TIIE DATE OF THE PLAY +5 44 oRrcrN oF r HENRy vr.
gives us no details of value for our purposes. We do not hear ably based largely on the Visscher view but cannot be denied some of the Curtain after 1627.64 measure of independent authority as containing some important 3. The Bear Garden (built 1583) : The Norden map details not included in the Visscher or any other known view, and (1593) clearly lacks indication of any superstructure. The back- which displays the Second Globe, the Swan, the Hope, and an ground of the Delaram portrait (1599-1605) clearly shows a otherwise unknown fourth house apparently on or near the site long gabled structure projecting above the wall, though whether (6) of the Rose; and Hollar's View of London oI 7647, showing on the southeast or the northwest side of the theatre yard it is, only the Second Globe and the Hope. on account of the point of view, difrcult to say. The Hondius The so-called "Ryther" map of 1630-40; tho inset on the title- map o{ 1610 is somewhat puzzling. The external lines of the page of Baker's Chronicle (1643), based on Hondius' map or its building seem to be continued far above the double cross lines original; Hollar's(?) Itieza of London published in Howell's that one would naturally take to mark the thatched roof, the Londino'polis (1657), based on Visscher through Merian; and the details between are vague, and the uppermost line is apparently Faithorne map of 1658 are, for our purposes, of very secondary somewhat dentated. That this whole arrangement is not to be importance. considered as a turret seems clear from the fact that it fills all the space between the cxternal wall lines of the building, that it Considering now the various playhouses in the order of their bears no resemblance to any turret that we have pictured in any erection and with regard to the points that here interest us, we other place, and as regards both shape and position is con- gather {rom these maps data as {ollows: that it tradicted both by the more authoritative Visscher view and by 1. The Theatre (built 1576): No views. the Merian view. But the serration is more accentuated and 2. The Curtain (built 1577): The only possible view is pointed at the eastern end, and in the light of the Visscher map the crude sketch in the so-called Ryther map of 1630-40, which this may be distinctly significant. In the inset view of the title-page of Baker's Chronicle (1643), taken apparently from the Hondius view from the same original, the serration is reduced a narrow limits. The First Globe lvas burned on July g, 1613; the Second or to Globe was newly open June 30, 1614. (Chambers, lI, 420, 423.) But mere toothed line. The Visscher view (1616) is beautifully the Visscher View distinctly marks the neighboring house Bear Gardne, clear. A conspicuous single-gabled turret, surmounted by a flag- and it is certainly not the very distinctive structure that is pictured as pole, the whole satisfactorily visualized, rises above the walls on the Hope in flollar's l/iew of 1647 and that is in agreement with the the east side. The representation in the Merian view (1638) Hope contract. It must therefore be the earlier Bear Garden. The contract for the building of the Hope (Henslowe Papers, 19), dated contains the same details, again clearly visualized. As to date, October 29, 1613, provides that the Bear Garden shall be torn down and these facts are to be interpreted in the light of the circumstance a new house erected in its place by November 30 following, But, as that the earliest evidence of the use of the Bear Garden for drama Mr. Chambers points out (II,468-69), the execution of the contract must dates from so late as Dekker's Satiromastix (1602), have been delayed, the new house, the Hope, apparently not having been completed by the spring ol 1614 as it is not mentioned in Taylor the 4. The Rose (built 1587; disappeared about1605): There Water-Poet's presentation of the case of the watermen to the King at that are only two extant views of value. The Norden map (pub- date. ft was, however, in use by the following October 7. The draft lished in 1593) shows no superstructure. The Delaram portrait for the Visscher view, therefore, it would seem, must be dated between (background o{ 1599-1605) shows the same building 'lvith a the finishing of the Second Globe in the spring or very early summer of prominent gabled superstructure appearing above the wall either 1514 and the completion of the Hope in the summer or early autumn, since Visscher either pictured the still standing Bear (]arden or from an * earlier view filled in the space left by its removal. Adams, ol. cit., 90. THE DATE OF THE