a private house, and appropriated to the fervice of religion.

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I am unable to afcertain at what time the Globe theatre was built. Hentzner has alluded to it as existing in 1598. though he does not exprefsly mention it. + I believe it was not built long before the year 1596. It was fituated on the Bankfide, (the fouthern fide of the river Thames,) nearly opposite to Friday-freet, Cheapfide. It was an hexagonal

wooden building, partly open to the weather, and

writer was mifinformed, appears from an old tract, printed in the fame year in which the accident happened, entitled, A Word of Comfort, or a difcourfe concerning the late lamentable accident of the fall of a Room at a Catholick fermon in the Black-friers, London, whereby about four-fcore perfons were oppreffed, 4to. 123.

See alfo verfes prefixed to a play called The Queen, publifhed by Alexander Goughe, (probably the fon of Robert Goughe, one of the actors in Shakfpeare's company,) in 1653. we dare not fay·

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that Blackfriers we heare, which in this age Fell, when it was a church, not when a ftage; Or that the puritans that once dwelt there, Prayed and thriv'd, though the play-house were fo near."

Camden had a paralytick ftroke on the 18th of August 1623. and died on the 9th of November following. The above-mentioned accident happened on the 24th of October; which accounts for his inaccuracy. The room which fell, an upper room in Hunfdon-Houfe, in which the French Ambaffador then dwelt. See Stowe's Chron. p. 1035. edit. 1631.

was

4 "Non longe ab uno horum theatrorum, quæ omnia lignea funt, ad Thamelin navis eft regia, quæ duo egregia habet conclavia," &c. Itin. P. 132. By navis regia he means the royal barge called the Gallyfoift. See the South View of London, as it appeared in 1599.

See The Suit of the Watermen against the Players," in the Works of Taylor the Water-poet, p. 171.

VOL. III.

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partly thatched." When Hentzner wrote, all the other theatres as well as this were compofed of wood. The Globe was a publick theatre, and of confiderable fize, and there they always acted by day

6 In the long Antwerp View of London in the Pepyfian Library at Cambridge, is a reprefentation of the Globe theatre, from which a drawing was made by the Rev. Mr. Henley, and tranfmitted to Mr. Steevens. From that drawing this cut was made.

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light. On the roof of this and the other publick theatres a pole was erected, to which a flag was affixed. Thefe flags were probably displayed only during the hours of exhibition; and it fhould feem from one of the old comedies that they were taken down in Lent, in which time, during the early part of King James's reign, plays were not allowed to be reprefented, though at a fubfequent period this prohibition was difpenfed with.3

2

was nearly of the fame fize as the Fortune, which has been already defcribed.

8 Hiftoria Hiftrionica, 8vo. 1699. p. 7.

So, in The Curtain-Drawer of the World, 1612. “Each play houfe advanceth his flagge in the aire, whither quickly at the waving thereof are fummoned whole troops of men, women, and children."-- Again, in A Mad World," my Mafters, a comedy by Middleton, 1608. “ the hair about the

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hat is as good as a flag upon the pole, at a common playhoufe, to waft company. See a South View of the City of London as it appeared in 1599. in which are reprefentations of the Globe and Swan theatres. From the words, common play-houfe," in the paffage laft quoted, we may be led to fuppofe that flags were not difplayed on the roof of Blackfriars, and the other private playhoufes.

This cuftom perhaps took its rife from a mifconception of a line in Ovid:

" Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro, which Heywood, in a tract published in 1612. thus tranflates: In thofe days from the marble houfe did waive No fail, no filken flag, or enfign brave."

"From the roof (fays the fame author, defcribing a Roman amphitheatre,) grew a loover or turret, of exceeding altitude, from which an enfign of filk waved continually; pendebant vela theatro." The misinterpretation might, however, have arifen from the English custom.

cheeks; your

2 "'Tis Lent in the flag is down." Amad World, my Mafters, a comedy by Middleton, 1608.

