. How large the audiences must have been may be judged from the fact that the average daily takings at the Blackfriars ranged from j£20 to £30. The current expenses for rent, lighting, and the salaries THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 23 of the inferior actors amounted to forty-five shillings, and the residue was divided among the principals, so that, considering the value of money in those days, it is not surprising that most of the share holders died wealthy. What little we know of the arrangements of the Elizabethan stage is chiefly derived from the plays, and, unfortunately, these leave us in great doubt as to the adjuncts and what we should now call " mount ing." Certain entries in Henslowe's Diary prove that the pieces were dressed with a magnificence that would perhaps even favourably compare with the productions of the present day. We read in that curious account book that £21 was paid for two two- pile velvet cloaks at 20s. and 5d. a yard, and for satin and taffeta at 12s. and 12s. 6d. a yard ; in another place it is stated that £19 was given for a cloak; £6 13s. for Mrs. Frankford's gown* in A 'Woman Killed with Kindness. Now as money was then worth at least five times its present value these sums must be multiplied by that number. And these splendid costumes were for the Fortune, a public and an inferior theatre. The Blackfriars was celebrated for its fine or chestra; yet so far from this being an expense to the managers, the musicians appear to have paid them an annual stipend for the privilege of playing there : probably because it brought them before the notice of the aristocratic patrons. * More than poor Thomas Heywood received for writing the play. 24 THE LONDON STAGE. We now come to the vexed and oft-discussed ques tion, whether scenery of any kind was used to Ulustrate the Elizabethan drama. In the Historia Histrionica, which was published in 1699, it is dis- tmctly stated that scenes were first introduced upon the public stage by Sur WUUam Davenant at the Duke's old theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. This was in 1662, and the play, or rather opera, referred to was The Siege of Rhodes. Downes, the prompter, con firms this in his History of the Stage. Writing of this play he says, " having new scenes and decora tions, being the first that were ever introduced into England." Downes, however, is not a trustworthy authority. Davenant's own words in the preface to the play are curious and scarcely understandable. " It has been often wished that our scenes (we having obliged ourselves to the variety of five changes, according to the ancient dramatic distinction made for time) had not been confined to about eleven feet the height and fifteen in depth, including the place of passage reserved for the music." We may gather from this that the scenes used in The Siege of Rhodes were little more than screens. It should be noted that in the passage quoted from Historia Histrionica, the words " public stage " are used ; and as just pre viously the author has been discussing the difference between the public and the private theatres, the word is at least suggestive. When Downes tells us that the scenes used in the Siege of Rhodes were the first ever introduced into England, he puts himself out of THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 25 court, since we know that Ben Jonson's and Shirley's Masques were illustrated by scenic effects, devised by Inigo Jones, that would tax the powers even of a modern artist.* Pages might be filled with quotations from the works of these dramatists in proof of the above as sertion, but I must content myself with an extract from the stage directions in Shirley's Masque of Peace, performed before King Charles at Whitehall, m 1633, at the extraordinary cost of £20,000. The first scene represented a street with sumptuous palaces, lodges, porticoes, trees, and grounds ; beyond, in a spacious plain, was the forum of Peace, " and over all was a clear sky with transparent clouds, which enlightened all the scene." This changed to a woody landscape with bushes and byeways. Then, " there appeared in the foremost part of the heavens little by little, to break forth a whitish cloud, bearing a golden chariot, in which sat Peace ; in another cloud, in a silver chariot, sat Law ; and from a third descended Justice." Passing over several other trans formations we come to the last scene. The stage represented a plain, above which was a dark sky with dusky clouds, through these the new moon appeared, but with the faint light of approaching morning ; from a certain part of the ground arose, little by little, a great vapour, which, when it came * It is said, but I cannot give the authority, that scenes were used in Sir John Suckling's Aglaura, produced at the Blackfriars in 1629, ^t a cost of three or four hundred pounds. 