PLAY 47 46 oRrcrN oF I HINRY vl. structure is on the southwest of the pit;or (2) the two lower on the northeast or the southwest side of the pit, although on the may be transverse gables, the shorter cutting the longer which side the point of view does not permit us to determine. s€ctions in the middle at right angles and the two surmounted by the This corroborates the evidence of the early harey the uj that the square cupola at their junction, in which case the structure is on Rose had a turr€t. The Merian view of 1638 shows a structure the northwest of the pit. The second is for several reasons the approximately in the position of the Rose, although that house is more likely explanation, as will be shown. The Merian view of not heard oI after 1605 and does not appear in the Visscher view 1638 for the Globe rather slavishly follows the Visscher view, of 1616. Even if the Merian view is in this respect reliable, the as it does in the case of the Bear Garden. In Hollar's panoramic identity of the building was apparently unknown to the draughts' view of 1647 the Globe is indicated by name. As Professor man, for he does not give it an identifying number as he does Adams66 points out, Hollar was in exile from 164567 to 1652, the other houses. Unlike the sketch in the Delaram portrait, it and for his London view had to rely upon reproducing other appears a comparatively low building, and if authentic and really views, or, when these failed, upon his memory, and there{ore this on the Rose site, probably represents a later structure. Its flag picture of the Globe is vague in detail. Further, the building had is somewhat to the western side of the enclosure. been pulled down on April 15, 16++.68 Although no structure The Swan (built 1595): Visscher's panoramic view 5. appears above the wall, the wall is sharply inclined upward at (1616) shows a gable-roofed hut with a flag, rising above the the west as if to conceal or give additional protection to a stage wall on the west or northwest side. The shape and proportion beneath. of the part of the hut showing are in complete harmony with the The Hope (in use by October 7, 1614): The contract DeWitt drawing of the interior of the Swan. Merian's view 8. for this buildings'g called for a house both for plays and for bull- (1638) gives the same details. There is no other view having and bear-baiting, with a removable stage resting upon trestles, any independent authority. and with "the heavens all over the said stage' to be borne or 6. The First Globe (finished shortly before September 21, carried without any posts or supporters to be fixed or set upon 1599, when Platter witnessed there a performance of Julius the said stage." With regard to matters not specifically provided Caesar66): The Delaram picture (background of 1599-1605) for in the contract the theatre was to be built upon the model o{ shows a circular structure smaller in diameter above than below the neighboring Swan. The only extant picture of this house, and with a turret rather obscurely to be seen extending above the that in Hollar's view of 1647, is in complete harmony with these walls, apparently either on the northwest or southeast side of the requirements, and as, unlike the Second Globe, the building was pit. The Hondius view of 1610 represents the same structure still in existence at the given date, the sketch is probably trust- but omits the turret, as it likervise is rather unsatisfactory with worthy. Two gable-roofed structures run parallel and touching, regard to the Bear Garden. from the somewhat northwesterly wall (as in the Swan) more The Second Globe (new before 30, 1614): The 7. June than halfway into the yard. They are surmounted by a Sara- Visscher panorama shows a triple structure rising conspicuously above the walls on the northwest or southwest side. The two o" op. c;t., p. 260, lower sections of this structure are gabled. From the drawing !t He was not in exile so early as 1543. He was captured at the either ( 1) they may be standing side by side, with the gables taking of Basing House by the Roundheads on October 14, 1645' See parallel but with the nearer one shorter than the further and Dictionary of National Biogralhy' IX' 1055' ot Atlams, 384. the further one surmounted by a square cupola, in which case otAbstractetl in Adams, 326-33(l; given in full in Greg, Hcnslowc Palttrt, 19. nnd Chambers, II' 466-68. u Anglia, XXII, 456. 