THE GLOBE
As related more fully in the chapter on "The Theatre," when Cuthbert
and Richard Burbage discovered that Gyles Alleyn not only refused to
renew the lease for the land on which their playhouse stood, but was
actually planning to seize the building and devote it to his private
uses, they took immediate steps to thwart him. And in doing so they
evolved a new and admirable scheme of theatrical management. They
planned to bring together into a syndicate or stock-company some of
the best actors of the day, and allow these actors to share in the
ownership of the building. Hitherto playhouses had been erected merely
as pecuniary investments by profit-seeking business men,--Burbage,[379]
Brayne, Lanman, Henslowe, Cholmley, Langley,--and had been conducted
in the interests of the proprietors rather than of the actors.[380] As
a result, these proprietors had long reaped an unduly rich harvest
from the efforts of the players, taking all or a large share of the
income from the galleries. The new scheme was designed to remedy these
faults.
[Footnote 379: That even James Burbage is to be put in this class
cannot be disputed.]
[Footnote 380: Cuthbert Burbage in 1635 says: "The players that lived
in those first times had only the profits arising from the doors, but
now the players receive all the comings-in at the doors to themselves
and half the galleries from the housekeepers." (Halliwell-Phillipps,
_Outlines_, I, 317.)]
[Illustration: RICHARD BURBAGE
(Reproduced by permission from a painting in the Dulwich Picture
Gallery; photograph by Emery Walker, Ltd.)]
For participation in this scheme the Burbages selected the following
men: William Shakespeare, not only a successful actor, but a poet who
had already made his reputation as a writer of plays, and who gave
promise of greater attainments; John Heminges, a good actor and an
exceptionally shrewd man of business, who until his death managed the
pecuniary affairs of the company with distinguished success; Augustine
Phillips and Thomas Pope, both ranked with the best actors of the
day;[381] and William Kempe, the greatest comedian since Tarleton,
described in 1600 as "a player in interludes, and partly the Queen's
Majesty's jester." When to this group we add Richard Burbage himself,
the Roscius of his age, we have an organization of business,
histrionic, and poetic ability that could not be surpassed. It was
carefully planned, and it deserved the remarkable success which it
attained. The superiority of the Globe Company over all others was
acknowledged in the days of James and Charles, and to-day stands out
as one of the most impressive facts in the history of the early drama.
[Footnote 381: See, for example, Thomas Heywood's _Apology for Actors_
(1612). In enumerating the greatest actors of England he says:
"Gabriel, Singer, Pope, Phillips, Sly--all the right I can do them is
but this, that though they be dead, their deserts yet live in the
remembrance of many."]
According to the original plan there were to be ten shares in the new
enterprise, the Burbage brothers holding between them one-half the
stock, or two and a half shares each, and the five actors holding the
other half, or one share each. All the expenses of leasing a site,
erecting a building, and subsequently operating the building as a
playhouse, and likewise all the profits to accrue therefrom, were to
be divided among the sharers according to their several holdings.
This organization, it should be understood, merely concerned the
ownership of the building. Its members stood in the relation of
landlords to the players, and were known by the technical name of
"housekeepers." Wholly distinct was the organization of the players,
known as the "company." The company, too, was divided into shares for
the purpose of distributing its profits. The "housekeepers," in return
for providing the building, received one-half of the income from the
galleries; the company, for entertaining the public, received the
other half of the income from the galleries, plus the takings at the
doors. Those actors who were also "housekeepers" shared twice in the
profits of the playhouse; and it was a part of the plan of the
"housekeepers" to admit actors to be sharers in the building as soon
as they attained eminence, or otherwise made their permanent
connection with the playhouse desirable. Thus the two organizations,
though entirely distinct, were interlocking.
Such a scheme had many advantages. In the first place, it prevented
the company from shifting from one playhouse to another, as was
frequently the case with other troupes. In the second place, it
guaranteed both the excellence and the permanency of the company. Too
often good companies were dissolved by the desertion of a few
important members; as every student of the drama knows, the constant
reorganization of troupes is one of the most exasperating features of
Elizabethan theatrical history. In the third place, the plan, like all
profit-sharing schemes, tended to elicit from each member of the
organization his best powers. The opportunity offered to a young actor
ultimately to be admitted as a sharer in the ownership of the building
was a constant source of inspiration,[382] and the power to admit at
any time a new sharer enabled the company to recruit from other
troupes brilliant actors when such appeared; as, for example, William
Osteler and Nathaniel Field, who had attained fame with the Children
at Blackfriars and elsewhere. Finally, the plan brought the actors
together in a close bond of friendship that lasted for life. Heminges
was loved and trusted by them all. Shakespeare was admired and
revered; three members of the troupe seem to have named their sons
for him. Indeed, there is nothing more inspiring in a close study of
all the documents relating to the Globe than the mutual loyalty and
devotion of the original sharers. The publication of Shakespeare's
plays by Heminges and Condell is merely one out of many expressions of
this splendid comradeship.
[Footnote 382: "The petitioners have a long time with much patience
expected to be admitted sharers in the playhouses of the Globe and the
Blackfriars, whereby they might reap some better fruit of their labour
than hitherto they have done, and be encouraged to proceed therein
with cheerfulness." (The Young Players' Petition, 1635, printed by
Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 312.)]
