THE CURTAIN
Although James Burbage was, as his son asserted, "the first builder of
playhouses," a second public playhouse followed hard on the Theatre,
probably within twelve months. It was erected a short distance to the
south of the Theatre,--that is, nearer the city,--and, like that
building, it adjoined Finsbury Field.[106] To the two playhouses the
audiences came trooping over the meadows, in "great multidudes," the
Lord Mayor tells us; and the author of _Tarlton's Newes out of
Purgatory_ (_c._ 1589) describes their return to London thus: "With
that I waked, and saw such concourse of people through the fields that
I knew the play was done."[107]
[Footnote 106: The site is probably marked by Curtain Court in
Chasserau's survey of 1745, reproduced on page 79.]
[Footnote 107: Ed. by J.O. Halliwell, for The Shakespeare Society
(1844), p. 105.]
The new playhouse derived its name from the Curtain estate, on which
it was erected.[108] This estate was formerly the property of the
Priory of Holywell, and was described in 1538 as "scituata et
existentia extra portas ejusdem nuper monasterii prope pasturam dicte
nuper Priorisse, vocatam _the Curteine_."[109] Why it was so called
is not clear. The name may have been derived from some previous owner
of the property; it may, as Collier thought, have come from some early
association with the walls (_curtains_) or defenses of the city; or,
it may have come, as Tomlins suggests, from the mediaeval Latin
_cortina_, meaning a court, a close, a farm enclosure.[110] Whatever
its origin--the last explanation seems the most plausible--the
interesting point is that it had no connection whatever with a stage
curtain.
[Footnote 108: The Rose and the Red Bull derived their names in a
similar way from the estates on which they were erected.]
[Footnote 109: Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 364.]
[Footnote 110: Tomlins, _Origin of the Curtain Theatre, and Mistakes
Regarding It_, in The Shakespeare Society's Papers (1844), p. 29.]
The building was probably opened to the London public in the summer or
autumn of 1577. The first reference to it is found in T[homas]
W[hite]'s _Sermon Preached at Pawles Crosse on Sunday the Thirde of
November, 1577_: "Behold the sumptuous theatre houses, a continual
monument of London's prodigality and folly";[111] and a reference to
it by name appears in Northbrooke's _A Treatise_, licensed December,
1577: "Those places, also, which are made up and builded for such
plays and interludes, as the Theatre and Curtain."[112]
[Footnote 111: J.D. Wilson, _The Cambridge History of English
Literature_, VI, 435, says that this sermon was "delivered at Paul's
cross on 9 December, 1576 and, apparently, repeated on 3 November in
the following year." This is incorrect; White did preach a sermon at
Paul's Cross on December 9, but not the sermon from which this
quotation is drawn.]
[Footnote 112: Ed. by J.P. Collier, for The Shakespeare Society
(1843), p. 85.]
Like the Theatre, the Curtain was a peculiarly shaped building,
specially designed for acting; "those playhouses that are erected and
built _only for such purposes_ ... namely the Curtain and the
Theatre,"[113] writes the Privy Council; and the German traveler,
Samuel Kiechel, who visited London in 1585, describes them as
"_sonderbare_" structures. They are usually mentioned together, and in
such a way as to suggest similarity of shape as well as of purpose. We
may, I think, reasonably suppose that the Curtain was in all essential
details a copy of Burbage's Theatre.[114] Presumably, then, it was
polygonal (or circular) in shape,[115] was constructed of timber, and
was finished on the outside with lime and plaster. The interior, as
the evidence already cited in the chapter on the Theatre shows,
consisted of three galleries surrounding an open yard. There was a
platform projecting into the middle of the yard, with dressing-rooms
at the rear, "heavens" overhead, and a flagpole rising above the
"heavens." That some sign was displayed in front of the door is
likely. Malone writes: "The original sign hung out at this playhouse
(as Mr. Steevens has observed) was the painting of a curtain
striped."[116] Aubrey records that Ben Jonson "acted and wrote, but
both ill, at the Green Curtain, a kind of nursery or obscure playhouse
somewhere in the suburbs, I think towards Shoreditch or
Clerkenwell."[117] By "at the Green Curtain" Aubrey means, of course,
"at the sign of the Green Curtain"; but the evidence of Steevens and
of Aubrey is too vague and uncertain to warrant any definite
conclusions.