48 oRIGTN or r HENRY vI' would cenic cupola back over the tiring-house, where the weight upon the be remwed from the "heavens" and would rest only long ,oUl ti.irrg-house walls' The very curious and unusual each side of double-parallel-gable arrangement, with peaks over to support the stage and none in the middle, is evidently designed stage' as solidly a structure projecting over the full depth of the evidently an and lightly u, po*tibl.; while the oriental cupola is Globe' attempt at un i-prouement over the cupola on the new deeply although in its enforced new position, on account of the from fro;".ling "heavens," it certainly could not have been seen within the yard or used {or stage efiects' Fromtheaboveitwouldseemthatwemaygathercertain conclusions: 1. It is a striking fact that all the clear views of turrets on the gen- of houses that were solely theatres indicate a stage tendency erally western side of the pit,6o with apparently a slight doubtful toward the northwest in the later houses' The only and the First Globe cases are in the rninute pictrtres of the Rose portrait' which are in the backgrotrnd to the f)elararn eqrrestrian so small a necessarily ambiguous, because it was impossible in view to irrdi.ut" ll"urly at the given angle whether the structures it is only were on the near or the far side of the pit, and which evidence in the reasonable to interpret in accord with the other rule of the gen- case. Otherwise, the only clear exception to the .."tt, *.r,.rn location is in the Visscher and Merian views not only certain ,o The phrase "generally western" takes into account also the facts variations among the t'u'iottt buildings themselves' but assumed points of that the difierent drawings ale not identical as to the should be made view, that it is difficult tJdetermine how much allowance upon the for perspective' and that even in drawings apparently based are not ,"-" origin"l ih" of presentation of important structures "ngl.. phrase is sufficiently always consistent. As a generalized statement -the the same accurate. Note, too, that in respect to the location of the stage obtained at the three conditions as in the Bankside theatres apPear to have and the Bell in theatre-inns in the heart of the city, i.e,, the cross Keys These wcre all on Gracious Street and the Bull in Bishopsgate Street' to the inn- the west side of the thoroughfare, necessitating an entrance und nuturally throwing the stages again to yards from their eastern "ndt tlrc west ends of the rectangular enclosurcs' THE DATE OF THE PLAY +9
(probably corroborated by the Hondius sketch) of the Bear Gar- h0 den, and this exception is easily explained. In this house the oY production of plays was incidental to the main business o{ bear- baiting, and the position of the spectators and therefore o{ the oz stage would be determined by the place of entrance o{ the ani- .9U mals. Now the position of the houses {or the animals is clearly indicated in the Norden map of 1593, where the outbuildings grouped against the amphitheatre in their logical place on the F are 3 f e warm southeastern side, where all day they would be heated by rc .l . d: the sun.61 When in 1614 the Hope was erected on the site of the Bear Garden, Hollar's picture shows the turrets and the remov- ; w <.= to the usual western (or somewhat E 9!c- able stage to have been shifted con- oo northwestern) side, as they were in the Swan, which by r-l qs '! tract served as the builder's model' The illustrations in all the position a'i clear views therefore agree on the generally western of the stage for all the houses except the Bear Garden, the main func- do tion of which at the time was such as to render its divergence
'a= from the type quite natural. '-M'/. .= 6= confirmatory of the correctness of H :Co Other considerations are H Y! P the information derived from the clear views as to the location of the turrets and stage. First, this is in accordance with the 2 ic inherent probabilities of the case. A position generally west or ,- i ao of the playhouse pit is the best possible for the stage F -r*; northwest have been the conditions during q:-dEi aE_ under what we know to light E qod L the hours of performance. Between three and five in the afternoon NYo=m the sun is pasing from the south more and more to the southwest L aE = sky. With the front line of the westerly stage running from north X irii ,q*a: to south, or even better, somewhat from northeast to southwest' during the greater part of the afternoon the full warmth of the sun would be admitted to the amphitheatre without interference Cv from "heavens" and turrets-an important matter in an unroofed theatre, especially in winter. And moreover' the per{ormers do glare and can' if necessary' play back under o not directly face the the protection of the "heavens"; while the smallest possible pro-