26 THE LONDON STAGE. to the middle of the scene began to fall downwards to the earth ; and out of this rose another cloud, of a strange shape and colour, in which sat a young maid, with a dim torch in her hand, costumed in dark blue, sprinkled with silver spangles, and with white buskins trimmed with gold upon her legs, to represent the dawn, &c. Here we have scenic effects. that Mr. Irving or Mr. Harris might be proud of. That the stage arrangements of the public theatres- were of a very plain description we may very well believe, but that no attempt was made to introduce scenic effects into the private houses, and above all into the Blackfriars, seems incredible ; more especially when we find that such accessories were freely used in the old Mysteries and Moralities, at least as far back as Henry the Seventh's time. Among the entries in some manuscript accounts of the City and Corporation of Canterbury is the following, for a play called The Three Kings of Colyn, produced on Twelfth Night, 1501-2, at the Guildhall : " A castle made of painted canvas was erected in the room by way of scenery." The Elizabethan drama abounds in stage directions, which, if every kind of scenic effect was unknown, are perfectly meaningless. Even in so early a play as Lodge and Green's A Looking Glass for London, we read, " the magi beat the ground with their rods, and from under the same rises a brave arbour." There are several similar directions in this play. In a series of dramas upon the Four Ages of the world, written by Thomas Heywood for the Eed THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 27 Bull, numerous scenic effects are mentioned. In The Brazen Age, Jupiter strikes Hercules with a thunder bolt ; his body sinks, and from the heavens descends a hand in a cloud, that, from the place where Hercules was burnt, brings up a star and fixes it in the firma ment. In Shakespeare's Cymbeline (first folio), we read that Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning sitting upon an eagle, throwing a thunderbolt ; Eomeo, when forcing the tomb of all the Capulets, could not have used his crowbar against a curtain ; and some kind of scenery must have been employed in Macbeth, King Lear, and the historical plays, in which numerous stage directions occur. Even realism was not unknown among the Elizabethans, for when Macbeth was played at the Globe, the Thane of Cawdor and Banquo made their first entrance upon horseback. The stage directions to the second act of Jonson's Bartholemew FairSLve, "a number of booths, stalls, etc., are set out " ; and in Middleton's Roaring Girl there is a scene in which three different shops are represented, with people sewing therein and carrying on a cross dialogue, quite in the modern style. There is a passage in the Induction to Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels that is very suggestive. " Slid, the boy, takes me for a piece of perspective, I hold my life, or some sUk curtain* come to hang the stage here. I am none of your fresh pictures, * As a proof of the handsome manner in which the theatres were appointed, it may be stated that even the company of the Red Bull boasted of their curtain of Naples silk. ¦28 THE LONDON STAGE. that use to beautify the decayed dead arras of a public theatre." The word perspective here evidently means a painting of some kind. There is scarcely a play, among the many hundreds written at this period, from which similar circumstantial evidence could not be drawn. Many of the stage situations, however, such as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, the death of Arthur in King John, could have been carried out by means of a platform about ten feet high, that, supported by pillars, was raised at the back of the stage ; curtains were hung in front of this erection, and only drawn when it was required. Sir Philip Sidney's description of the stage of his •day* has been frequently quoted to prove that scenery was not used in the Elizabethan theatres ; but the author of Arcadia died in the very infancy of the -drama, 1586 — years before the Blackfriars was founded, or Shakespeare began to write. Thus his testimony goes for little or nothing. The exact resources which the Ehzabethan ¦dramatists had at their command, however, is a point that is never likely to be satisfactorily cleared up. And now, setting aside theory and conjecture, let me endeavour to conjure up a picture of a play-day * " Now you shall see these ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be a garden. By-and-by we hear news ¦of a shipwreck in the same place, and then we are to blame if we accept it not for a rook. Upon the back of that comes out a hideous monster, with fire and smoke, and then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave ; while in the meantime two armies fly in, represented by four swords and bucklers," &c. THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 29 at the Blackfriars ; but as no representation of this theatre is known to be in existence, the presentment, gathered from hints and passages scattered through out a hundred plays, must necessarily be a very imperfect one. To eyes accustomed to the glare of our modern artificial illuminants, the interior lit up by candles would appear plunged in semi-darkness ; a silken curtain which runs upon an iron rod and opens in the middle at present conceals the stage, so we will begin by looking round