Shakespearean Playhouses Part 36

And the accounts of the Revels' Office inform us:

Hallomas Day, being the first of November, a play in the Banqueting House at Whitehall, called _The Moor of Venice_.

Apparently, however, the King was not pleased with the Banqueting House as a place for dramatic performances, for he promptly ordered the Great Hall of the palace--a room approximately ninety feet in length and forty feet in breadth[657]--to be made ready for the next play:

For making ready the Great Chamber at Whitehall for the King's Majesty to see the play, by the s.p.a.ce of two days ...

39_s._ 4_d._

[Footnote 657: This had once already, on Shrove Tuesday, 1604, been used for a play. The situation and ground-plan of the "Great Hall" are clearly shown in Fisher's _Survey_ of the palace, made about 1670, and engraved by Vertue, 1747.]

The work was completed with dispatch, for on the Sunday following the performance of _Oth.e.l.lo_ in the Banqueting House, _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ was acted in the Great Hall. The next play to be given at Court was also presented in the same room:

On St. Stephen's Night, in the Hall, a play called _Measure for Measure_.

And from this time on the Great Hall was the usual place for Court performances. The abandonment of the Banqueting House was probably due to the facts that the Hall was smaller in size, could be more easily heated in the winter, and was in general better adapted to dramatic performances. Possibly the change was due also to the decayed condition of the old structure and to preparations for its removal.

Stow, in his _Annals_ under the date of 1607, writes:

The last year the King pulled down the old, rotten, slight-builded Banqueting House at Whitehall, and new-builded the same this year very strong and stately, being every way larger than the first.[658]

[Footnote 658: Stow's _Annals_, continued by Edmund Howes (1631), p.

891.]

This new Banqueting House was completed in the early part of 1608.

John Chamberlain writes to Sir Dudley Carleton on January 5, 1608: "The masque goes forward at Court for Twelfth Day, tho' I doubt the New Room will be scant ready."[659] Thereafter the Banqueting House, "every way larger than the first," was regularly used for the presentation of masques. But it was rarely if ever used for plays.

Throughout the reign of James, the ordinary place for dramatic performances, as has been observed, was the Great Hall.

[Footnote 659: John Nichols, _The Progresses of James_, II, 162.]

On January 12, 1619, as a result of negligence during the preparations for a masque, the Banqueting House caught fire and was burned to the ground. The Reverend Thomas Lorkin writes to Sir Thomas Puckering on January 19, 1619:

The unhappy accident that chanced at Whitehall last week by fire you cannot but have heard of; but haply not the manner how, which was this. A joiner was appointed to mend some things that were out of order in the device of the masque, which the King meant to have repeated at Shrovetide, who, having kindled a fire upon a false hearth to heat his glue-pot, the force thereof pierced soon, it seems, the single brick, and in a short time that he absented himself upon some occasion, fastened upon the basis, which was of dry deal board, underneath; which suddenly conceiving flame, gave fire to the device of the masque, all of oiled paper, and dry fir, etc. And so, in a moment, disposed itself among the rest of that combustible matter that it was past any man's approach before it was almost discovered. Two hours begun and ended that woful sight.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE c.o.c.kPIT

Probably as built by Henry VIII. (From Faithorne's _Map of London_, 1658. The Whitehall district is represented as it was many years earlier, compare Agas's _Map_, 1560).]

Inigo Jones, who had dreamed of a magnificent palace at Whitehall, and who had drawn elaborate plans for a royal residence which should surpa.s.s anything in Europe, now took charge of building a new Banqueting House as a first step in the realization of his scheme.

The n.o.ble structure which he erected is to-day one of his chief monuments, and the sole relic of the once famous royal palace. It was completed in the spring of 1622; but, as in the case of its predecessor, it was not commonly used for dramatic entertainments.

Though masques might be given there, the regular place for plays continued to be the Great Hall.

In the meanwhile, however, there had been developed at Court the custom of having small private performances in the c.o.c.kpit, in addition to the more elaborate performances in the Great Hall. Since this ultimately led to the establishment of a theatre royal, known as "The c.o.c.kpit-in-Court," it will be necessary to trace in some detail the history of that structure.

The palace of Whitehall, anciently called York House, and the home of thirty successive Archbishops of York, was seized by King Henry VIII at the fall of Wolsey and converted into a royal residence.[660] The new proprietor at once made improvements after his own taste, among which were tennis-courts, bowling-alleys, and an amphitheatre for the "royal sport" of c.o.c.k-fighting. In Stow's description of the palace we read:

On the right hand be diverse fair tennis courts, bowling alleys, and a c.o.c.kpit, all built by King Henry the Eight.

[Footnote 660: Shakespeare writes (_Henry VIII_, IV, i, 94-97):

Sir you Must no more call it York-place, that is past; For since the Cardinal fell, that t.i.tle's lost: 'Tis now the King's, and called Whitehall.]

Strype, in his edition of Stow's _Survey_ (1720), adds the information that the c.o.c.kpit was made "out of certain old tenements."[661] It is pictured in Agas's _Map of London_ (1570), and more clearly in Faithorne's _Map_ (see page 390), printed in 1658, but apparently representing the city at an earlier date.

[Footnote 661: Book VI, page 6.]