la ot Cf., too, the quotations from Stow's Suroey' and from DeWitt's account of his visit, as quoted by Adams, pp. 166'67, and also the Merian view of 1638 and the map of 1657, where the outbuildings are shown t- rimilarly placed. 50 oRrcrN oF r HENRy w. T}IE DATE OF THE PLAY 5I portion of the audience are troubled by conlronting the light, Visscher views is conspicuous but single'os The Swan (1595) as the namely, those on the north and northeast sides, and as the sun is of the same conspicuous but comparatively simple type Delaram picture sinks and the three-story theatre wall intervenes, a steadily dimin- Bear Garden. The First Globe (1599) in the delineated' The Second ishing number even of them. Again, the evidence of the pano- has a simple turret not conspicuously triple structure rising conspicuously ramas and maps in this respect is in harmony with the DeWitt Globe (1614) has a complex far above the walls on the northwest side' The Hopc (1614) drawing of the Swan interior. With a stage thus placed, I-on- ,,heavens,' extended its over the entire stage despite the difficulty don would be on the performers' left, and the trumpeter announc- of supporting so heavy a structure without forward posts, and' ing the performance to the center of population would naturally not ; be orrtdorr" by its popular rival, the Second Globe, erected appear on that side of the turret and face in that direction, which a lancy oriental cupola, although apparently where, from its shape is exactly the position which pictures as in DeWitt him. Finally, and position, its only possible use could be as an ornament and this explanation helps to solve an old perplexity with regard to a stand for the trumpeter who announced the performance to the superstructure of the Globe. It has been said that the Vis- those at a distance. The logic of this development is self-evident. scher view of the Globe turrets is susceptible visually of two in- 3. As a general result of the above facts we may note a dis- terpretations. There may be ( I two parallel gables standing ) tinct additional ground for confidence in tho details of the pano- side by side, the nearer the shorter, and the further surmounted ramic maps. In the sketch of London in the Delaram drawing' by a square cupola ; or (2) the two lower sections may be trans- which is not a map at all, but merely a very subordinate back- verse gables, the shorter cutting the other at right angles and the ground to a large equestrian portrait of the King, and from which two surmounted by the square cupola at their junction. If the great topographical clearness and accuracy are therefore not to convention- former is the correct interpretation of the drawing, the stage is ie expected, the tiny turrets are probably somewhat accurate in position' on the southwest, and the sunlight tends to be directly in the eyes alized in form and possibly not wholly satisfactory Hondius map' of the spectators. If, on the contrary, the stage is on the north- Otherwise, except for the not wholly prove to be in these matters consistent with each other, west, the second of the above explanations is necessarily the cor- the views known facts, and with the general probabilities in the rect one, which gives ideal light conditions, substitutes a graceful with other case. and symmetrical structure for a curiously awkward and ungainly possibilities in the history of contrivance, and at the same time does away with the query as In an attempt to suggest other additional points' The inns to the use of the shorter or "second house,"62 which is then non- the turret we may adduce certain continued to be used more existent. There can be little doubt that the clear views correctly that formed the first theatres, and that the early '90's, from the indicate the general positions of the stages in the regular theatres or less Ior the purpose in London of Neither would and the Bear Garden, respectively. very nature of the case would have no turrets. the first Blackfriars theatre, the roofed second-floor room that 2, There is traceable throughout the pictures a regular evo- served as histrionic home to the children of the chapel, and later lution as to the turret. The Rose turret, absent in the earliest also to the Children oI Paul's, lrom 1577 to 1584' The two map including the theatre, is found as a conspicuous but simple earliest regular theatres, The Theatre (1576) and The Curtain structure in the Delaram view. The Bear Garden turret, sim- ilarly absent in the earliest view discussed, in the Delaram and tt Although there is apparently a subordinate structure on a lower See conveniently Professor Adams' enlarged detail of the Visscher o level. Baker, The Deoelolmcnt of Shake sle arc a! a Dramatist, 70. drawing, ol. til., 127. 52 oRrcrN oF HENRy vr. r THE DATE OF THE PLAY 53