The plan of organization having been evolved, and the original members
having been selected, the first question presenting itself was, Where
should the new playhouse be erected? Burbage, Heminges, and the
rest--including Shakespeare--probably gave the question much thought.
Their experience in Holywell had not been pleasant; the precinct of
Blackfriars, they now well realized, was out of the question; so they
turned their eyes to the Bankside. That section had recently become
the theatrical centre of London. There were situated the Rose, the
Swan, and the Bear Garden, and thither each day thousands of persons
flocked in search of entertainment. Clearly the Bankside was best
suited to their purpose. Near the fine old church of St. Mary Overies,
and not far from the Rose and the Bear Garden, they found a plot of
land that met their approval. Its owner, Sir Nicholas Brend, was
willing to lease it for a long term of years, and at a very reasonable
rate. They made a verbal contract with Brend, according to which the
lease was to begin on December 25, 1598.
[Illustration: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare seems to have been equally with Burbage a leader in erecting
the Globe. In 1599 the building is officially described as "vna domo de
novo edificata ... in occupacione Willielmi Shakespeare et aliorum."]
Three days later, on December 28, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, having
secured the services of the carpenter, Peter Street, and his workmen,
tore down the old Theatre and transported the timber and other
materials to this new site across the river; and shortly after the
Globe began to lift itself above the houses of the Bankside--a
handsome theatre surpassing anything then known to London playgoers.
In the meantime the lawyers had drawn up the lease, and this was
formally signed on February 21, 1599. The company had arranged a
"tripartite lease," the three parties being Sir Nicholas Brend, the
Burbage brothers, and the five actors.[383] To the Burbages Sir
Nicholas leased one-half of the property at a yearly rental of L7
5_s._; and to the five actors, he leased the other half, at the same
rate. Thus the total rent paid for the land was L14 10_s._ The lease
was to run for a period of thirty-one years.
[Footnote 383: Exact information about the lease and the organization
of the company is derived from the Heminges-Osteler and the
Witter-Heminges documents, both discovered and printed by Mr. Wallace.
And with these one should compare the article by the same author in
the London _Times_, April 30, May 1, 1914.]
The five actors, not satisfied with tying up the property in the
"tripartite lease," proceeded at once to arrange their holdings in the
form of a "joint tenancy." This they accomplished by the following
device:
William Shakespeare, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, John
Heminges, and William Kempe did shortly after grant and
assign all the said moiety of and in the said gardens and
grounds unto William Levison and Thomas Savage, who
regranted and reassigned to every one of them severally a
fifth part of the said moiety of the said gardens and
grounds.[384]
[Footnote 384: Wallace, _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p.
53. Shakespeare's leadership in the erection of the Globe is indicated
in several documents; for example, the post-mortem inquisition of the
estate of Sir Thomas Brend, May 16, 1599.]
The object of the "joint tenancy" was to prevent any member of the
organization from disposing of his share to an outsider. Legally at
the death of a member his share passed into the possession of the
other members, so that the last survivor would receive the whole. In
reality, however, the members used the "joint tenancy" merely to
control the disposition of the shares, and they always allowed the
heirs-at-law to receive the share of a deceased member.
The wisdom of this arrangement was quickly shown, for "about the time
of the building of said playhouse and galleries, or shortly after,"
William Kempe decided to withdraw from the enterprise. He had to
dispose of his share to the other parties in the "joint tenancy,"
Shakespeare, Heminges, Phillips, and Pope, who at once divided it
equally among themselves, and again went through the process necessary
to place that share in "joint tenancy." After the retirement of Kempe,
the organization, it will be observed, consisted of six men, and the
shares were eight in number, owned as follows: Richard Burbage and
Cuthbert Burbage, each two shares, Shakespeare, Heminges, Phillips,
and Pope, each one share.
[Illustration: A PLAN OF THE GLOBE PROPERTY
Based on the lease and on other documents and references to the
property.]
The tract of land on which the new playhouse was to be erected is
minutely described in the lease[385] as follows:
All that parcel of ground just recently before enclosed and
made into four separate garden plots, recently in the tenure
and occupation of Thomas Burt and Isbrand Morris, diers, and
Lactantius Roper, salter, citizen of London, containing in
length from east to west two hundred and twenty feet in
assize or thereabouts, lying and adjoining upon a way or
lane there on one [the south] side, and abutting upon a
piece of land called The Park[386] upon the north, and upon
a garden then or recently in the tenure or occupation of one
John Cornishe toward the west, and upon another garden plot
then or recently in the tenure or occupation of one John
Knowles toward the east, with all the houses, buildings,
structures, ways, easements, commodities, and appurtenances
thereunto belonging.... And also all that parcel of land
just recently before enclosed and made into three separate
garden plots, whereof two of the same [were] recently in the
tenure or occupation of John Roberts, carpenter, and another
recently in the occupation of one Thomas Ditcher, citizen
and merchant tailor of London ... containing in length from
east to west by estimation one hundred fifty and six feet of
assize or thereabouts, and in breadth from the north to the
south one hundred feet of assize by estimation or
thereabouts, lying and adjoining upon the other side of the
way or lane aforesaid, and abutting upon a garden plot there
then or recently just before in the occupation of William
Sellers toward the east, and upon one other garden plot
there, then or recently just before, in the tenure of John
Burgram, sadler, toward the west, and upon a lane there
called Maiden Lane towards the south, with all the
houses....