During the reign of Elizabeth the c.o.c.kpit, so far as I can ascertain, was never used for plays. In the voluminous doc.u.ments relating to the Office of the Revels there is only one reference to the building: in 1572 flowers were temporarily stored there that were to be used for decking the "Banketting House."

It was during the reign of King James that the c.o.c.kpit began to be used for dramatic representations. John Chamberlain writes from London to Sir Ralph Winwood, December 18, 1604: "Here is great provision for c.o.c.kpit to entertain him [the King] at home, and of masques and revels against the marriage of Sir Herbert and Lady Susan Vere."[662] Since, however, King James was very fond of c.o.c.k-fighting, it may be that Chamberlain was referring to that royal entertainment rather than to plays. The small c.o.c.kpit was certainly a very unusual place for the formal presentation of plays before His Majesty and the Court.

[Footnote 662: _Winwood State Papers_ (1725), II, 41.]

But the young Prince Henry, whose official residence was in St.

James's Palace, often had private or semi-private performances of plays in the c.o.c.kpit. In the rolls of the expenses of the Prince we find the following records:[663]

For making ready the c.o.c.kpit four several times for plays, by the s.p.a.ce of four days, in the month of December, 1610, 2 10_s._ 8_d._

For making ready the c.o.c.kpit for plays two several times, by the s.p.a.ce of four days, in the months of January and February, 1611, 70_s._ 8_d._

For making ready the c.o.c.kpit for a play, by the s.p.a.ce of two days, in the month of December, 1611, 30_s._ 4_d._

[Footnote 663: See Cunningham, _Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels_, pp. xiii-xiv.]

The building obviously, was devoted for the most part to other purposes, and had to be "made ready" for plays at a considerable expense. Nor was the Prince the only one who took advantage of its small amphitheatre. John Chamberlain, in a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton on September 22, 1612, describing the reception accorded to the Count Palatine by the Lady Elizabeth, writes: "On Tuesday she sent to invite him as he sat at supper to a play of her own servants in the c.o.c.kpit."[664]

[Footnote 664: John Nichols, _The Progresses of James_, II, 466.]

It is clear, then, that at times throughout the reign of James dramatic performances were given in the c.o.c.kpit; but the auditorium was small, and the performances must have been of a semi-private nature. The important Court performances, to which many guests were invited, were held in the Great Hall.

In the reign of the next sovereign, however, a change came about. In the year 1632 or 1633, as well as I am able to judge with the evidence at command, King Charles reconstructed the old c.o.c.kpit into a "new theatre at Whitehall," which from henceforth was almost exclusively used for Court performances. The opening of this "new theatre royal"

is celebrated by a _Speech_ from the pen of Thomas Heywood:

_A Speech Spoken to Their Two Excellent Majesties at the First Play Play'd by the Queen's Servants in the New Theatre at Whitehall._

When Greece, the chief priority might claim For arts and arms, and held the eminent name Of Monarchy, they erected divers places, Some to the Muses, others to the Graces, Where actors strove, and poets did devise, With tongue and pen to please the ears and eyes Of Princely auditors. The time was, when To hear the rapture of one poet's pen A Theatre hath been built.

By the Fates' doom, When th' Empire was removed from thence to Rome, The Potent Caesars had their _circi_, and Large amphitheatres, in which might stand And sit full fourscore thousand, all in view And touch of voice. This great Augustus knew, Nay Rome its wealth and potency enjoyed, Till by the barbarous Goths these were destroy'd.

But may this structure last, and you be seen Here a spectator, with your princely Queen, In your old age, as in your flourishing prime, To outstrip Augustus both in fame and time.

The exact date of this _Speech_ is not given, but it was printed[665]

in 1637 along with "The Prologue to the Famous Tragedy of _The Rich Jew of Malta_, as it Was Played Before the King and Queen in His Majesty's Theatre at Whitehall"; and this Prologue Heywood had already published with the play itself in 1633. He dedicated the play to Mr.

Thomas Hammon, saying, "I had no better a New-Year's gift to present you with." Apparently, then, the play had been acted at Court shortly before New Year's, 1633; and this sets a forward date to Heywood's _Speech_. Other evidence combines with this to show that "His Majesty's Theatre at Whitehall" was "new" at the Christmas season of 1632-33.

[Footnote 665: See _The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood_ (1874), VI, 339.]

In erecting this, the first "theatre royal," King Charles would naturally call for the aid of the great Court architect Inigo Jones,[666] and by good luck we have preserved for us Jones's original sketches for the little playhouse (see page 396). These were discovered a few years ago by Mr. Hamilton Bell in the Library of Worcester College (where many valuable relics of the great architect are stored), and printed in _The Architectural Record_ of New York, March, 1913. Mr. Bell accompanied the plans with a valuable discussion, but he was unable to discover their purpose. He writes:

We have still no clue as to what purpose this curiously anomalous and most interesting structure was to serve--whether the plan was ever carried out, or whether it remained part of a lordly pleasure-house which its prolific designer planned for the delectation of his own soul.

[Footnote 666: Whether he merely made over the old c.o.c.kpit which Henry VIII had constructed "out of certain old tenements," or erected an entirely new building, I have not been able to ascertain. Heywood's _Speech_ indicates a "new" and "lasting" structure.]