the church of St. Gregory or some other building in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's. How long this arrangement had existed, or whether any company of children had played in public at all before the date of Farrant's experiment, we do not know. From 1576 onwards, it is the Theatre and the Curtain which have to bear the brunt of the Puritan attack, and the luxury of these, as compared with the primitive accommodation of the inn-yards, arouses a special indignation. 'The sumptuous Theatre houses, a continual monument of Londons prodigalitie and folly', wails Thomas White in 1577. Stockwood in 1578 discommends 'the gorgeous playing place erected in the fieldes'; and William Harrison, perhaps about the same time, finds it 'an evident token of a wicked time when plaiers wexe so riche that they can build such houses'.[1] Presently the theatres became notable amongst the sights which foreign travellers must see in London. Lupold von Wedel in 1584 says nothing of them, although he records the baiting and its rings.[2] But they are noticed in the following year by Samuel Kiechel, a merchant of Ulm, who writes:[3]
'Comedies are given daily. It is particularly mirthful to behold,
when the Queen's comedians act, but annoying to a foreigner who does
not know the language, that he understands nothing. There are some
peculiar houses, which are so made as to have about three galleries
over one another, inasmuch as a great number of people always enters
to see such an entertainment. It may well be that they take as much
as from 50 to 60 dollars [£10 to £12] at once, especially when they act
anything new, which has not been given before, and double prices
are charged. This goes on nearly every day in the week; even
though performances are forbidden on Friday and Saturday, it is not
observed.'
The Theatre and the London inns were still the chief
playing-places, when at some date between 1576 and 1596
William Lambarde illustrated his account of the pilgrimages
- ↑ App. C, Nos. xv, xvii; App. D, No. xxii.
- ↑ Cf. s.v. Hope.
- ↑ K. D. Hassler, Die Reisen des Samuel Kiechel (1866) 29, 'Werden auch täglichen commedien gehalten, sonderlichen ist lustig zu zusehen, wann der Königen comedianten agiren, aber einem frembden, der düe sprach nicht kan, verdrüslich, das ers nicht verstöth; es hat öttliche sonderbare heüser, wölche dozu gemacht sein, das ettwann drey genng ob ein ander sein, derowegen stöts ein grosse menge volckhs dohin kompt, solcher kurzweil zuzusehen. Es begibt sich wol, das süe uf einmal 50 in 60 dalr ufhöben; sonderlichen wann süe was neyes agiren, so zuvor nicht gehalten worden, mues mann doppelt gelt gebenn, und wehrt solchs vast alle tag durch düe wochen, onangesehen es freytag wüe auch samstags zu halten verbotten, würt es doch nicht gehalten.' Cf. Rye, 87. Kiechel appears to have been in London from 12 Sept. to about 29 Oct. and from 14 to 17 Nov. 1585.