Again, in Earle's Characters, 7th edit. 1638. "Shrove

I formerly conjectured that The Globe, though hexagonal at the outfide, was perhaps a rotunda

tuefday hee [a player] feares as much as the bawdes, and Lent is more dangerous to him than the butchers."

[Received] of the King's players for a lenten difpenJation, the other companys promifing to doe as muche, 44s. March 23. 1616.

"OfJohn Hemminges, in the name of the four companys, for toleration in the holydayes, 44s. January 29. 1618."

Extracts from the office-book of Sir George Buc. MSS. Herbert. Thefe difpenfations did not extend to the fermon-days, as they were then called; that is, Wednesday and Friday in each week.

After Sir Henry Herbert became poffeffed of the office of Mafter of the Revels, fees for permiffion to perform in Lent appear to have been conftantly paid by each of the theatres. The managers however did not always perform plays during that season. Some of the theatres, particularly the RedBull and the Fortune, were then let to prize-fighters, tumblers, and rope-dancers, who fometimes added a Masque to the other exhibitions. These facts are ascertained by the following entries :

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1622. 21 Martii. For a prife at the Red-Bull, for the howfe; the fencers would give nothing. 10s." MSS. Astley. "From Mr. Gunnel, [Manager of the Fortune,] in the name of the dancers of the ropes for Lent, this 15 March, 1624. 1. 0. o.

"From Mr. Gunnel, to allowe of a Mafque for the dancers of the ropes, this 19 March, 1624. ₤2. 0. 0.”

We fee here, by the way, that Microcofmus, which was exhibited in 1637. (was not as Dr. Burney fuppofes in his ingenious Hiftory of Mufick, Vol. III. p. 385.) the first masque exhibited on the publick ftage.

"From Mr. Blagrave, in the name of the Cockpit company, for this Lent, this 30th March, 1624. ₤2. 0. 0."

March 20. 1626. From Mr. Hemminges, for this Lent allowanfe, £2. 0. 9." MSS. Herbert.

Prynne takes notice of this relaxation in his Hiftriomaftix, 4to. 1633. "There are none fo addicted to ftage-playes, but when they go unto places where they cannot have them, or when as they are fuppreffed by publike authority, (as in

4

within, and that it might have derived its name from its circular form. But, though the part appropriated to the audience was probably circular, I now believe that the houfe was denominated only from its fign; which was a figure of Hercules fupporting the Globe, under which was written, Totus mundus agit hiftrionem.' This theatre was burnt down on the 29th of June, 1613. but it was

་

times of peftilence, and in Lent, till now of late,) can well fubfift without them." P. 784.

4 "After thefe" (fays Heywood, fpeaking of the buildings at Rome, appropriated to feenick exhibitions,)" they compofed others, but differing in form from the theatre or amphitheatre, and every fuch was called circus; the frame globe-like, and merely round." Apology for Actors, 1612. See alfo our authors prologue to King Henry V:

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or may we cram

"Within this wooden O," &c.

But as we find in the prologue to Marfton's Antonio's Revenge, which was acted by the Children of Paul's in 1602. any fpirit breathes within this round,

If

no inference refpecting the denomination of the Globe can be drawn from this expreffion.

5 Stowe informs us, that "the allowed Stewhouses. [antecedent to the year 1545] had fignes on their frontes towards the Thames, not hanged out, but painted on the walles; as a Boares head, The Crofs Keyes, The Gunne, The Cafle, The Crane, The Cardinals Hat, The Bell, The Swanne," &c. Survey of London, 4to. 1603. p. 409. The houfes which continued to carry on the fame trade after the ancient and privileged edifices had been put down, probably were diftinguished by the old figns; and the fign of the Globe, which theatre was in their neighbourhood, was perhaps, in imitation of them, painted on its wall.

6 The following account of this accident is given by Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter dated July 2. 1613. Reliq. Wotton. p. 425. edit. 1685. "Now to let matters of ftate fleep, I will entertain you at the prefent with what hath happened this week at the Banks fide. The Kings Players had a new play

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