[Footnote 385: The lease is incorporated in the Heminges-Osteler
documents, which Mr. Wallace has translated from the Anglicized Latin.
The original Latin text may be found in Martin, _The Site of the Globe
Playhouse of Shakespeare_, pp. 161-62. Since, however, that text is
faultily reproduced, I quote Mr. Wallace's translation.]
[Footnote 386: What is meant by "The Park" is a matter of dispute.
Some contend that the Park of the Bishop of Winchester is meant; it
may be, however, that some small estate is referred to. In support of
the latter contention, one might cite Collier's _Memoirs of Edward
Alleyn_, p. 91. Part of the document printed by Collier may have been
tampered with, but there is no reason to suspect the two references to
"The Parke."]
This document clearly states that the Globe property was situated to
the north of Maiden Lane, and consequently near the river. Virtually
all the contemporary maps of London show the Globe as so situated. Mr.
Wallace has produced some very specific evidence to support the
document cited above, and he claims to have additional evidence as yet
unpublished. On the other hand, there is at least some evidence to
indicate that the Globe was situated to the south of Maiden Lane.[387]
[Footnote 387: For the discussions of the subject, see the
Bibliography.]
For the purposes of this book it is sufficient to know that the Globe
was "situate in Maiden Lane"; whether on the north side or the south
side is of less importance. More important is the nature of the site.
Strype, in his edition of Stow's _Survey_, gives this description:
"Maiden Lane, a long straggling place, with ditches on each side, the
passage to the houses being over little bridges, with little garden
plots before them, especially on the north side, which is best both
for houses and inhabitants." In Maiden Lane, near one of these ditches
or "sewers," the Globe was erected; and like the other houses there
situated, it was approached over a bridge.[388] In February, 1606,
the Sewer Commission ordered that "the owners of the playhouse called
the Globe, in Maid Lane, shall before the 20 day of April next pull up
and take clean out of the sewer the props or posts which stand under
their bridge on the north side of Maid Lane."[389] The ground on which
the building was erected was marshy, and the foundations were made by
driving piles deep into the soil. Ben Jonson tersely writes:[390]
The Globe, the glory of the Bank.... Flanked with a ditch,
and forced out of a marish.
[Footnote 388: This was probably not the only means of approach.]
[Footnote 389: Wallace, in the London _Times_, April 30, 1914, p. 10;
_Notes and Queries_ (XI series), XI, 448.]
[Footnote 390: _An Execration upon Vulcan._]
Into the construction of the new playhouse went the timber and other
materials secured from the old Theatre; but much new material, of
course, had to be added. It is a mistake to believe that the Globe was
merely the old "Theatre" newly set up on the Bankside, and perhaps
strengthened here and there. When it was completed, it was regarded as
the last word in theatrical architecture. Dekker seems to have had the
Globe in mind in the following passage: "How wonderfully is the world
altered! and no marvel, for it has lyein sick almost five thousand
years: so that it is no more like the old _Theater du munde_, than old
Paris Garden is like the King's garden at Paris. What an excellent
workman therefore were he, that could cast the _Globe_ of it into a
new mould."[391] In 1600 Henslowe and Alleyn used the Globe as
the model of their new and splendid Fortune. They sought, indeed, to
show some originality by making their playhouse square instead of
round; but this, the one instance in which they departed from the
Globe, was a mistake; and when the Fortune was rebuilt in 1623 it was
made circular in shape.
[Footnote 391: _The Guls Hornbook_, published in 1609, but written
earlier.]
[Illustration: THE SITES OF THE BEAR GARDEN, THE ROSE, AND THE GLOBE
Marked by the author on a plan of the Bankside printed in Strype's
_Survey of London_, 1720.]
[Illustration: THE BEAR GARDEN, THE ROSE, AND THE FIRST GLOBE
Compare this view of the Bankside with the preceding map. (From an
equestrian portrait of King James I, by Delaram. The city is
represented as it was when James came to the throne in 1603.)]
A few quotations from the Fortune contract will throw some light upon
the Globe:
With such-like stairs, conveyances, and divisions [to the
galleries], without and within, as are made and contrived in
and to the late-erected playhouse ... called the Globe.
And the said stage to be in all other proportions contrived
and fashioned like unto the stage of the said playhouse
called the Globe.
And the said house, and other things before mentioned to be
made and done, to be in all other contrivations,
conveyances, fashions, thing, and things, effected, finished
and done according to the manner and fashion of the said
house called the Globe, saving only that all the principal
and main posts ... shall be square and wrought pilasterwise,
with carved proportions called satyrs to be placed and set
on the top of every of the said posts.
What kind of columns were used in the Globe and how they were
ornamented, we do not know, but presumably they were round. Jonson, in
_Every Man Out of His Humour_, presented on the occasion of, or
shortly after, the opening of the Globe in 1599, says of one of his
characters: "A well-timbered fellow! he would have made a good column
an he had been thought on when the house was abuilding."[392] That
Jonson thought well of the new playhouse is revealed in several
places; he speaks with some enthusiasm of "this fair-fitted
Globe,"[393] and in the passage already quoted he calls it "the glory
of the Bank."