[Footnote 113: Dasent, _Acts of the Privy Council_, XXVII, 313.]
[Footnote 114: It seems, however, to have been smaller than the
Theatre.]
[Footnote 115: Johannes de Witt describes the Theatre and the Curtain
along with the Swan and the Rose as "amphitheatra" (see page 167). It
is quite possible that Shakespeare refers to the Curtain in the
Prologue to _Henry V_ as "this wooden O," though the reference may be
to the Globe.]
[Footnote 116: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 54; cf. also Ellis, _The
Parish of St. Leonard_.]
[Footnote 117: Did Steevens base his statement on this passage in
Aubrey?]
Of the early history of the Curtain we know little, mainly because it
was not, like certain other playhouses, the subject of extensive
litigation. We do not even know who planned and built it. The first
evidence of its ownership appears fifteen years after its erection, in
some legal documents connected with the Theatre.[118] In July, 1592,
Henry Lanman, described as "of London, gentleman, of the age of 54
years," deposed: "That true it is about 7 years now shall be this next
winter, they, the said Burbage and Brayne, having the profits of plays
made at the Theatre, and this deponent having the profits of the plays
done at the house called the Curtain near to the same, the said
Burbage and Brayne, taking the Curtain as an esore[119] to their
playhouse, did of their own motion move this deponent that he would
agree that the profits of the said two playhouses might for seven
years space be in divident between them."[120]
[Footnote 118: Brayne _v._ Burbage, 1592, printed in full by Wallace,
_The First London Theatre_, pp. 109-52. See especially pp. 126, 148.]
[Footnote 119: Easer?]
[Footnote 120: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 148; cf. p. 126.]
[Illustration: THE SITE OF THE CURTAIN PLAYHOUSE
From _An Actual Survey of the Parish of St Leonard in Shoreditch taken
in the year 1745_ by Peter Chasserau, Surveyor. The key to the map
gives "93" as Curtain Court, probably the site of the old playhouse,
"87" as New Inn Yard, and "94" as Holywell Court, both interesting in
connection with Burbage's Theatre. (Redrawn from the original for this
volume.)]
From this statement it is evident that Henry Lanman was the sole
proprietor of the Curtain as far back as 1585, and the presumption is
that his proprietorship was of still earlier date. This presumption is
strengthened by the fact that in a sale of the Curtain estate early in
1582, he is specifically mentioned as having a tenure of an "edifice
or building" erected in the Curtain Close, that is, that section of
the estate next to the Field, on which the playhouse was built.[121]
Since Lanman is not mentioned as having any other property on the
estate, the "edifice or building" referred to was probably the
playhouse. The document gives no indication as to how long he had held
possession of the "edifice," but the date of sale, March, 1582,
carries us back to within four years of the erection of the Curtain,
and it seems reasonable to suppose, though of course we cannot be
sure, that Lanman had been proprietor of the building from the very
beginning.[122]
[Footnote 121: Tomlins, _op. cit._, pp. 29-31.]
[Footnote 122: Of this Henry Lanman we know nothing beyond the facts
here revealed. Possibly he was a brother of the distinguished actor
John Lanman (the name is variously spelled Lanman, Laneman, Lenmann,
Laneham, Laynman, Lanham), one of the chief members of Leicester's
troupe, and one of the twelve men selected in 1583 to form the Queen's
Men. But speculation of this sort is vain. It is to be hoped that in
the future some student will investigate the life of this obscure
theatrical manager, and trace his connection with the early history of
the drama.]