(1577), were undoubtedly constructed in general upon the model The second and third o{ these large fires must have been on the of their predecessors, the inns, and the added improvements would stage in the sight of the audience, and in the case of the first, naturally take time to develop as experience with the new struc- the flames from the burning town must have risen in the balcony tures showed their advisability.Ga Further, at least one play, 2 above the assumed city walls. All this would be extremely dan- Tamburlaine, written about the winter 1587-88, and undoubt- of gerous with an elaborate wooden superstructure above' and sug- edly intended for presentation either in The Theatre its or in g"rt, th. absence, in the theatre of that date, not only of the sister house,65 The Curtain, features fire scenes on a large scale, theatrical turret structure, but also of the "heavens" and even Act III, scene ii, opens with the entrance of the hearse Tam- o{ of a roo{ to the balconY. burlaine's wife, Zenocrate, attended by Tamburlaine, and his three Now it will be remembered that the rude Norden map' pub- sons, "the drums sounding a dolefull martch, the Towne burning," lished in 1593, does not indicate any turret as yet in the Rose or in and Tamburlaine begins the scene with the words, the Bear Garden, but that the turrets appear in the view depict- So, burne the turrets of this cursed towne, ing conditions in 1599-1605. It will be remembered, too, that Flame to the highest region of the aire: Henslowe had in January and February, l59l-2, made extensive And kindle heaps of exhalations, Here is Mr. Greg's intcrpretation of That being fiery meteors, may presage, alterations in the Rose. af- Death and destruction to th'inhabitants. the records:ot "The repairs must have bcen extcnsive and fected in no small degree the general structure' Much of In III, iv, of the same play the Captain of Balsera, fleeing from the wooden structure was replaced by new timber, and the lath the conquered town, dies of his wounds, and his r,vife stabs their and plaster which covered the buitding was renewed' A mast child and, as is clcar frorn tlrc text, burns tlrc bodies and attempts was provided {rom which was flown the flag that announced a to throw herself into the flarnes.tt0 Again, in V, i, Tamburlaine performance. The roo{ed portions of the house were freshly commands that the Koran and other Mahometan books shall be thatched. The stage was painted. Over the tiring-house was a burnt, evidently on the stage, and as the flames mount he chal- room which was ceiled. This, says Ordish (p' 156)' was 're- lenges Mahomet to served for visitors o{ position,' but it is clearly distinct from the Come downe thy selfe and worke a myracle, lords' room which was likewise ceiled. It may have served as Thou art not woorthy to be worshipped, 'balcony' over the stage, or it may perhaps have formed the That sufiers flames of fire to burne the writ the we see overtopping the galleries Wherein the sum of thy religion rests. Etc. queer tower-like structure which in the sketch of the Swan and Visscher's panorama'" It was - Professor Adams' description of The Theatre suggests its origin- probably the balcony, but the plastering suggests new woodwork ('The ally simple equipment: stage was a platform, projecting into the above it; and the flagpole surmounting the turret was certainly yard, with a tiring-house at the rear, and a balcony overhead. The recorded as new. details of the stage, no doubt, were subject to alteration as experience pretty suggested, for its materials were of wood, and histrionic and dramatic Now, this remodeling of the Rose early in 1592 was art were both undergoing rapid development." (Shakeslearean FIay- certainly carried out under the direction oi the leaders of strange's houses,48.) Henslowe, io 1592, had little, if any, practical knowl- * company. Cf. Adams, 77. ctlge of stage technique or of theatrical architecture {rom the 06As both husband and child speak at length before dying and no Actor's point of view. But he had an opportunity to bind to him- opportunities for substitution for the bodies are noted in the text, it is self alliance strengthened in the {ollowing October by the difficult to see exactly how this was managed; but that it was done the --an dialogue leaves no room for doubt, " Iltnslocuc's Diary,ll,49, commenting upon I' 7-10' DATE OF THE PLAY 55 54 ORIGIN OF I HENRY VI. TI{E
