Shakespearean Playhouses Part 24

[Footnote 432: Later, by a series of negotiations ending in 1610, Alleyn secured the freehold of the property. The total cost to him was 800. See Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, pp. 14, 17, 108.]

[Footnote 433: _Ibid._, p. 50.]

[Footnote 434: _Ibid._, p. 49; cf. p. 51.]

The property thus acquired lay between Golding Lane and Whitecross Street, two parallel thoroughfares running north and south. There were tenements on the edge of the property facing Whitecross Street, tenements on the edge facing Golding Lane, and an open s.p.a.ce between.

Alleyn and Henslowe planned to erect their new playhouse in this open s.p.a.ce "between Whitecross Street and Golding Lane," and to make "a way leading to it" from Golding Lane. The ground set aside for the playhouse is described as "containing in length from east to west one hundred twenty and seven feet and a half, a little more or less, and in breadth, from north to south, one hundred twenty and nine feet, a little more or less."[435]

[Footnote 435: Collier, _The Alleyn Papers_, p. 98. For a slightly different measurement of the plot see Collier, _Memoirs of Edward Alleyn_, p. 167.]

The lease of this property having been consummated on December 22, 1599, on January 8, 1600, Henslowe and Alleyn signed a contract with the carpenter, Peter Street (who had recently gained valuable experience in building the Globe), to erect the new playhouse. The contract called for the completion of the building by July 25, 1600, provided, however, the workmen were "not by any authority restrained."

The latter clause may indicate that Peter Street antic.i.p.ated difficulties. If so, he was not mistaken, for when early in January his workmen began to a.s.semble material for the erection of the building, the authorities, especially those of the Parish of St.

Giles, promptly interfered. Alleyn thereupon appealed to the patron of the troupe, the Earl of Nottingham, the Lord Admiral. On January 12, 1600, Nottingham issued a warrant to the officers of the county "to permit and suffer my said servant [Edward Alleyn] to proceed in the effecting and furnishing of the said new house, without any your let or molestation toward him or any of his workmen."[436] This warrant, however, seems not to have prevented the authorities of St. Giles from continuing their restraint. Alleyn was then forced to play his trump card--through his great patron to secure from the Privy Council itself a warrant for the construction of the building. First, however, by offering "to give a very liberal portion of money weekly" towards the relief of "the poor in the parish of St. Giles," he persuaded many of the inhabitants to sign a doc.u.ment addressed to the Privy Council, in which they not only gave their full consent to the erection of the playhouse, but actually urged "that the same might proceed."[437] This doc.u.ment he placed in the hands of Nottingham to use in influencing the Council. The effort was successful. On April 8 the Council issued a warrant "to the Justices of the Peace of the County of Middles.e.x, especially of St. Giles without Cripplegate, and to all others whom it shall concern," that they should permit Henslowe and Alleyn "to proceed in the effecting and finishing of the same new house."[438]

[Footnote 436: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 49.]

[Footnote 437: _Ibid._, p. 50.]

[Footnote 438: _Ibid._, p. 51.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SITE OF THE FORTUNE PLAYHOUSE

The site of the Fortune is marked by Playhouse Yard, connecting Golden Lane and Whitecross Street. (From Ogilby and Morgan's _Map of London_, 1677.)]

This warrant, of course, put an end to all interference by local authorities. But as the playhouse reared itself high above the walls of the city to the north, the Puritans were aroused to action. They made this the occasion for a most violent attack on actors and theatres in general, and on the Fortune in particular. With this attack the city authorities, for reasons of their own, heartily sympathized, but they had no jurisdiction over the Parish of St.

Giles, or over the other localities in which playhouses were situated.