Certain records of the sale of the Curtain estate shortly before and
shortly after the erection of the playhouse are preserved, but these
throw very little light upon the playhouse itself. We learn that on
February 20, 1567, Lord Mountjoy and his wife sold the estate to
Maurice Longe, clothworker, and his son William Longe, for the sum of
L60; and that on August 23, 1571, Maurice Longe and his wife sold it
to the then Lord Mayor, Sir William Allyn, for the sum of L200. In
both documents the property is described in the same words: "All that
house, tenement or lodge commonly called the _Curtain_, and all that
parcel of ground and close, walled and enclosed with a brick wall on
the west and north parts, called also the _Curtain Close_." The lodge
here referred to, generally known as "Curtain House," was on, or very
near, Holywell Lane;[123] the playhouse, as already stated, was
erected in the close near the Field.[124]
[Footnote 123: Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 365.]
[Footnote 124: The Privy Council on March 10, 1601, refers to it as
"The Curtaine in Moorefeildes"; in ancient times, says Stow,
Moorefields extended to Holywell. See Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_,
I, 364.]
How long Sir William Allyn held the property, or why it reverted to
the Longe family, we do not know. But on March 18, 1582, we find
William Longe, the son of "Maurice Longe, citizen and clothworker, of
London, deceased," selling the same property, described in the same
words, to one "Thomas Harberte, citizen and girdler, of London." In
the meantime, of course, the playhouse had been erected, but no clear
or direct mention of the building is made in the deed of sale.
Possibly it was included in the conventionally worded phrase: "and all
and singular other messuages, tenements, edifices, and buildings, with
all and singular their appurtenances, erected and builded upon the
said close called the Curtain."[125] Among the persons named as
holding tenures of the above-mentioned "edifices and buildings" in the
close was Henry Lanman. It seems not improbable, therefore, that the
Curtain, like the Theatre, was erected on leased ground.
[Footnote 125: Tomlins, _op. cit._, p. 31.]
It is impossible to give a connected history of the Curtain. Most of
the references to it that we now possess are invectives in early
puritanical writings, or bare mention, along with other playhouses, in
letters or ordinances of the Privy Council and the Lord Mayor. Such
references as these do not much help us in determining what companies
successively occupied the building, or what varying fortunes marked
its ownership and management. Yet a few scattered facts have sifted
down to us, and these I have arranged in chronological order.
On the afternoon of April 6, 1580, an earthquake, especially severe in
Holywell, shook the building during the performance of a play, and
greatly frightened the audience. Munday says merely: "at the
playhouses the people came running forth, surprised with great
astonishment";[126] but Stubbes, the Puritan, who saw in the event a
"fearful judgment of God," writes with fervor: "The like judgment
almost did the Lord show unto them a little before, being assembled at
their theatres to see their bawdy interludes and other trumperies
practised, for He caused the earth mightily to shake and quaver, as
though all would have fallen down; whereat the people, sore amazed,
some leapt down from the top of the turrets, pinnacles, and towers
where they stood, to the ground, whereof some had their legs broke,
some their arms, some their backs, some hurt one where, some another,
and many score crushed and bruised."[127]
[Footnote 126: _View of Sundry Examples_, 1580.]
[Footnote 127: _The Anatomy of Abuses_, ed. F.J. Furnivall, New
Shakspere Society, p. 180. For other descriptions of this earthquake
see Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 369.]
The disturbance at the Theatre and the Curtain in 1584, when one
Challes "did turn upon the toe upon the belly of" an apprentice
"sleeping upon the grass" in the Field near by, has been mentioned in
the preceding chapter. If the interpretation of the facts there given
is correct, Lord Arundel's Players were then occupying the Curtain.
In the winter of 1585 Lanman entered into his seven years' agreement
with Burbage and Brayne by which the Theatre and the Curtain were
placed under one management, and the profits shared "in divident
between them." This agreement was faithfully kept by both parties, but
there is no evidence that after the expiration of the seven years, in
the winter of 1592, the affiliation was continued. What effect the
arrangement had upon the companies of players occupying the two
theatres we cannot now determine. To this period, however, I would
assign the appearance of the Queen's Men at the Curtain.[128]
[Footnote 128: _Tarlton's Jests_, ed. by J.O. Halliwell for the
Shakespeare Society (1844), p. 16. For a discussion see the preceding
chapter on the Theatre, p. 72.]