[Footnote 392: _Jonson's Works_, ed. Cunningham, I, 71.]
[Footnote 393: In the first quarto edition of _Every Man Out of His
Humour_.]
In shape the building was unquestionably polygonal or circular, most
probably polygonal on the outside and circular within. Mr. E.K.
Chambers thinks it possible that it was square;[394] but there is
abundant evidence to show that it was not. The very name, Globe, would
hardly be suitable to a square building; Jonson describes the interior
as a "round";[395] the ballad on the burning of the house refers to
the roof as being "round as a tailor's clew"; and the New Globe, which
certainly was not square, was erected on the old foundation.[396] The
frame, we know, was of timber, and the roof of thatch. In front of
the main door was suspended a sign of Hercules bearing the globe upon
his shoulders,[397] under which was written, says Malone, the old
motto, _Totus mundus agit histrionem_.[398]
[Footnote 394: _The Stage of the Globe_, p. 356.]
[Footnote 395: Induction to _Every Man Out of His Humour_ (ed.
Cunningham, I, 66).]
[Footnote 396: I have not space to discuss the question further. The
foreign traveler who visited a Bankside theatre, probably the Globe,
on July 3, 1600, described it as "Theatrum ad morem antiquorum
Romanorum constructum ex lignis" (London _Times_, April 11, 1914).
Thomas Heywood, in his _Apology for Actors_ (1612), describing the
Roman playhouses, says: "After these they composed others, but
differing in form from the theatre or amphitheatre, and every such was
called _Circus_, the frame _globe_-like and merely round." The
evidence is cumulative, and almost inexhaustible.]
[Footnote 397: See _Hamlet_, II, ii, 378.]
[Footnote 398: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 67.]
The earliest representation of the building is probably to be found in
the Delaram _View of London_ (opposite page 246), set in the
background of an engraving of King James on horseback. This view,
which presents the city as it was in 1603 when James came to the
throne, shows the Bear Garden at the left, polygonal in shape, the
Rose in the centre, circular in shape, and the Globe at the right,
polygonal in shape. It is again represented in Visscher's magnificent
_View of London_, which, though printed in 1616, presents the city as
it was several years earlier (see page 253). The Merian _View_ of 1638
(opposite page 256) is copied from Visscher, and the _View_ in
Howell's _Londinopolis_ (1657) is merely a slavish copy of Merian;
these two views, therefore, so far as the Globe is concerned, have no
special value.[399]
[Footnote 399: The circular playhouse in Delaram's _View_ is commonly
accepted as a representation of the First Globe, but without reason.
The evidence which establishes the identity of the several playhouses
pictured in the various maps of the Bankside comes from a careful
study of the Bear Garden, the Hope, the Rose, the First Globe, the
Second Globe, and their sites, together with a study of all the maps
and views of London, considered separately and in relation to one
another. Such evidence is too complicated to be given here in full,
but it is quite conclusive.]
[Illustration: THE FIRST GLOBE
From an old drawing in an extra-illustrated copy of Pennant's _London_
now in the British Museum. Apparently the drawing is based on Visscher's
_View_.]
The cost of the finished building is not exactly known. Mr. Wallace
observes that it was erected "at an original cost, according to a
later statement, of L600, but upon better evidence approximately
L400."[400] I am not aware of the "better evidence" to which Mr.
Wallace refers,[401] nor do I know whether the estimate of L400
includes the timber and materials of the old Theatre furnished by the
Burbages. If the Theatre of 1576 cost nearly L700, and the second
Globe cost L1400, the sum of L400 seems too small.
[Footnote 400: The London _Times_, October 2, 1909.]
[Footnote 401: Possibly he gives this evidence in his _The Children of
the Chapel at Blackfriars_, p. 29, note 4.]
Nor do we know exactly when the Globe was finished and opened to the
public. On May 16, 1599, a post-mortem inquisition of the estate of
Sir Thomas Brend, father of Sir Nicholas, was taken. Among his other
properties in Southwark was listed the Globe playhouse, described as
"vna domo de novo edificata ... in occupacione Willielmi Shakespeare
et aliorum."[402] From this statement Mr. Wallace infers that the
Globe was finished and opened before May 16, 1599. Though this is
possible, the words used seem hardly to warrant the conclusion.
However, we may feel sure that the actors, the Lord Chamberlain's Men,
had moved into the building before the end of the summer.
[Footnote 402: Wallace, in the London _Times_, May 1, 1914.]
Almost at once they rose to the position of leadership in the drama,
for both Shakespeare and Burbage were now at the height of their
powers. It is true that in 1601 the popularity of the Children at
Blackfriars, and the subsequent "War of the Theatres" interfered
somewhat with their success; but the interference was temporary, and
from this time on until the closing of the playhouses in 1642, the
supremacy of the Globe players was never really challenged. When James
came to the throne, he recognized this supremacy by taking them under
his royal patronage. On May 19, 1603, he issued to them a patent to
play as the King's Men[403]--an honor that was as well deserved as it
was signal.
[Footnote 403: Printed in The Malone Society _Collections_, I, 264.]