at the auditorium. On three sides are tiers of galleries, well filled with splendidly dressed ladies and gentlemen, and beneath these are small rooms or boxes. The prices to the former have varied at different times from sixpence to a shilling ; and to the latter, from a shilling to two, or two-and- sixpence. In a small balcony on one side the stage is ranged the orchestra, who play before the piece and between the acts, as in a modern theatre. Were we in the Globe the noise from the groundlings would be deafening. There the audience indulge in nut-cracking, apple-eating, ale-drinking, card-playing, romping, flirting, and rioting indescribable ; * but here all is quiet and decorous. And now at a triple flourish of trumpets the curtains open and disclose the stage. As a tragedy is to be represented it is hung with black.f and, like the halls of the nobles, the boards are strewn * Some very amusing satire upon the audiences of this time is to be found in Beaumont's Knight of the Burning Pestle. t " Hung be the heavens with black." — First part of Henry VI.,. Sc. 2, Act 1. 20 THE LONDON STAGE. with rushes ; the curtain at the back is still closed, and the walls at the sides are hidden by faded arras. Although the actors have not yet appeared, the stage is half-filled with ladies and gallants, seated upon three-legged stools, some of the gentlemen lying at their ladies' feet with their heads in their laps, and fanning themselves, as we see Hamlet in the play rscene. And here we have the jeunesse doree of Eliza beth's Court, the Mercutios, the Tybalts, the Benedicts, the Don Pedros, and the Eomeos ; the Beatrices, the Katherines, the Olivias, but not, I fear, the Desde- monas and Ophelias — their gorgeous costumes making :a splendid contrast to the sombre back-ground, with the sheen of satin and velvet and the glitter of precious stones. It is a picture gallery ; the gentlemen with the close-cropped hair, the enormous ruffs, the huge trunk hose, the feet half-concealed by the splendid roses in the shoes, which cost " four score pounds a pair " ; the ladies in their pearled stomachers, and huge farthingales stiff with gold and silver and pearl ¦embroidery ; we have seen it all in old portraits. At ihe back of each cavalier stands a page, a veritable Moth, whose duty it is to keep his master's pipe supplied with tobacco from " the fine lily pots," that, upon being opened, smell like conserve of roses, while between a pair of silver tongs he holds a glowing coal of juniper wood to ignite the Virginian weed, which is " drunk," as the phrase goes, from bowls of silver or clay of many curious shapes, so that the atmosphere resembles that of a modern music-hall. The actors THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. 31 are dressed in the costume of the period, many of the nobility being in the habit of sending them their cast-off suits. Comments are passed freely upon the play and the players ; those of least judgment being, as usual, loudest in condemnation. Would I could picture Burbage as Hamlet and Shakespeare as the Ghost ; but that is beyond the power of imagination — mine, at least — and so let this poor dim attempt at a presentment of the Elizabethan stage fade away. No other English theatre has ever held so exalted a position, both from a dramatic and histrionic point of view, as that occupied by the Blackfriars from 1609 until its suppression under the Commonwealth. Inde pendent of the vulgar, it had never to descend to those wretched expedients to attract the mob which, for nearly two hundred years, have, at different times, shamed every London stage, while it gave to the world a dramatic literature that, in its grandeur and abundance, has no parallel. The Comedie Frangaise is the only other theatre in the world of which, perhaps, so much can be said. ,^^i=>:^jC$XD/=3^-^ 32 THE LONDON STAGE. CHAPTEE II. The Theatres of the Ebsxoration. The Stage under the Commonwealth, — The Red Bull, — Cockpit. — Vere Street Theatre.— The First English Actress. — The Duke's Theatre. — Lincoln's Inn Fields. — Dorset Gardens. — Audiences. — Actors. — Drama of the Time, Very curious and interesting are the records which have come down to us of the interregnum, as it may be caUed, that period which intervened between the final suppression of the theatres in 1647,* and their reopening at the Eestoration. By the second edict all actors were threatened with imprisonment, and soon afterwards followed a third which declared all players to be rogues and vagabonds, and authorized the justices to demolish all galleries and seats ; it also enacted that any player discovered in the exercise of his vocation should be whipped for the first offence, and for the second declared an incorrigible rogue and vagabond, and every person found witnessing the • An ordinance had been issued, September 6, 1642, but this seems to have been evaded in numerous instances. THB THEATRES OP THB RESTORATION. 