On July 28, 1597, as a result of the performance of Thomas Nashe's
_The Isle of Dogs_, by Pembroke's Men at the Swan,[129] the Privy
Council ordered the plucking down of "the Curtain and the
Theatre."[130] The order, however, was not carried out, and in October
plays were allowed again as before.
[Footnote 129: For details see the chapter on the Swan.]
[Footnote 130: Dasent, _Acts of the Privy Council_, XXVII, 313.]
At this time the Lord Chamberlain's men were at the Curtain, having
recently moved thither in consequence of the difficulties Cuthbert
Burbage was having with Gyles Alleyn over the Theatre property. During
the stay of the Chamberlain's Company, which numbered among its
members William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, William Kempe (who had
succeeded Tarleton in popular favor as a clown), John Heminges, Thomas
Pope, and Augustine Phillips, the playhouse probably attained its
greatest distinction. Both Shakespeare and Jonson wrote plays for the
troupe; _Romeo and Juliet_, we are told, "won Curtain plaudities," as
no doubt did many other of Shakespeare's early masterpieces; and
Jonson's _Every Man in His Humour_ created such enthusiasm here on its
first performance as to make its author famous.[131]
[Footnote 131: Marston, _The Scourge of Villainy_ (1598); Bullen, _The
Works of John Marston_, III, 372.]
In the summer of 1599 the Chamberlain's Men moved into their splendid
new home, the Globe, on the Bankside, and the Curtain thus abandoned
fell on hard times. Perhaps it was let occasionally to traveling
troupes; in Jeaffreson's _Middlesex County Records_, under the date of
March 11, 1600, is a notice of the arrest of one William Haukins
"charged with a purse taken at a play at the Curtain." But shortly
after, in April, 1600, when Henslowe and Alleyn began to erect their
splendid new Fortune Playhouse, they were able to give the impression
to Tilney, the Master of the Revels, and to the Privy Council, that
the Curtain was to be torn down. Thus in the Council's warrant for the
building of the Fortune, dated April 8, 1600, we read that "another
house is [to be] pulled down instead of it";[132] and when the
Puritans later made vigorous protests against the erection of the
Fortune, the Council defended itself by stating that "their Lordships
have been informed by Edmund Tilney, Esquire, Her Majesty's servant,
and Master of the Revels, that the house now in hand to be built by
the said Edward Alleyn is not intended to increase the number of the
playhouses, but to be instead of another, namely the Curtain, which is
either to be ruined and plucked down, or to be put to some other good
use."[133]
[Footnote 132: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 52.]
[Footnote 133: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 82.]
All this talk of the Curtain's being plucked down or devoted to other
uses suggests a contemplated change in the ownership or management of
the building. We do not know when Lanman died (in 1592 he described
himself as fifty-four years of age),[134] but we do know that at some
date prior to 1603 the Curtain had passed into the hands of a
syndicate. When this syndicate was organized, or who constituted its
members, we cannot say. Thomas Pope, in his will, dated July 22, 1603,
mentions his share "of, in, and to all that playhouse, with the
appurtenances, called the Curtain";[135] and John Underwood, in his
will, dated October 4, 1624, mentions his "part or share ... in the
said playhouses called the Blackfriars, the Globe on the Bankside, and
the Curtain."[136] It may be significant that both Pope and Underwood
were sharers also in the Globe. Since, however, further information
is wanting, it is useless to speculate. We can only say that at some
time after the period of Lanman's sole proprietorship, the Curtain
passed into the hands of a group of sharers; and that after a
discussion in 1600 of demolishing the building or devoting it to other
uses, it entered upon a long and successful career.
[Footnote 134: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 148.]
[Footnote 135: J.P. Collier, _Lives of the Original Actors in
Shakespeare's Plays_, p. 127. In exactly the same words Pope disposed
of his share in the Globe.]
[Footnote 136: _Ibid._, p. 230.]
On May 10, 1601, "the actors at the Curtain"[137] gave serious offense
by representing on the stage persons "of good desert and quality, that
are yet alive, under obscure manner, but yet in such sort as all the
hearers may take notice both of the matter and the persons that are
meant thereby." The Privy Council ordered the Justices of the Peace to
examine into the case and to punish the offenders.[138]
[Footnote 137: Possibly Derby's Men.]
