Shakespeare of Stratford
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SHAKESPEARE’S THEATRES[1]
The plays of Shakespeare were acted during his lifetime upon every variety of stage then existing. These differed in elegance, convenience, and even in the fundamental facilities for acting, to an extent which it is now hard to realize. They may be classified as follows:
A. Theatres in London and its environs.
(a) Public Theatres.
(1) The Inn-yards. Since the city authorities of London refused to countenance professional acting, regular theatres might not be built within the ‘liberties’ or district subject to municipal control. Hence the only public performances within the city proper[2] took place in the interior yards of inns, a time-honored scene of dramatic as well as acrobatic and pugilistic exhibitions. Five inn-yards were particularly noted in this way: that of the Bell Savage on Ludgate Hill, just west of the city wall; of the Boar’s Head, Whitechapel, east of the city wall; of the Cross Keys and Bell in Gracechurch Street, and the Bull in Bishopsgate Street. The last three were all within the city wall and on a line leading from London Bridge on the south to Bishopsgate and the northern suburbs in which the ‘Theatre’ and ‘Curtain’ stood. Shakespeare’s plays may have been occasionally performed in any of these. We know that his company, the Chamberlain’s, acted regu-
- ↑ For an extensive and admirable treatment of this subject see J. Q. Adams, Shakespearean Playhouses, 1917.
- ↑ Very roughly speaking, within the circuit of the old city wall.
