6

He had previously told the grave understanders,' the Bankside, he knows,

'Are far more skilful at the ebbs and flows

'Of water than of wit '

and he warns them not to expect, in his play, the target fighting' and cutlers' work,' to which at the Globe they were accustomed *. The audiences at the private houses, for one of which Shirley's play was written, were not usually treated with these vulgar noisy exhibitions; and Nabbes, in 1635, addressing those who were collected to see his Hannibal and Scipio, at the private theatre called the Cockpit in Drury Lane, informs the ladies that they need not there

fear the horrid sight,

• And the more horrid noise of target fight,

By the blue-coated stage-keepers: our spheres
Have better music to delight your ears.'

W. Fennor, (as well as many other authors,) in his Descriptions, 1616, speaks with great contempt of that part of the audience in a public theatre which occupied the yard: he calls them, ironically, the 'understanding, grounded men,' and then adds:

'Let but one ask the reason why they roar,

They'll answer, 'cause the rest did so before:

'But leave we these, who for their just reward
'Shall gape and gaze among the fools in the yard.

*It is difficult to imagine how such a prologue could have been delivered without mortal offence, and perhaps it never was spoken. It was first printed in the collection of Shirley's Poems, in 1646, and there the first line stands thus::

Gentlemen, I am only sent to say,' &c.;

but when the play was printed in 1652, the author left out the word 'Gentlemen,' as if he repented that he had condescended to apply it to the audience at the Globe:

All that the Prologue comes for is to say,' &c.

That there were, however, degrees in the private theatres. is clear from two lines in a tract before quoted, (F. Lenton's Young Gallant's Whirligig,) where, speaking of his hero, he says→→

'The Cockpit heretofore would serve his wit,

'But now upon the Friars' stage he'll sit.'

This brings us to the next point, viz., the intrusion of spectators on the stage, where they used to stand, lie, or sit, very much to the annoyance of the actors and to the injury of the scene. In the induction to Marston's Malecontent, 1604, the Tireman wishes to remove Sly and others, supposed to form part of the audience, to which Sly replies-'Why, we may sit upon the stage at the private house' there is reason to believe that here it might be insisted upon as a right, though not always enforced; for in the induction to another of Marston's plays, What you Will, Atticus says to his two companions-'Let's place 'ourselves within the curtains, for good faith, the stage ' is so very little.' This remark applied probably to the private house of the Blackfriars. Nevertheless, according to Dekker's Gull's Horn-book, 1609, elsewhere cited, the most confident and obtrusive gallants sometimes 'published their fine suits' to the same advantage, even at the public playhouses. The expression there used of 'the opposed rascality,' shows that such a practice was ill endured at the public theatre; but that Dekker, in this quotation, particularly refers to a public theatre is evident from what he adds: 'neither are you to be hunted from thence, though the scarecrows in the yard hoot at you.' The term yard was peculiar to public theatres: if he had intended to include private theatres he would also have used the word pit. Malone, who makes various quotations from

this pamphlet, failed to remark the import of this passage *.

The boxes or rooms at private theatres were enclosed and locked, and the key given to the individual engaging them. Among the Strafford Letters (i. 511), is one, quoted by Malone, from Mr. Garrard, which, under date of January 5, 1635, contains the following sentence:-'A little 'pique happened betwixt the Duke of Lenox and the 'Lord Chamberlain about a box at a new play in the 'Blackfriars, of which the Duke had got the key.' Of course the rooms or boxes must have been separated from each other at the public theatres, and the word 'rooms' seems to imply, that they were there so enclosed as to form them into distinct apartments. Generally speaking, no places seem to have been kept either at public or private theatres; and W. Fennor, in his Counter's Commonwealth, 1617, observes, each man sate down without respecting of persons, for he that first comes is 'first seated, like those that come to see plays.'

* Lenton, in his Young Gallant's Whirligig, 1629, makes no difference between public and private theatres in this respect.

