Before the establishment of the permanent theatres there had long existed amphitheatres for the performance of fights between animals, the so-called “rings.”.
Continuing Building the First Theatre In England,
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Previously in Building the First Theatre In England.
Time: 1576
Place: London
Before the establishment of the permanent theatres there had long existed amphitheatres for the performance of fights between animals, the so-called “rings.” These rings–the auditorium as well as the arena–were open all round, and the seats, like those of the ancient Greek theatre, were placed according to the natural formation of the ground.
Burbage retained the circular amphitheatrical form; being a joiner as well as an actor and manager, he was no doubt his own architect in his new theatrical enterprise.
But instead of the roofless, open-air auditorium, he constructed a covered circular wooden building with stories or galleries, which was made so as to contain a number of boxes for the distinguished and well-paying public, and which entirely enclosed the open, uncovered arena, which, as it recalled the inn-yards, was called the “yard,” or afterward, perhaps on account of the high pitlike construction surrounding it, the “pit,” whence the poorest and humblest spectators enjoyed the performances.
Finally, he built a covered “tire-house”–or “tiring-house,” as it was called in those times–for the actors, a place in which also all the requisites and the so-called “properties” were kept. This tiring-house stood within the circle, and its roof towered up above the auditorium.
From the tiring-house the stage–a simple wooden platform resting on rams–was pushed forward, and it might be removed when the arena was to be used for fights between animals, etc., instead of dramatic performances.
By this reform of the building–a reform which became epoch-making to the whole Shakespearean period–James Burbage obtained a threefold advantage: more comfortable seats for the more distinguished portion of the audience, where they were sheltered from wind and weather; the use of the house both for plays and the baiting of animals; and the power to oblige the public to pay their admission at certain doors of his building, which spared him the unpleasant and unsafe collection of money from spectators, who might not always be very willing to pay.
But this result was not obtained without considerable expense.
Though we are not so fortunate as to possess a drawing of the outside or inside of The Theatre, about the shape of which, therefore, we must partly draw our conclusions from analogy with other playhouses, we are comparatively well informed as to its outward history till it was pulled down, in 1598-1599.
Thus we know that the enterprise cost James Burbage six hundred sixty-six pounds thirteen shillings fourpence, a considerable sum in those days, which would be equal to about eightfold that amount in our own time.
This money Burbage borrowed of his father-in-law, John Braynes, to whom he had to pay high interest, and it represented only the cost of the building itself, for he did not buy the ground on which it stood. This ground belonged to one Giles Allen, and in the contract between him and Burbage it was settled, among other points, that if, in the course of the first ten years after the drawing up of the lease, Burbage spent a sum of two hundred pounds or more on the building, he should have a right to remove it after the expiration of the lease.
The lease was drawn up in the year 1576, for a period of twenty-one years. In spite of many pecuniary difficulties, which the heavy rent and high interest naturally entailed on Burbage–who for some time even seems to have been obliged to mortgage his entire property–and innumerable annoyances from the Puritans, Burbage succeeded in keeping his theatre above water till the expiration of the lease and till his own death, which occurred in 1597.
But before this date he had been negotiating with the proprietor, Giles Allen, about a prolongation of the lease. Allen, who was evidently as grasping as he was difficult to deal with, and who may not unjustly be suspected of having been an instrument in the hands of the Puritan authorities, had caused him a good deal of trouble in the course of years. On seeing how people crowded to the theatre, he had tried, for one thing, to press Burbage for a higher rent, and partly for religious, partly for moral reasons, had threatened to forbid the running of a playhouse on his property. The negotiations about the new lease had not come to an end when the elder Burbage died, and left his two sons, Cuthbert, who was a bookseller, and Richard, who was the leading actor of his time, not only burdened with the playhouse, the long lease of which had expired, but opposed by a proprietor with whom it was impossible to come to terms, and by a magistrate who was more eager than ever to deal a blow at the playhouses.
In the same year, when the two brothers took on The Theatre, the lord mayor of London actually succeeded in inducing the privy council to issue an order of suppression against it and other playhouses. The order begins as follows: “Her Majestie being informed that there are verie greate disorders committed in the common playhouses both by lewd matters that are handled on the stages, and by resorte and confluence of bad people, hathe given direction that not onlie no playes shall be used within London or about the Citty, or in any public place, during this tyme of sommer, but that all those playhouses that are erected and built only for suche purposes shall be plucked downe, namelie The Curtayne and The Theatre nere to Shorditch, or any other within that county.”
It is not known whether the order was withdrawn or whether the disregard of it was winked at–the court very likely was not particularly inclined to see the sentence or condemnation carried out. At all events, neither The Curtain nor The Theatre was pulled down at the time. But the order shows how much power the Puritans possessed, and what difficulties the brothers Burbage had to contend with.
They seem, however, to have inherited their father’s resolute character. Since it seemed quite impossible to come to terms with the grasping proprietor, Allen, the brothers were sensible enough to avail themselves of the clause in the now expired lease, which permitted them to pull down and remove the buildings they had erected on the premises, in case they had spent at least two hundred pounds on them during the first ten years. This sum had been much exceeded at the time, and one day, to the great consternation and anger of the astonished Giles Allen, they simply removed The Theatre.
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