VII INTRODUCTION KING HENRY V. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING BEFORE the end of the sixteenth century, dramatic enterprise in the London playhouses had transferred itself almost entirely to the Surrey side of the Thames. The performances of Romeo and Juliet at the "Curtain" in the summer of 1596, seem to have closed the Shakespearean series at the Shoreditch theatres-unless we follow Mr. T. Fairman Ordish in taking the "Curtain" as the scene of the first production of King Henry V. It was in 1596 that the Burbages, foreseeing the difficulty of renewing their lease at the "Curtain" and the "Theatre" in the face of the pressure put upon their ground-landlord by the city authorities, made their first move to the south of the river, and built a new playhouse out of a private dwelling in Blackfriars. This occupied a site now covered by the office of the Times; and, under the name of the "Blackfriars" theatre, played an important part in the dramatic life of the next twenty years; but it was not occupied by Shakespeare's company till December, 1609, or the January following. Even before completion, James Burbage died, and was buried on the second of February in Shoreditch Parish Church, with the ringing of the famous bells that Queen Elizabeth had sometimes come to hear; leaving his two sons to fight out the battle of the theatres against "church and State," and particularly against Giles Allen, the landlord of his sites in Holywell. In 1597, the Queen was induced to sign an order of the Privy Council for the demolition of both the "Theatre" and the "Curtain" and the total prohibition of plays. Shakespeare was, at this time, lodging "near the bear-garden in Southwark," where, not long before, a number of people had been killed by the fall of a scaffold during a Sunday bear-baiting; and this, like the plague. had been interpreted by the devout as a punishment for the desecration of the Sabbath. There can be no doubt that he threw himself heartily into the struggle of his friends Richard and Cuthbert Burbage to save their playhouses, or at least to secure one permanent home for "legitimate drama" amid the brutal sports and exhibitions of the town. The "Curtain," by some means or other, escaped the penalty, and survived many I subsequent attempts to destroy it-living on, in fact, longer than any other of the early playhouses, till the general suppression which occurred about 1645. The fate of the "Theatre" was more adventurous. Claiming their right to the fabric by the terms of the original lease, the players pulled it down, in 1598, and carried it, plank by plank, across the river, there to rebuild it at all hazards on a new site on the Bankside. A stirring account of these proceedings is given by the wrathful landlord in a "bill of complaint" against Cuthbert Burbage, who "unlawfully combyninge and confederating himselfe with the sayd Richard Burbage and one Peter Streat, William Smyth, and divers other pesrons to the number of twelve, did ryoutouslye assemble themselves together, armed with swordes, daggers, billes, axes, and such like, and did pull, break, and throw downe the sayd Theatre in very outragious, violent, and riotous sort, and did carrye awaye from thence all the wood and timber thereof unto the Bancksyde in the parishe of St. Marye Overyes, and there erected a new playhouse with the sayd timber and wood." This "playhouse" was the famous "Globe" theatre, which now became the home of Shakespeare's company and witnessed the production of his greatest plays. The "Peter Street" referred to in Giles Allen's document appears again in the record of the following year. He is the "citizen and carpenter" who contracted with Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn, partners in the theatrical enterprises of the Surrey side before the Burbages extended their field of action, to build another new theatre, the "Fortune," near Golden Lane, Cripplegate; the terms of the agreement stating that it should be in all respects exactly like the "Globe." There was also another playhouse in the Paris Garden near the "Globe," and built only a few months before it by one Langley, namely the "Swan," of which a very curious old drawing (now in the British Museum) was found some years back by Mr. W. B. Rye in the University Library of Utrecht, and was published in 1888 in a pamphlet by Dr. Gaedertz. A verbal description of the "Swan" has also come to light in Germany, in the commonplace book of Arend von Buchell, who is supposed to have taken it either from an oral account or from the journals of John de Witt, who is known to have visited London a year or two before the opening of the "Globe," and may possibly have seen the "Swan" in course of construction. Here it is said to be the largest and most distinguished theatre in London, "since it contains three thousand persons and is built of a concrete of flint stones (which greatly abound in Britain) and supported by wooden columns painted in such excellent imitation of marble that it might deceive even the most cunning." Modern editors of these interesting records take exception to the estimate of "three thousand" spectators, and suggest that three hundred would be nearer the mark. But the "Swan" was distinguished in having "two staircases without," to economise the seating accommodation within. In all these theatres, the builders preserved the traditional round form observed in all places for public sports and spectacles since the days of Greek and Roman amphitheatres and old Celtic rings cut in the sward or stone. Theatre and temple are hardly to be distinguished from one another in the world's beginning of religion and art. To the Elizabethans, the drama was still a public sport rather than a literary interest, and the sight of fencing and sword-play, or, indeed, hard fighting of any kind, was a vital part of the evening's entertainment, not a mere incident in the progress of the tale. With what delight must Shakespeare's audiences have watched the wrestling-match in As You Like It, or the fight between Macbeth and Macduff! To understand their thirst for realism of this kind is to bring new eyes to Shakespeare's staging of the historical dramas, and to his use of arms, in scenes of more subjective interest, by way of dramatic relief. "Longbowes, crossbowes, and handgunnes" were ready at the very doors of the early theatres in Finsbury Fields, where the London regiments were mustered for drill, and all the citizens practised at the butts. The prologue to King Henry V. has been generally taken to refer to the "Globe" theatre, and to have served as a sort of commendation of the new building to public favour, with a graceful apology for its shortcomings in the matter of "properties" and space. To senses glutted with superbly mounted and spectacular dramas in the modern theatre, the archaic simplicity of the Elizabethan stage appeals with a peculiar charm, and we can smile at the deprecatory chorus: "Pardon, gentles all, The flat unraised spirit that hath dared But, as Mr. Israel Gollancz has pointed out, Shakespeare repeatedly uses the device of a prologue for appealing to the imagination of the spectators to supply what was lacking on the boards; conscious, perhaps, that English drama |