In the autumn of 1608 the proprietors of the Globe acquired the
Blackfriars Theatre for the use of their company during the severe
winter months. This splendid building, situated in the very heart of
the city, was entirely roofed in, and could be comfortably heated in
cold weather. Henceforth the open-air Globe was used only during the
pleasant season of the year; that is, according to the evidence of the
Herbert Manuscript, from about the first of May until the first of
November.
On June 29, 1613, the Globe caught fire during the performance of a
play, and was burned to the ground--the first disaster of the sort
recorded in English theatrical history. The event aroused great
interest in London, and as a result we have numerous accounts of the
catastrophe supplying us with full details. We learn that on a warm
"sunne-shine" afternoon the large building was "filled with
people"--among whom were Ben Jonson, John Taylor (the Water-Poet), and
Sir Henry Wotton--to witness a new play by William Shakespeare and
John Fletcher, called _All is True_, or, as we now know it, _Henry
VIII_, produced with unusual magnificence. Upon the entrance of the
King in the fourth scene of the first act, two cannon were discharged
in a royal salute. One of the cannon hurled a bit of its wadding upon
the roof and set fire to the thatch; but persons in the audience were
so interested in the play that for a time they paid no attention to
the fire overhead. As a result they were soon fleeing for their lives;
and within "one short hour" nothing was left of the "stately" Globe.
I quote below some of the more interesting contemporary accounts of
this notable event. Howes, the chronicler, thus records the fact in
his continuation of Stow's _Annals_:
Upon St. Peter's Day last, the playhouse or theatre called
the Globe, upon the Bankside, near London, by negligent
discharge of a peal of ordnance, close to the south side
thereof, the thatch took fire, and the wind suddenly
dispersed the flames round about, and in a very short space
the whole building was quite consumed; and no man hurt: the
house being filled with people to behold the play, _viz._ of
Henry the Eight.[404]
[Footnote 404: Howes's continuation of Stow's _Annals_ (1631), p.
1003.]
Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter to a friend, gives the following gossipy
account:
Now to let matters of state sleep. I will entertain you at
the present with what happened this week at the Bankside.
The King's Players had a new play, called _All is True_,
representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the
Eighth, which was set forth with many extraordinary
circumstances of pomp and majesty, even to the matting of
the stage; the Knights of the Order with their Georges and
Garter, the guards with their embroidered coats, and the
like--sufficient in truth within awhile to make greatness
very familiar, if not ridiculous. Now King Henry, making a
masque at the Cardinal Wolsey's house, and certain cannons
being shot off at his entry, some of the paper or other
stuff wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the
thatch, where being thought at first but an idle smoke, and
their eyes more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly,
and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an
hour the whole house to the very ground. This was the fatal
period of that virtuous fabrick; wherein yet nothing did
perish but wood and straw, and a few forsaken cloaks; only
one man had his breeches set on fire, that would perhaps
have broiled him, if he had not, by the benefit of a
provident wit, put it out with bottle ale.[405]
[Footnote 405: _Reliquiae Wottonianae_ (ed. 1672), p. 425.]
John Chamberlain, writing to Sir Ralph Winwood, July 8, 1613, refers
to the accident thus:
The burning of the Globe or playhouse on the Bankside on St.
Peter's Day cannot escape you; which fell out by a peal of
chambers (that I know not upon what occasion were to be used
in the play), the tampin or stopple of one of them lighting
in the thatch that cover'd the house, burn'd it down to the
ground in less than two hours, with a dwelling house
adjoining; and it was a great marvel and fair grace of God
that the people had so little harm, having but two narrow
doors to get out.[406]
[Footnote 406: Ralph Winwood, _Memorials of Affairs of State_ (ed.
1725), III, 469.]
[Illustration: THE FIRST GLOBE
From Visscher's _View of London_, published in 1616, but representing
the city as it was several years earlier.]
The Reverend Thomas Lorkin writes from London to Sir Thomas Puckering
under the date of June 30, 1613:
No longer since than yesterday, while Burbage's company were
acting at the Globe the play of _Henry VIII_, and there
shooting off certain chambers in way of triumph, the fire
catched and fastened upon the thatch of the house, and there
burned so furiously, as it consumed the whole house, all in
less than two hours, the people having enough to do to save
themselves.[407]
[Footnote 407: Printed in Birch, _The Court and Times of James the
First_ (1849), I, 251.]
A contemporary ballad[408] gives a vivid and amusing account of the
disaster:
_A Sonnet upon the Pitiful Burning of the Globe
Playhouse in London_
Now sit thee down, Melpomene,
Wrapt in a sea-coal robe,
And tell the dolefull tragedy
That late was played at Globe;
For no man that can sing and say
Was scared on St. Peter's day.
_Oh sorrow, pitiful sorrow, and yet all this is true._[409]
All you that please to understand,
Come listen to my story;
To see Death with his raking brand
Mongst such an auditory;
Regarding neither Cardinall's might,
Nor yet the rugged face of Henry the eight.
_Oh sorrow_, etc.
This fearful fire began above,
A wonder strange and _true_,
And to the stage-house did remove,
As round as taylor's clew,
And burnt down both beam and snagg,
And did not spare the silken flagg.
_Oh sorrow_, etc.
Out run the Knights, out run the lords,
And there was great ado;
Some lost their hats, and some their swords;
Then out run Burbage, too.
The reprobates, though drunk on Monday,
Prayd for the fool and Henry Condy.