33 performance of a stage play should be fined five shillings. What followed wiU best be told in the words of original authorities. My first quotation is from that very notable little book or pamphlet entitled "Historia Histrionica : an historical account of the English Stage," &c., supposed to have been written by James Wright of New Inn, and published 1699, to which I have referred several times in the last chapter. The text is in the form of a dialogue between Lovewit and Trueman, which, after dwelling upon the actors and theatres of Elizabeth, James, and Charles the First's time, thus proceeds : " Lovezvit. — But prythee, Trueman, what became of those players when the stage was put down, and the rebellion raised ? " Trueman. — Most of them, except Lowin, Taylor, and Pollard (who were superannuated), went into the King's army, and, like good men and true, served their old master, though in a different yet more honourable capacity. Eobinson* was kiUed at the taking of a place (I think Basing House) by Harrison, he that was after hanged at Charing Cross, who refused him quarter, and shot him in the head when he had lain down his arms, abusing scripture at the same time by saying : Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently. * Lowin was a famous Falstaff, and the original Volpone, Bosola, Sir Epicure Mammon; Taylor was Burbage's successor in tragedy ; Robinson is mentioned in the first folio as one of the original actors iu Shakespeare's plays. I. 3 34 THE LONDON STAGE. Mohun was a captain, and (after the wars were ended here) served in Flanders, where he received pay as a major. Hart was a lieutenant of horse under Sir Thomas Dallison, in Prince Eupert's regiments ; Burt was cornet in the same troop, and Shatterel quarter master ; Allen of the Cockpit was a major, and quartermaster-general at Oxford. I have not heard of one of these players of any note that sided with the other party, but only Swanston ; and he professed himself a Presbyterian, took up the trade of a jeweller, and lived in Aldermanbury, within the territory of Father Calamy. The rest either lost or exposed their lives for then- king. When the wars were over, and the Eoyalists totally subdued, most of 'em who were left alive gathered to London, and for a subsistence endeavoured to revive their old trade mivately. They made up one company out of all the scattered mem bers of several, and in the winter before the King's murder, 1648, they ventured to act some plays, with as much caution and privacy as could be, at the Cock pit. They continued undisturbed for three or four days ; but, at last, as they were presenting the tragedy of the Bloody Brother (in which Lowin acted Aubery ; Taylor, EoUo ; Pollard, the Cook ; Burt, Latorch ; and I think, Hart, Otto), a party of foot soldiers beset the house, surprised them about the middle of the play, and carried 'em away in their habits, not admitting them to shift, to Hatton House, then a prison, where, having detained them some time, they plundered them of their clothes, and let 'em loose again. Afterwards, THB THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. 35 in Oliver's time, they used to act privately, three or four miles or more out of town, now here, now there ; sometimes in noblemen's houses, in particular Holland House at Kensington, where the nobility and gentry who met (but in no great numbers), used to make a sum for them, each giving a broad piece, or the like. And Alexander Goffe, the woman actor at Blackfriars (who had made himself known to persons of quality) , used to be the Jackal, and give notice of time and place. At Christmas and Bartholomew fair, they used to bribe the officer who commanded the guard at Whitehall, and were thereupon connived at to act for a few days at the Eed Bull, but were sometimes, notwithstanding, disturbed by soldiers." According to Kirkman, the dramatist, in his pre face to The Wits ; or, Sport upon Sport (1673), puppet plays upon scriptural, classical, and rustic subjects were given at the Eed Bull during this interregnum by Mr. Eobert Cox, and attracted crowded houses, that being the only kind of theatrical entertainment allowed by the Government. In 1643 was published a pamphlet with the fol lowing lengthy title : " The Actor's Eemonstrance or Complaint for the Silencing of their Profession, and Banishment from their several Playhouses, in which is fully set down their grievances from their Eestraint, especially since Stage Players only are prohibited : the exercise of the Bear's College (Bear Garden), and the motions of Puppets being still in force and vigour." 