Since the Privy Council had specially authorized the erection of the Fortune, the Lord Mayor shifted the attack to that body, and himself dispatched an urgent request to the Lords for reformation. In response to all this agitation the Lords of the Privy Council on June 22, 1600, issued the following order:

Whereas divers complaints have heretofore been made unto the Lords and other of Her Majesty's Privy Council of the manifold abuses and disorders that have grown and do continue by occasion of many houses erected and employed in and about London for common stage-plays; and now very lately by reason of some complaint exhibited by sundry persons against the building of the like house in or near Golding Lane ... the Lords and the rest of Her Majesty's Privy Council with one and full consent have ordered in manner and form as follows. First, that there shall be about the city two houses, and no more, allowed to serve for the use of the common stage-plays; of the which houses, one [the Globe]

shall be in Surrey, in that place which is commonly called the Bankside or thereabouts, and the other [the Fortune] in Middles.e.x. Secondly, ... it is likewise ordered that the two several companies of players a.s.signed unto the two houses allowed may play each of them in their several houses twice a week and no oftener; and especially that they shall refrain to play on the Sabbath day ... and that they shall forbear altogether in the time of Lent.

The first part of this order, limiting the playhouses and companies to two, was merely a repet.i.tion of the order of 1598.[439] It meant that the Lords of the Privy Council formally licensed the Admiral's and the Lord Chamberlain's Companies to play in London (of course the Lords might, when they saw fit, license other companies for specific periods). The second part of the order, limiting the number of performances, was more serious, for no troupe could afford to act only twice a week. The order if carried out would mean the ruin of the Fortune and the Globe Companies. But it was not carried out. The actors, as we learn from Henslowe's _Diary_, did not restrict themselves to two plays a week. Why, then, did the Lords issue this order, and why was it not put into effect? A study of the clever way in which Alleyn, Nottingham, and the Privy Council overcame the opposition of the puritanical officers of St. Giles who were interfering with the erection of the Fortune will suggest the explanation. The Lords were making a shrewd move to quiet the noisy enemies of the drama. They did not intend that the Admiral's and the Chamberlain's Men should be driven out of existence; they were merely meeting fanaticism with craft.

[Footnote 439: See page 174.]

Alleyn and Henslowe must have understood this,--possibly they learned it directly from their patron Nottingham,--for they proceeded with the erection of their expensive building. The work, however, had been so seriously delayed by the restraints of the local authorities that the foundations were not completed until May 8.[440] On that day carpenters were brought from Windsor, and set to the task of erecting the frame. Since the materials had been acc.u.mulating on the site since January 17, the work of erection must have proceeded rapidly. The daily progress of this work is marked in Henslowe's _Diary_ by the dinners of Henslowe with the contractor, Peter Street. On August 8, these dinners ceased, so that on that date, or shortly after, we may a.s.sume, the building proper was finished.[441]

[Footnote 440: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 10.]

[Footnote 441: Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_, I, 158-59.]

For erecting the building Street received 440. But this did not include the painting of the woodwork (which, if we may judge from De Witt's description of the Swan, must have been costly), or the equipment of the stage. We learn from Alleyn's memoranda that the final cost of the playhouse was 520.[442] Hence, after Street's work of erection was finished in August, the entire building had to be painted, and the stage properly equipped with curtains, hangings, machines, etc. This must have occupied at least two months. From Henslowe's _Diary_ it appears that the playhouse was first used about the end of November or the early part of December, 1600.[443]

[Footnote 442: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 108.]

[Footnote 443: Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_, I, 124.]

The original contract of Henslowe and Alleyn with Peter Street for the erection of the Fortune, preserved among the papers at Dulwich College, supplies us with some very exact details of the size and shape of the building. Although the doc.u.ment is long, and is couched in the legal verbiage of the day, it will repay careful study. For the convenience of the reader I quote below its main specifications:[444]

_Foundation._ A good, sure, and strong foundation, of piles, brick, lime, and sand, both without and within, to be wrought one foot of a.s.size at the least above the ground.

_Frame._ The frame of the said house to be set square, and to contain fourscore foot of lawful a.s.size every way square without, and fifty-five foot of like a.s.size square every way within.

_Materials._ And shall also make all the said frame in every point for scantlings larger and bigger in a.s.size than the scantlings of the said new-erected house called the Globe.

_Exterior._ To be sufficiently enclosed without with lath, lime, and hair.

_Stairs._ With such like stairs, conveyances, and divisions, without and within, as are made and contrived in and to the late erected playhouse ... called the Globe.... And the staircases thereof to be sufficiently enclosed without with lath, lime, and hair.