_Oh sorrow_, etc.
The periwigs and drum-heads fry
Like to a butter firkin;
A woeful burning did betide
To many a good buff jerkin.
Then with swolen eyes, like drunken Flemminges
Distressed stood old stuttering Heminges.
_Oh sorrow_, etc.
[Footnote 408: Printed by Haslewood in _The Gentleman's Magazine_
(1816), from an old manuscript volume of poems. Printed also by
Halliwell-Phillipps (_Outlines_, I, 310) "from a manuscript of the
early part of the seventeenth century of unquestionable authenticity."
Perhaps it is the same as the "Doleful Ballad" entered in the
Stationers' Register, 1613. I follow Halliwell-Phillipps's text, but
omit the last three stanzas.]
[Footnote 409: Punning on the title _All is True_.]
Ben Jonson, who saw the disaster, left us the following brief account:
The Globe, the glory of the Bank,
Which, though it were the fort of the whole parish,
Flanked with a ditch, and forced out of a marish,
I saw with two poor chambers taken in,
And razed ere thought could urge this might have been!
See the world's ruins! nothing but the piles
Left--and wit since to cover it with tiles.[410]
[Footnote 410: _An Execration upon Vulcan._]
The players were not seriously inconvenienced, for they could shift to
their other house, the Blackfriars, in the city. The owners of the
building, however, suffered a not inconsiderable pecuniary loss. For a
time they hesitated about rebuilding, one cause of their hesitation
being the short term that their lease of the ground had to run.
Possibly a second cause was a doubt as to the ownership of the ground,
arising from certain transactions recorded below. In October, 1600,
Sir Nicholas Brend had been forced to transfer the Globe estate, with
other adjacent property, to Sir Matthew Brown and John Collett as
security for a debt of L2500; and a few days after he died. Since the
son and heir, Matthew Brend, was a child less than two years old, an
uncle, Sir John Bodley, was appointed trustee. In 1608 Bodley, by
unfair means, it seems, purchased from Collett the Globe property, and
thus became the landlord of the actors. But young Matthew Brend was
still under age, and Bodley's title to the property was not regarded
as above suspicion.[411]
[Footnote 411: These interesting facts were revealed by Mr. Wallace in
the London _Times_, April 30 and May 1, 1914.]
[Illustration: MERIAN'S VIEW OF LONDON
A section from Merian's _View_, showing the Bankside playhouses. This
_View_, printed in Ludvig Gottfried's _Neuwe Archontologia Cosmica_
(Frankfurt am Mayn, 1638), represents London as it was about the year
1612, and was mainly based on Visscher's _View_, with some additions
from other sources.]
Four months after the burning of the Globe, on October 26, 1613, Sir
John Bodley granted the proprietors of the building a renewal of the
lease with an extension of the term until December 25, 1635.[412] But
a lease from Bodley alone, in view of the facts just indicated, was
not deemed sufficient; so on February 14, 1614, Heminges, the two
Burbages, and Condell visited the country-seat of the Brends, and
secured the signature of the young Matthew Brend, and of his mother as
guardian, to a lease of the Globe site with a term ending on December
25, 1644.
[Footnote 412: Did he increase the amount of the rental to L25 per
annum? The rent paid for the Blackfriars was L40 per annum; in 1635
the young actors state that the housekeepers paid for both playhouses
"not above L65."]
Protected by these two leases, the Globe sharers felt secure; and they
went forward apace with the erection of their new playhouse. They made
an assessment of "L50 or L60" upon each share.[413] Since at this time
there were fourteen shares, the amount thus raised was L700 or L840.
This would probably be enough to erect a building as large and as well
equipped as the old Globe. But the proprietors determined upon a
larger and a very much handsomer building. As Howes, the continuer of
Stow's _Annals_, writes, "it was new builded in far fairer manner than
before"; or as John Taylor, the Water-Poet, puts it:
As gold is better that's in fire tried,
So is the Bankside _Globe_ that late was burn'd.[414]
[Footnote 413: Wallace, _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p.
60.]
[Footnote 414: _Works_ (1630), p. 31; The Spenser Society reprint, p.
515.]
Naturally the cost of rebuilding exceeded the original estimate.
Heminges tells us that on one share, or one-fourteenth, he was
required to pay for "the re-edifying about the sum of L120."[415]
This would indicate a total cost of "about" L1680. Heminges should
know, for he was the business manager of the organization; and his
truthfulness cannot be questioned. Since, however, the adjective
"about," especially when multiplied by fourteen, leaves a generous
margin of uncertainty, it is gratifying to have a specific statement
from one of the sharers in 1635 that the owners had "been at the
charge of L1400 in building of the said house upon the burning down of
the former."[416] Heminges tells us that "he found that the
re-edifying of the said playhouse would be a very great charge," and
that he so "doubted what benefit would arise thereby" that he actually
gave away half of one share "to Henry Condell, _gratis_."[417] But his
fears were unfounded. We learn from Witter that after the rebuilding
of the Globe the "yearly value" of a share was greater "by much" than
it had been before.[418]
[Footnote 415: Wallace, _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p.
61.]
[Footnote 416: Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 316. This evidence
seems to me unimpeachable. I should add, however, that Mr. Wallace
considers the estimate "excessive," and says that he has "other
contemporary documents showing the cost was far less than L1400." (The
London _Times_, October 2, 1909.)]