3 * 36 THE LONDON STAGE. This is one of the most curious theatrical pamphlets extant, abounding as it does in allusions to the manners and customs of the theatres of the preceding generation. The appeal is addressed to Phoebus and the Muses. " Oppressed [the petitioners begin] with many cala mities, and languishing to death under the burthen of a long and (for ought we know) everlasting restraint, wee, the comedians, tragedians, and actors, of all sorts and sizes, belonging to the famous private and publike houses within the City of London, and the suburbs thereof, in all humility present this our lamentable complaint. "First, it is not unknowne to all the audiences that have frequented the private houses of Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and Salisbury Court, that wee have purged our stages from all obscene and scurrilous jests, such as might either be guilty of corrupting the manners, or defaming the persons of any men of note in the city or kingdom ; that wee have endeavoured, as much as in us lies, to instruct one another in the true and genuine art of acting, to repress bawling and ranting, formerly in great request, and for to suit our language and action to the more gentle and natural garb of the times. Yet are wee, by authority, restrained from the practice of our profession, and left to live upon our shifts, or the expense of our former gettings, to the great impoverishment and utter undoings of ourselves, wives, children, and de pendants. Besides, which is, of all others, our THE THEATRES OP THE RESTORATION. 37 greatest grievance, that playes being put down, under the name of publike recreation, other recreations of farre more harmfull consequence are permitted still to stand, viz., that nurse of barbarism and beastli- nesse, the Bear Garden, where, upon their usuall dayes, those demi-monsters are baited by ban dogs ; the gentlemen of Stave and Taile, namely, cutting cobblers, hard-handed masons, and the like rioting companions, resorting thither with as much freedome as formerly, making with their sweat and crowding, a farre worse stink than the ill-formed beastes they persecute with their dogs and whips ; pickpockets, which in an age are not heard of in any of our houses, repairing there, with other disturbers of the publike peace, which dare not be seen in our civill and well-goverened theatres, where none used to come but the best nobility and gentry. And though some have taxed our houses unjustly, for being the recep tacles of harlots, the exchange where they meet and make their bargains with their frank chapmen of the country and city, yet we may justly excuse ourselves of either knowledge or consent in these lend practices, we having no prophet-like soules to know women's honesty by instinct, nor commission to examine them ; and if we had, worthy were those wretches of Bride well that oute of their own mouths would convict themselves of lasciviousnesse. " Puppet Plays, which are not so valuable as the very musique between each act at ours, are still kept up with uncontrolled allowance; witness the famous '%8 THE LONDON STAGE. motion of Bel and the Dragon, so frequently visited at Holborne Bridge theese passed Christmasse holidays, whither citizens of all parts repaire, with farre more detriment to themselves than ever did the playes, comedies, and tradgedies being the lively representa tion of men's actions, in which vice is always sharply glanced at and punished, vertue rewarded and en couraged, and the most exact and naturall eloquence of our English language expressed and duly ampli fied, and yet for all this do we suffer in various ways. . . . " Onr. fooles, who had wont to excite laughter with their countenances at their first appearance on the stage (hard shifts are better than none) are enforced, some of them at least, to maintain themselves by virtue of their baubles. Our boi/es, ere we shall have libertie to act againe, will be grown out of use like crackt organ pipes, and have faces as old as our flags. Nay, our verie doore keepers, men and women, most grievously complain that by this cessation they are robbed of the privilege of stealing from us with licence ; they cannot now seem to scratch their heads where they itch not, and drop shillmgs and half-crown pieces in at their collars. Our musique, that was held so delectable and precious, that they scorned to go to a tavern under twentie shillings salary for two hours, now wander with their instruments under their cloaks, I meane such as have any, into all houses of good fellowship, saluting every roome where there is com pany, with. Will you have any musique, gentlemen? THE THEATRES OP THB RESTORATION. 39 For our tire-men and others that belonged formerly to our wardrobe, with the rest they are out of service, our stock of cloathes, such as are not in tribulation for the generail use, being a sacrifice to moths. . . . " The tobacco-men that used to walk up and down selling for a penny a pipe that which was not worth .twelvepence a horseload, are now found tapsters in inns and tipling houses. Nay, such a terrible dis tresse and dissolution hath befallen us, that it hath quite unmade our hopes of future recoverie. For some of our ablest ordinarie poets, instead of their annuall stipends and beneficiall second daies, being, for meere necessitie, compelled to get a living by writing contemptible penny pamphlets, and feigning miracu lous stories and unheard of battels. Nay, it is to be feared that shortly some of them will be incited to write ballads." The petitioners conclude : In consequence of theese evils, by invoking the power full intercession of Phoebus, that they may be reinstated in their former homes and calling, and promise, in return, to admit none but reputable females into their sixpenny rooms, or boxes, to permit nothing but the best tobacco to be sold in the theatre, to avoid ribaldry, and, generally, so