date back to the period when the Curtain was still in the hands of the Queen's men:
Momus would act the fooles part in a play,
And cause he would be exquisite that way,
Hies me to London, where no day can passe
But that some playhouse still his presence has;
Now at the Globe with a judicious eye
Into the Vice's action doth he prie.
Next to the Fortune, where it is a chaunce
But he marks something worth his cognisance.
Then to the Curtaine, where, as at the rest,
He notes that action downe that likes him best.<ref>Epigram 39. Both Curtain and Swan are named by W. Turner in
Turners Dish of Stuffe, or a Gallimaufry (1662), but this cannot be dated;
cf. ch. xv (Shank):
<poem>
That's the fat fool of the Curtain,
And the lean fool of the Bull:
Since Shancke did leave to sing his rhimes,
He is counted but a gull:
The players on the Bankside,
The round Globe and the Swan,
Will teach you idle tricks of love,
But the Bull will play the man.
</ref> </poem>
A foreign traveller again gives us help. The relation of the visit of Prince Lewis Frederick of Württemberg in 1610 merely records that he went to the Globe, and Justus Zingerling, who was in London at about the same date, has the briefest note of the existence of 'theatra comoedorum et in quibus ursi et tauri cum canibus committuntur'.[1] But the itinerary of Prince Otto of Hesse-Cassel in the following year is more expansive. The compiler writes:
'In London there are seven theatres, where daily, except on Sundays,
comedies are performed, whereof the most important is the Globe,
which lies over the water. The theatre, where the children play, is on
the hither side of the water; they play at three o'clock, but only from
Michaelmas to Easter. Here it only costs half a shilling to enter, but
for the other places at least half a crown. These play only with lights,
and are the best company in London.'[2], so über dem wasser liegt. Das theatrum, da die
kinder spielen, ist auf diesseit des wassers, spielen um 3 uhr, aber nur
von michaelis bis auf ostern; hier kostet der eingang einen halben schilling
nur, da an andern orten wohl eine halbe kron. Diese [nämlich der Globus,
Ed., but surely in error] spielen nur bei lichtern und is die beste Cumpani
in London.' The baiting is also mentioned; cf. p. 457.]
- ↑ Jodocus Sincerus, Itineris Anglici brevissima delineatio in Itinerarium Galliae (1617), 370; cf. Rye, 131, who gives the first edition as 1616.
- ↑ K. Feyerabend in E. S. xiv. 440, from manuscript in Cassel Library (cf. Rye, 143), 'Zu Londen sind 7 theatra, da tägliche, die sonntäge ausgenommen, comoedien gehalten werden, unter welchen die vornehmste der glbs [sic, for globus