'This golden ass, in this hard iron age,

'Aspireth now to sit upon the stage:

'Looks round about, then views his glorious self,
'Throws money here and there, swearing hang pelf,

'As if the splendour of his mightiness

'Should never see worse days nor feel distress.'

It is to be observed, however, that in a subsequent part of his poem Lenton mentions the Blackfriars and the Cockpit, both private houses; but he adds that his gay hero also visited the Globe.

The following is more decisive:-'But turning my legacy to you 'ward, Barnaby Burning-glass, Arch-tobacco-taker of England, in 'ordinaries, upon stages both common and private. The Black Book, 1604.

PRICE OF ADMISSION TO THEATRES.

THE prices of admission, both to public and private theatres, seem to have varied according to their rank and estimation, and to have been raised on particular occasions.

At the close of Dekker's dedication of his play, If it be not good the Devil is in it, (printed in 1612,) to his 'friends and fellows' the Queen's servants, he wishes them ' a full audience and one honest door-keeper,' as if a single person was usually entrusted with the taking of the money, and was sufficient for the purpose * The receipts were put into a box which he held in the Mouse-trap, Epigrams, by H. P., 1606, are the following lines

'Magus would needs, forsooth, the other day,

Upon an idle humour, see a play,

'When asking him at door, who held the box,

'What might you call the play? quoth he The Fox,' &c.

* About half a century afterwards there seem to have been several doors, one within the other, at any of which the visitors of the theatre might pay: this occasioned confusion and fraud, and it was thought a sufficiently important matter to call for the royal interference. Accordingly the following order was issued, applicable to the Royal Theatre in 1664-5. It was found among the MSS. in the State Paper Office.

'Whereas complaint has been made unto us by our Servants, the 'Actors in the Royal Theatre, that divers persons refuse to pay at the 'first door of the said Theatre, thereby obliging the door-keepers to 'send after, sollicit, and importune them for their entrance money. 'For the prevention therefore of those disorders, and that such as are employed by the said Actors may have no opportunity of deceiving " them, our will and pleasure is that all persons coming to the said 'Theatre shall, at the first door, pay their entrance money (to be restored 'to them again in case they return the same way before the end of 'the Act) requiring the guards attending there, and all whom it may concern, to see that obedience be given hereunto, and that the names ' of all who shall offer any violence contrary to this our pleasure be re' turned to the Ld. Chamberlain of our Household.

' Given, &c., the 27th February, 1664-5. By, &c,'

In Every Woman in her Humour, 1609, one of the characters remarks-"Tis even as common to see a basin at a church door, as a box at a playhouse,' meaning, of course, the box at the entrance of the theatre. Prynne bears testimony that such continued to be the custom in 1633, when he observes, (Histriomastix, p. 327,) 'the very contributing to players boxes (of which every common 'spectator must be always culpable) is not only apparent 'prodigality, but a giant-like vice.'

Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair was acted in 1614, at the Hope, a small dirty theatre, (which had been used also for bear-baiting,) on the Bankside; and according to the induction, the prices there varied from 6d. to 2s. 6d. He stipulates that 'it shall be lawful for any man to judge his six-penny-worth, his twelve-penny-worth, so to his eighteen-pence, two-shillings, half-a-crown*, to the value ' of his place-provided always his place get not above his wit.' It is to be remembered, however, that this induction was probably written with a view to the first representation of the play, and that on those occasions additional charges were sometimes made to the spectators; and but for this temporary increase in the price of admission, it would be difficult to reconcile the sums stated by Ben Jonson with the low character he himself gives of the Hope theatre. From Taylor's (the Water-poet) Works †, it appears that when he challenged Fennor at the Hope, (who did not come, according to his undertaking,) to answer him ex tempore, a large audience was collected, and extra-money was paid on admission,

*The half-crown boxes' at theatres are also mentioned in Fletcher's Wit without Money, Act i. Sc. 1., which was played at the Cockpit in Drury-lane prior to 1620,

† 1630, p. 146.