[Footnote 417: Wallace, _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p.
61. There is, I think, no truth in the statement made by the
inaccurate annotator of the Phillipps copy of Stow's _Annals_, that
the Globe was built "at the great charge of King James and many
noblemen and others." (See _The Academy_, October 28, 1882, p. 314.)
The Witter-Heminges documents sufficiently disprove that. We may well
believe, however, that the King and his noblemen were interested in
the new building, and encouraged the actors in many ways.]
[Footnote 418: Wallace, _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p.
70.]
The New Globe, like its predecessor, was built of timber,[419] and on
the same site--indeed the carpenters made use of the old foundation,
which seems not to have been seriously injured. In a "return" of 1634,
preserved at St. Saviour's, we read: "The Globe playhouse, near Maid
Lane, built by the company of players, with a dwelling house thereto
adjoining, built with timber, about 20 years past, upon an old
foundation."[420] In spite of the use made of the old foundation, the
new structure was unquestionably larger than the First Globe; Marmion,
in the Prologue to _Holland's Leaguer_, acted at Salisbury Court in
1634, speaks of "the vastness of the Globe," and Shirley, in the
Prologue to _Rosania_, applies the adjective "vast" to the building.
Moreover, the builders had "the wit," as Jonson tells us, "to cover it
with tiles." John Taylor, the Water-Poet, writes:
For where before it had a thatched hide,
Now to a stately theatre is turn'd.
[Footnote 419: I see no reason to accept Mr. Wallace's suggestion
(_The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars_, p. 34, note 7) that "it
seems questionable, but not unlikely, that the timber framework was
brick-veneered and plastered over." Mr. Wallace mistakenly accepts
Wilkinson's view of the second Fortune as genuine.]
[Footnote 420: Rendle, _Bankside_, p. xvii.]
The Second Globe is represented, but unsatisfactorily, in Hollar's
_View of London_, dated 1647 (opposite page 260). It should be noted
that the artist was in banishment from 1643 (at which time the Globe
was still standing) until 1652, and hence, in drawing certain
buildings, especially those not reproduced in earlier views of London,
he may have had to rely upon his memory. This would explain the
general vagueness of his representation of the Globe.
The construction was not hurried, for the players had Blackfriars as a
home. Under normal conditions they did not move from the city to the
Bankside until some time in May; and shortly after that date, in the
early summer of 1614, the New Globe was ready for them. John
Chamberlain writes to Mrs. Alice Carleton on June 30, 1614:
I have not seen your sister Williams since I came to town,
though I have been there twice. The first time she was at a
neighbor's house at cards, and the next she was gone to the
New Globe to a play. Indeed, I hear much speech of this new
playhouse, which is said to be the fairest that ever was in
England.[421]
[Footnote 421: Birch, _The Court and Times of James the First_, I,
329; quoted by Wallace, _The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars_,
p. 35.]
[Illustration: THE SECOND GLOBE
From Hollar's _View of London_ (1647).]
With this New Globe Shakespeare had little to do, for his career as a
playwright had been run, and probably he had already retired from
acting. Time, indeed, was beginning to thin out the little band of
friends who had initiated and made famous the Globe organization.
Thomas Pope had died in 1603, Augustine Phillips in 1605, William Slye
in 1608, and, just a few months after the opening of the new
playhouse, William Osteler, who had been admitted to the
partnership in 1611. He had begun his career as a child-actor at
Blackfriars, had later joined the King's Men, and had married
Heminges's daughter Thomasine.
A more serious blow to the company, however, fell in April, 1616, when
Shakespeare himself died. To the world he had been "the applause,
delight, the wonder" of the stage; but to the members of the Globe
Company he had been for many years a "friend and fellow." Only Burbage
and Heminges (described in 1614 as "old Heminges"), now remained of
the original venturers. And Burbage passed away on March 13, 1619:
He's gone! and with him what a world are dead
Which he reviv'd--to be revived so
No more. Young Hamlet, old Hieronimo,
Kind Lear, the grieved Moor, and more beside
That lived in him have now for ever died![422]
[Footnote 422: From a folio MS. in the Huth Library, printed by J.P.
Collier in _The History of English Dramatic Poetry_ (1879), I, 411,
and by various others.]
Many elegies in a similar vein were written celebrating his wonderful
powers as an actor; yet the tribute that perhaps affects us most deals
with him merely as a man. The Earl of Pembroke, writing to the
Ambassador to Germany, gives the court news about the mighty ones of
the kingdom: "My Lord of Lenox made a great supper to the French
Ambassador this night here, and even now all the company are at a
play; which I, being tender-hearted, could not endure to see so soon
after the loss of my old acquaintance Burbage."[423]
[Footnote 423: Printed by Mrs. Stopes, _Burbage and Shakespeare's
Stage_, p. 117, with many other interesting references to the great
actor.]
[Illustration: THE TRADITIONAL SITE OF THE GLOBE
From Wilkinson's _Theatrum Illustrata_ (1825). This site is still
advocated by some scholars. Compare page 245.]
In 1623 Heminges and Condell, with great "care and paine," collected
and published the plays of Shakespeare, "onely to keep the memory of
so worthy a Friend and Fellow alive"; and shortly after, they too
died, Condell in 1627 and Heminges in 1630.