to demean themselves, that they shall no longer be deemed ungodly. Mention has already been made of the first dawn of the revival — the performance of Sir Wilham Davenant's Cruelty of the Spaniards at the Cockpit in 1656, which indicates that even under the reign of 40 THE LONDON STAGE. the Saints the rigours of fanaticism were beginning to relax.""' As soon as Monk at the head of his army declared for the King, the actors that had survived the hard times crept out of their hiding-places, and were col lected together by Ehodes, formerly prompter at the Blackfriars, under whom they performed at the Eed Bull. Ehodes afterwards played at the Cockpit and at Salisbury Court ; but ere this the best of his actors had gone over to Killigrew, and it was probably the rem nant of the old " book-keeper's " troupe that Pepys alludes to in the following passage, which is the last notice to be found of the St. John's Street Theatre. "March 23rd, 1661.— To the Eed Bull (where I had not been since plays came up again) , up to the tiring rooms, where strange the confusion and disorder that is among them in fitting themselves, especially here where the clothes are very poor, and actors but common fellows. At last, into the pit where I think there was not above ten more than myself, and not one hundred in the whole house. And the play, which is called All 's Lost by Lust, poorly done, and with so much disorder ; among others, in the music room, the boy who was to sing a song not singing it right, his master fell about his ears, and beat him so that the whole house was in an uproar." But it is time to turn to the two famous companies * It has been alleged that the reason of this relaxation was Cromwell's hatred of the Spaniards, and that to place that nation in an odious light he would even condone a stage-play. THE THEATRES OF THE EESTORATION. 41 upon which royalty conferred the monopoly of theatrical entertainments in London. " King Charles II., at his Eestoration," says CoUey Cibber, in that finest of all theatrical memoirs, the Apology, " granted two patents, one to Sir William Davenant, and the other to Henry Killigrew, Esq., and their several heirs and assigns, for ever, for the forming of two distinct companies of comedians ; the first were called the King's Servants, and acted at the Theatre Eoyal in Drury Lane ; and the other, the Duke's Company, who acted in the Duke's Theatre in Dorset Gardens." * The first place in which Killigrew's company per formed seems to have been the Tennis Court in Vere * Besides these theatres there was one in Barbican, also established by letters patent, 16G2, called the Nursery for training boys and girls for the stage, somewhat after the style of the Children of the Revels in the time of Elizabeth and James ; all obscene, scandalous, or ¦offensive passages were to be omitted from the plays presented there. The Nursery is referred to by Oldham, and iu the Rehearsal ; Pepys also mentions paying two visits there. February 24th, 1667-8 : — " To the Nursery, where none of us ever were before, where the house is better and the musique better than we looked for, and the acting not much worse, because I expected as bad as could be; aud I was not much toistaken, for it was so." The most pointed reference, however, to the Nursery is to be found in Dryden's Mac. Flecknoe (1682). Near these a Nursery erects its head, Where queens are formed, and future heroes bred, Where unfledged actors learn to laugh and cry, Where infant punks their tender voices try. And little Maximins the gods defy ; Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear ; But gentle Simkin just reception finds Amidst this monument of vanished minds. 42 THE LONDON STAGE. Street, Clare Market, which Wright calls " a new- built play-house " ; it was opened November 8th, 1660 ; and here, according to the received tradition, which is borne out by a prologue to be found in Malone's History of the Stage, on December Sth, in that same year, 1660, the first English actress appeared upon the London stage in the character of Desdemona. The name of the lady is unknown ; it might have been Ann or Becky Marshall, so frequently mentioned by Pepys, but we can only conjecture. It was not until April 1662 that females performed in Davenant's company,* and of these Mrs. Saunder- son,t afterwards Mrs. Betterton, Pepys' lanthe, was probably the first. A company of French actors, in which women were included, appeared at the Blackfriars, and afterwards at the Eed Bull, and the Fortune, in 1629 ; but great hostility was manifested against them. During the next thirty years, however, a marvellous change took place in public opinion, for in Davenant's patent it is stated : " Whereas the women's parts in ¦* In an article upon this subject in The Drama, or Theatrical Magazine, 1823, it is stated that "in 1656, Mrs. Coleman, the wife of Mr. Edward Coleman, represented lanthe iu the flrst part of Davenant's Siege of Rhodes, but the little she had to say was spoken iu recitative." I have not been able, however, to find a verification of this statement. In Tiie Court Beggar, played at the Cockpit in 1632, one of the characters says: "Women actors now grow in great repute." The passage, however, may have referred to the French company to be mentioned directly. t Unmarried females were always called " Mistress," Miss beiug a term of reproach in those days ; it is not until the latter part of the eighteenth century that we find actresses styled Miss in the play-bills. THE THEATRES OF THB RESTORATION. 