_Height of galleries._ And the said frame to contain three stories in height; the first, or lower story to contain twelve foot of lawful a.s.size in height; the second story eleven foot of lawful a.s.size in height; and the third, or upper story, to contain nine foot of lawful a.s.size in height.

_Breadth of galleries._ All which stories shall contain twelve foot of lawful a.s.size in breadth throughout. Besides a jutty forward in either of the said two upper stories of ten inches of lawful a.s.size.

_Protection of lowest gallery._ The lower story of the said frame withinside ... [to be] paled in below with good, strong, and sufficient new oaken boards.... And the said lower story to be also laid over and fenced with strong iron pikes.

_Divisions of galleries._ With four convenient divisions for gentlemen's rooms, and other sufficient and convenient divisions for two-penny rooms.... And the gentlemen's rooms and two-penny rooms to be ceiled with lath, lime, and hair.

_Seats._ With necessary seats to be placed and set, as well in those rooms as throughout all the rest of the galleries.

_Stage._ With a stage and tiring-house to be made, erected, and set up within the said frame; with a shadow or cover over the said stage. Which stage shall be placed and set (as also the staircases of the said frame) in such sort as is prefigured in a plot thereof drawn. [The plot has been lost.] And which stage shall contain in length forty and three foot of lawful a.s.size, and in breadth to extend to the middle of the yard of the said house. The same stage to be paled in below with good, strong, and sufficient new oaken boards.... And the said stage to be in all other proportions contrived and fashioned like unto the stage of the said playhouse called the Globe.... And the said ...

stage ... to be covered with tile, and to have a sufficient gutter of lead to carry and convey the water from the covering of the said stage to fall backwards.

_Tiring-house._ With convenient windows and lights, glazed, to the said tiring-house.

_Flooring._ And all the floors of the said galleries, stories, and stage to be boarded with good and sufficient new deal boards, of the whole thickness where need shall be.

_Columns._ All the princ.i.p.al and main posts of the said frame and stage forward shall be square, and wrought pilaster-wise, with carved proportions called satyrs to be placed and set on the top of every of the said posts.

_Roof._ And the said frame, stage, and staircases to be covered with tile.

_Miscellaneous._ To be in all other contrivations, conveyances, fashions, thing and things, effected, finished, and done, according to the manner and fashion of the said house called the Globe.

[Footnote 444: For the full doc.u.ment see Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p.

4.]

It is rather unfortunate for us that the building was to be in so many respects a copy of the Globe, for that deprives us of further detailed specifications; and it is unfortunate, too, that the plan or drawing showing the arrangement of the stage was not preserved with the rest of the doc.u.ment. Yet we are able to derive much exact information from the contract; and with this information, at least two modern architects have made reconstructions of the building.[445]

[Footnote 445: See the Bibliography. A model of the Fortune by Mr.

W.H. G.o.dfrey is preserved in the Dramatic Museum of Columbia University in New York City, and a duplicate is in the Museum of European Culture at the University of Illinois. For a description of the model see the _Architect and Builders' Journal_ (London), August 16, 1911.]

No representation of the exterior of the Fortune has come down to us.

In the so-called Ryther _Map of London_, there is, to be sure, what seems to be a crude representation of the playhouse (see page 278); but if this is really intended for the Fortune, it does little more than mark the location. Yet one can readily picture in his imagination the playhouse--a plastered structure, eighty feet square and approximately forty feet high,[446] with small windows marking the galleries, a turret and flagpole surmounting the red-tiled roof, and over the main entrance a sign representing Dame Fortune:

I'le rather stand here, Like a statue in the fore-front of your house, For ever, like the picture of Dame Fortune Before the Fortune Playhouse.[447]

[Footnote 446: The three galleries (twelve, eleven, and nine feet, respectively) were thirty-two feet in height; but to this must be added the elevation of the first gallery above the yard, the s.p.a.ce occupied by the ceiling and flooring of the several galleries, and, finally, the roof.]

[Footnote 447: Thomas Heywood, _The English Traveller_ (1633), ed.