After the passing of this group of men, whose names are so familiar to
us, the history of the playhouse seems less important, and may be
chronicled briefly.
When young Matthew Brend came of age he recovered possession of the
Globe property by a decree of the Court of Wards. Apparently he
accepted the lease executed by his uncle and guardian, Bodley, by
which the actors were to remain in possession of the Globe until
December 25, 1635; but in 1633 he sought to cancel the lease he
himself had executed as a minor, by which the actors were to remain in
possession until 1644. His purpose in thus seeking to gain possession
of the Globe was to lease it to other actors at a material increase in
his profits.[424] Naturally the owners of the Globe were alarmed, and
they brought suit in the Court of Requests. In 1635, one of the
sharers, John Shanks, declares that he "is without any hope to renew"
the lease; and he refers thus to the suit against Brend: "When your
suppliant purchased his parts [in 1634] he had no certainty thereof
more than for one year in the Globe, and there was a chargeable suit
then pending in the Court of Requests between Sir Mathew Brend,
Knight, and the lessees of the Globe and their assigns, for the adding
of nine years to their lease in consideration that their predecessors
had formerly been at the charge of L1400 in building of the said
house."[425] The lessees ultimately won their contention, and thus
secured the right to occupy the Globe until December 25, 1644--a term
which, as it happened, was quite long enough, for the Puritans closed
all playhouses in 1642.
[Footnote 424: Wallace, "Shakespeare and the Globe," in the London
_Times_, April 30 and May 1, 1914.]
[Footnote 425: The Petition of the Young Actors, printed by
Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 312. Mrs. Stopes, in _Burbage and
Shakespeare's Stage_, p. 129, refers to a record of the suit mentioned
by Shanks, dated February 6, 1634.]
What disposition, if any, the sharers made of the Globe between 1642
and 1644 we do not know. But before the lease expired, it seems, Brend
demolished the playhouse and erected tenements on its site. In the
manuscript notes to the Phillipps copy of Stow's _Annals_, we find the
statement that the Globe was "pulled down to the ground by Sir Mathew
Brend, on Monday the 15 of April, 1644, to make tenements in the room
of it";[426] and the statement is verified by a mortgage, executed in
1706, between Elizabeth, the surviving daughter and heir of Thomas
Brend, and one William James, citizen of London. The mortgage concerns
"all those messuages or tenements ... most of which ... were erected
and built where the late playhouse called the Globe stood, and upon
the ground thereunto belonging."[427]
[Footnote 426: Printed in _The Academy_, October 28, 1882, p. 314.
Should we read the date as 1644/5?]
[Footnote 427: William Martin, _The Site of the Globe_, p. 171.]
After this the history of the property becomes obscure. Mrs. Thrale
(later Mrs. Piozzi), the friend of Samuel Johnson, whose residence was
near by in Deadman's Place, thought that she saw certain "remains of
the Globe" discovered by workmen in the employ of her husband:[428]
"For a long time, then,--or I thought it such,--my fate was bound up
with the old Globe Theatre, upon the Bankside, Southwark; the alley it
had occupied having been purchased and [the tenements] thrown down by
Mr. Thrale to make an opening before the windows of our
dwelling-house. When it lay desolate in a black heap of rubbish, my
mother one day in a joke called it the Ruins of Palmyra; and after
that they had laid it down in a grass-plot Palmyra was the name it
went by.... But there were really curious remains of the old Globe
Playhouse, which though hexagonal in form without, was round within."
In spite of serious difficulties in this narrative it is possible that
the workmen, in digging the ground preparatory to laying out the
garden, uncovered the foundation of the Globe, which, it will be
recalled, was formed of piles driven deep into the soil, and so well
made that it resisted the fire of 1613.[429]
[Footnote 428: Printed in _The Builder_, March 26, 1910, from the
Conway MSS. in Mrs. Thrale's handwriting.]
[Footnote 429: For later discoveries of supposed Globe relics, all
very doubtful, see the London _Times_, October 8, 1909; George
Hubbard, _The Site of the Globe Theatre_; and William Martin, _The
Site of the Globe_, p. 201.]
At the present time the site of the Globe is covered by the extensive
brewery of Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, and Company. Upon one of the
walls of the brewery, on the south side of Park Street, which was
formerly Maiden Lane, has been placed a bronze memorial tablet[430]
showing in relief the Bankside, with what is intended to be the Globe
Playhouse conspicuously displayed in the foreground. This is a
circular building designed after the circular playhouse in the
Speed-Hondius _View of London_, and represents, as I have tried to
show, not the Globe, but the Rose. At the left side of the tablet is
a bust of the poet modeled after the Droeshout portrait. At the right
is the simple inscription:
HERE STOOD THE GLOBE PLAYHOUSE OF SHAKESPEARE
[Footnote 430: The tablet was designed by Dr. William Martin and
executed by Professor Lanteri. For photographs of it and of the place
in which it is erected, see _The London Illustrated News_, October 9,
1909, CXXXV, 500.]
Yet it is very doubtful whether the Globe really stood there. Mr.
Wallace has produced good evidence to show that the building was on
the north side of Park Street near the river; and in the course of the
present study I have found that site generally confirmed.