43 plays have hitherto been acted by men, at which some have taken offence, we do give leave that for the time to come all women's parts be acted by women." Yet for several years after this was written boys and young men continued to share the heroines of tragedy and comedy with the actresses. In 1672, while the Drury Lane company, after the fire, were performing in Lincoln's Inn Fields, several plays — Philaster, The Parson's Wedding, The Maiden Queen — were acted entirely by women, and two of Dryden's coarsest prologues were written for the occasion. Pepys thus records a visit to the Vere Street Theatre : " November 20th, 1660.— Mr. Shiply and I went to the new play-house near Lincoln's Inn Fields (which was formerly Gibbon's Tennis Court) where the play of Beggar's Bush was newly begun ; and so we went in and saw, for the first time, one Moone (Mohun), who is said to be the best actor in the world ; and, indeed, it is the finest playhouse, I believe, that ever was in England." On the 3rd of January in the following year, he notes going to see Beggar's Bush a second time, "it being very well done, and here the first time that ever I saw women come upon the stage." On the 7th of the same month, however, at the same house, he saw Jonson's Silent Woman, with " Kinaston the boy " as Epicoene ; and records his impression that, in female attire, he was the prettiest woman in the whole house, and as a man " likewise did appear the handsomest man in the house." 44 THE LONDON STAGE. In the division of the actors Killigrew seems to have had the pick; few names of note occur in Davenant's list, though several of them became celebrated thereafter. Harris was an actor greatly praised by Pepys ; Smith and Sandford, who joined the company later, are highly eulogized by Cibber ; and among Davenant's actresses were three famous names, Mrs. Davenport, Mrs. Betterton, and Mary Davies, afterwards one of the Eoyal favourites, and the progenitrix of the Derwentwaters. Pepys fixes the exact date of the opening of Dave nant's new theatre in Portugal Street, LincoLa's Inn Fields, in the following entry : "July 2 (1661).— Went to Sir William Davenant's opera, this being the fourth day that it hatli begun, and the first that I have seen it. To-day was acted the first part of The Siege of Rhodes." On the 4th he goes again, but notes that " this house that used to be so thronged, now empty since opera begun." It was in the above-named piece, according to Wright and others, that movable scenery was first introduced upon the English stage ; it is very remarkable that this circumstance is not noted by Pepys. Davenant died in 1668, leaving his interest in the patent to Lady Davenant, who was assisted in the management by Harris and Betterton. The theatre in Portugal Street being found too small for stage effects. Sir William, before his death, had set about building a splendid new house in Dorset Gardens, a little to the south of old Salisbury Court, and consequently THE THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. 45 close to the river, and thither the company removed November 9th, 1672. Dorset Gardens was larger than either Lincoln's Inn Fields or Drury Lane ; it was built by subscrip tion, and the subscribers were called " Adventurers." I shall have more to say of these anon. The great feature of the Dorset Gardens was the magnificence of its scenery and appointments, or in modern par lance, "its get ups," which are referred to and satirized by Dryden in several of his prologues, where he writes of " the gaudy house with scenes," * "the gay shows with gaudy scenes." The following passage from a prologue to Tunbridge "Wells, a comedy written in 1678, animadverting upon the theatrical taste of that day, is so full of suggestion that with little alteration it might be well applied to our own : — There's not a player but is turn'd a scout ; And every scribbler sends his envoys out To fetch from Paris, Venice, or from Rome, Fantastic fopperies to please at home ; And that each act may rise to your desire. Devils and -witches must each scene inspire. Wit rolls in waves, and showers down in flre ; With what strange care a play may now be writ. When the best half 's oompos'd by painting it. And in the air or dance lies all the wit. Dorset Gardens continued to flourish until the amalgamation of the two companies t; after which it was only occasionally opened for the representation * " The gaudy house with scenes will serve for cits," would seem to point to the conclusion that Dorset Gardens was chiefly patronised by the vulgar. f See next chapter. 