the latter at some time during the Henslowe-Alleyn management' marriage of his step-daughter, Joan Woodward, to their famous began in December, 1594), in the Swan and the Globe, leader, Edward Alleyn-the finest theatrical organization of Eng- which just land and one so rapidly rising in court favor that they had Tuclca). thou hast been at Parris garden hast achieved the unparalleled record of giving six court performances not ? ha plaide Zulziman there' between the December 27 and February 14 preceding.o8 If not Ilorlaccl. Yes Captaine, I Sir l/aulghanf' Then M. Horace you plaide the part of Theatre the Curtain, why, in winter, were Strange's at the or an honest man. Company not playing in any of the more easily accessible inns Tuclcal. Death of Hercules, he could neuer play that within the City? They doubtless went in February to the un- part well in's life, no Fulkes you could not: thou call'st Demetrius Iorneyman Poet, but thou putst vp a Supplication roofed house in a comparatively untried theatrical location across to be a poore Iorneyman Player, and hadst beene still so, which the river, only as the result of special inducements, among but that thou couldst not set a. good face vpon't: thou hast would pretty certainly be the renovation of the house that actually forgot how thou amblest (in leather pilch) by a play-wagon, took place, and very probably the promise of an up-to-the-minute in the highway, and took'st mad Ieronimoes part' to get the Stagerites banisht stage equipment practically built to their order.6s And observe seruice among the Mimickes: and when thee into the Ile of l)ogs, thou turn'dst tsan-dog (villanous that 1 Henrg I/1, the first new play presented in the rebuilt house, Guy) & euer since bitest therefore I aske if th'ast been at seems in the two scenes previously discussed (I, iv, and III, ii), Parris-garden, because thou hast such a good mouth; thou especially and uniquely to "feature" the turret' as the Nerv York baitst well, read, lege, saue thy selfe and read' Hippodrome might "feature" a new artificial lake. In short, a (Dekker: Dramatic Works, ed' 1873, I, 229') of number of considerations point to the likelihood that the first Here Jonson (Horace) himself is made to state as a mele matter turret in an Elizabethan theatre was built in the Rose early in {act that he had acted zulziman at Paris Garden. This clearly refers Bear Garden, not only because Paris Garden was the generic 1592 at the direct order of Strange's Men under the leadership to the name for the bear-baiting centre on the Bankside (Chambers, I1,359,374, usefulness theatrical of Edward Alleyn.?o Its and the spirit of 411,461,465), but from the allnsions to "Ban-dog" and baiting inter- competition would cause its insertion in the Bear Garden?l (in woven in the passage. The "Zulziman" mentioned by Jonson is unknown, and the satirical nature of the scene necessitates caution in interpretation; * Henslowe's Diary, e,J. Greg, II, 336. but the "Zulzimrf'line is not a point in itself, but is purely incidental t DeWitt says that the Rose was "more magnificent" than the The- to another matter, and the inference seems unavoidable that at least one atre and the Curtain (Adams, 167)' dramatic performance had been given at the house in question' It has t0This carries with it the reasonable inference that the Bankside been doubted by some whether Jonson ever was an actor, but not only is life unques- section of the rude Norden map represents a condition of some year or the reference here mingled with other allusions to Jonson's pieces evidence cor- more prior to its actual publication. tionably veracious, but there are three further of repeated elsewhere in this same play (ed' tt See Greg, Henslowc's Diary, lI, 36. Dr. Greg appears to take it ,obor"iing it: (a) the point is o{ a letter and an Act for granted (Diary, lI, 47, 67) that the production of plays on this site dt., I, 202); (b) we have the combined evidence (Dasent, Acts the Priwy Council, XXVII, 338; does not antedate the building of the Hope in 1613-14, but against this of the Privy Council of 173), in the former of which is view there are a number o{ arguments. (1) The presence of the turret in XXVIII,33; quoted by Adams, Jonson actor but a maker of the said playr" Thc the old Bear Garden as distinctly indicated in the clear views of Visschcr referred to as "not only an in a position to know, records on and Merian, and possibly also in that of Hondius, is unmistakable evi- Islr of Dogs; (cJ Henslowe, certainly loan of €4 to player," dence of the earlier practice. (2) The earliest mention of the Bear Jrrly 28, 1597 (Diary, I,200) a "Bengemen Johnson himself being a witness. Jonson's one-time status at Garden in connection with the production of drama occurs so early as li