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2. the Curtain (Built 1577): the Only Possible View Is

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2. the Curtain (Built 1577): the Only Possible View Is 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.
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