46 THE LONDON STAGE. of plays that required elaborate scenery and ma chinery. In 1689 we find it styled the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Gardens, in honour, of course, of Queen Mary. But gradually, under the manage ment of Christopher Eich, it fell into great degra dation, being chiefly used as an arena for acrobats and wUd beasts. In the prologue to Farquhar's Constant Couple (1700), allusion is made to a " strong man," who then had possession of it. Ah, friends ! Poor Dorset Garden house is gone, Quite lost to us ; and, for some strange misdeeds, That strong man, Samson, 's puU'd it o'er our heads. In April 1703, it was announced that as soon as the damage it had sustained "by the late storms" could be repaired, the theatre would be opened for opera ; but it does not appear that the promise was kept. The last mention of Dorset Gardens is to be found in Geneste, under the date of October 28, 1706. Concerning the actors who " strutted and fretted " upon the boards of Davenant's theatres, it will be more convenient to write in the next chapter, but before passing on to Drury Lane, I will take a brief glance at the literature of the stage, and the aspect of the theatre during the reign of Charles II. Although many of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries were revived, but with so many alterations and additions that the originals were almost lost sight of, the drama of the Eestoration was modelled rather upon the French than the Enghsh school; the comedies were marked by a gross indecency THB THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. 47 of dialogue — though that was not borrowed from our neighbours — while the rhymed tragedies were stilted and unnatural. Chief arnong the writers for the Duke's Company was Mrs. Aphra Behn, whose comedies probably surpass in licentiousness all but a very few of those of her male contemporaries ; yet it cannot be denied that, as dramatic compositions, they possess great merit ; the plots are most ingenious, and situation succeeds situation with a rapidity and "a go " that rival a modern Palais Eoyal farce, and if her characters have little variety — nearly all being drawn upon the same lines, the silly senile citizen, with a young and amorous wife, the daring gallant, the intriguing chambermaid, all modelled upon the Spanish comedy — she has verve and vigour in the incidents and dialogue that must have rendered her plays very attractive to the free and easy audiences of the time. The repertoire of the Duke's Company seems to have been even worse in point of morals than that of its rival ; most of the notorious Edward Eavenscroft's pieces were written for Lincoln's Inn Fields, notably the most abominable of all. The London Cuckolds. Etherege's three comedies were produced here,* and most of Thomas Shadwell's works, though the latter, who was an inferior Ben Jonson, was rather coarse than licentious. The * Of these The Man of Mode was the most remarkable, as being the first of what Lamb styles the artiflcial school of comedy — a school which attained its greatest brilliancy in Congreve, and closed for ever with Sheridan. 48 THE LONDON STAGE. greater part of Dryden's plays were brought out at Drury Lane, but the vilest of them. The Kind Keeper, was given to the Duke's Company, as was also one of his finest. The Spanish Friar. Crowne, one of the best of the Eestoration dramatists, wrote several plays for Lincoln's Inn Fields, and many of Tom D'Urfey's licentious productions found the same interpreters. Elkanah Settle, in whose writings the so-called heroic drama reached its highest absurdity, wrote eight of his seventeen extravagances for Lincoln's Inn Fields or Dorset Gardens. But in The Orphan, and Venice Preserved of Otway, the Duke's Company secured the two noblest tragedies written from the time of Charles the First to the present day. The audience were as licentious as the entertain ment, and came but to see themselves and their manners reflected as in a looking-glass. Little of the play could have been heard amidst the uproar and clamour of the spectators, the gallants combing their long perriwigs and criticising the play aloud, or carrying on a flirtation with some masked female, or toying with the orange wenches, who were usually very important factors in the play-houses, and drove a profitable trade, since they charged sixpence each for their wares. Nor were the humbler parts of the house behind the aristocratic in vice. Our galleries were finely us'd of late, Where roosting masks sat cackling for a mate ; They came not to see plays, but act their own, And had throng'd audiences when we had none. THE THEATRES OF THB RESTORATION. 49 Our plays it was impossible to hear, The honest country men were forc'd to swear. Epilogue to Sir Courtly Nice, 1685. A similar picture is given in Dryden's Prologue for the Women, 1672. Here's good accommodation in the pit ; The grave demurely in the midst may sit. And so the hot Burgundian* on the side Ply vizard mask, and o'er the benches stride. Here are convenient upper boxes too. For those that make the most triumphant show ; All that keep coaches must not sit below. There gallants you betwixt the acts retire. And at dull plays have something to admire, &c. * Hot with drinking Burgundy. -^-«*(ti?>«fltSt