[Footnote 138: See Dasent, _Acts of the Privy Council_, XXXI, 346.]
Early in 1604 a draft of a royal patent for Queen Anne's Players--who
had hitherto been under the patronage of Worcester[139]--gives those
players permission to act "within their now usual houses, called the
Curtain, and the Boar's Head."[140] On April 9, 1604, the Privy
Council authorized the three companies of players that had been taken
under royal patronage "to exercise their plays in their several and
usual houses for that purpose, and no other, viz., the Globe,
scituate in Maiden Lane on the Bankside in the County of Surrey, the
Fortune in Golding Lane, and the Curtain in Holywell."[141] The King's
Men (the Burbage-Shakespeare troupe) occupied the Globe; Prince
Henry's Men (the Henslowe-Alleyn troupe), the Fortune; and Queen
Anne's Men, the Curtain.
[Footnote 139: The company was formed by an amalgamation of Oxford's
and Worcester's Men in 1602. See The Malone Society's _Collections_,
I, 85.]
[Footnote 140: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 266.]
[Footnote 141: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 61; Dasent, _Acts of the
Privy Council_, XXXII, 511.]
But the Queen's Men were probably dissatisfied with the Curtain. It
was small and antiquated, and it must have suffered by comparison with
the more splendid Globe and Fortune. So the Queen's players had built
for themselves a new and larger playhouse, called "The Red Bull." This
was probably ready for occupancy in 1605, yet it is impossible to say
exactly when the Queen's Men left the Curtain; their patent of April
15, 1609, gives them permission to act "within their now usual houses
called the Red Bull, in Clerkenwell, and the Curtain in
Holywell."[142] It may be that they retained control of the Curtain in
order to prevent competition.
[Footnote 142: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 270.]
What company occupied the Curtain after Queen Anne's Men finally
surrendered it is not clear. Mr. Murray is of the opinion that Prince
Charles's Men moved into the Curtain "about December, 1609, or early
in 1610."[143]
[Footnote 143: _English Dramatic Companies_, I, 230.]
In 1613 "a company of young men" acted _The Hector of Germany_ "at
the Red Bull and at the Curtain." Such plays, however, written and
acted by amateurs, were not uncommon, and no significance can be
attached to the event.
In 1622, as we learn from the Herbert Manuscripts, the Curtain was
being occupied by Prince Charles's Servants.[144] In the same year the
author of _Vox Graculi, or The Jack Daw's Prognostication for 1623_,
refers to it thus: "If company come current to the Bull and Curtain,
there will be more money gathered in one afternoon than will be given
to Kingsland Spittle in a whole month; also, if at this time about the
hours of four and five it wax cloudy and then rain downright, they
shall sit dryer in the galleries than those who are the understanding
men in the yard."
[Footnote 144: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 59; cf. Chalmers's
_Supplemental Apology_, p. 213, note _y_. Murray gives the date
incorrectly as 1623.]
Prince Charles's Men did not remain long at the Curtain. At some date
between June 10 and August 19, 1623, they moved to the larger and more
handsome Red Bull.[145] After this, so far as I can discover, there is
no evidence to connect the playhouse with dramatic performances.
Malone, who presumably bases his statements on the now lost records of
Herbert, says that shortly after the accession of King Charles I it
"seems to have been used only by prize-fighters."[146]
[Footnote 145: Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_, I, 237, note 1.]
[Footnote 146: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 54, note 2.]
The last mention of the Curtain is found in the _Middlesex County
Records_ under the date February 21, 1627.[147] It is merely a passing
reference to "the common shoare near the Curtain playhouse," yet it is
significant as indicating that the building was then still standing.
What ultimately became of it we do not know. For a time, however, its
memory survived in Curtain Court (see page 79), and to-day its fame is
perpetuated in Curtain Road.
[Footnote 147: See Jeaffreson, _Middlesex County Records_, III, 164,
from which the notice was quoted by Ordish, _Early London Theatres_,
p. 106.]