ROSSETER'S BLACKFRIARS, OR PORTER'S HALL
Philip Rosseter, the poet and musician, first appears as a theatrical
manager in 1610, when he secured a royal patent for the Children of
the Queen's Revels to act at Whitefriars. This company performed there
successfully under his management until March, 1613, when, for some
unknown reason, he formed a partnership with Philip Henslowe, who was
managing the Lady Elizabeth's Men at the Swan. The two companies were
combined, and the new organization, under the name of "The Lady
Elizabeth's Men," made use of both playhouses, the Swan as a summer
and the Whitefriars as a winter home.
As already explained in the preceding chapters, Rosseter's lease on
the Whitefriars Playhouse was to expire in 1614, and apparently he was
unable to renew the lease.[568] Naturally he and his partner Henslowe
were anxious to secure a private playhouse in the city to serve as a
winter home for their troupe, especially since the Swan was poorly
situated for winter patronage. This may explain the following entry in
Sir George Buc's Office-Book: "July 13, 1613, for a license to erect a
new playhouse in Whitefriars &c. L20."[569] The new playhouse,
however, was not built. Probably the opposition of the inhabitants of
the district led to its prohibition.
[Footnote 568: Nathaniel Field, the leading actor at Whitefriars,
published _A Woman is a Weathercock_ in 1612, with the statement to
the reader: "If thou hast anything to say to me, thou know'st where to
hear of me for a year or two, and no more, I assure thee." Possibly
this reflects the failure of the managers to renew the lease; after
1614 Field did not know where he would be acting. But editors have
generally regarded it as meaning that Field intended to withdraw from
acting.]
[Footnote 569: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 52.]
At the expiration of one year, in March, 1614, Rosseter withdrew from
his partnership with Henslowe, and on the old patent of the Children
of the Queen's Revels (which he had retained) organized a new company
to travel in the country.
In the following year, 1615, he and certain others, Philip Kingman,
Robert Jones, and Ralph Reeve, secured a lease of "diverse buildings,
cellars, sollars, chambers, and yards for the building of a playhouse
thereupon for the better practising and exercise of the said Children
of the Revels; all which premises are situate and being within the
precinct of the Blackfriars, near Puddlewharf, in the suburbs of
London, called by the name of the Lady Saunders's House, or otherwise
Porter's Hall."[570] It was their purpose to convert this hall into a
playhouse to rival the near-by Blackfriars; and in accordance with
this purpose, on June 3, 1615, Rosseter secured a royal license under
the Great Seal of England "to erect, build, and set up in and upon the
said premises before mentioned one convenient playhouse for the said
Children of the Revels, the same playhouse to be used by the Children
of the Revels for the time being of the Queene's Majesty, and for the
Prince's Players, and for the Lady Elizabeth's Players."[571]
[Footnote 570: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 277. For the
location of Puddlewharf see the map of the Blackfriars precinct on
page 94.]
[Footnote 571: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 277.]
The work of converting Porter's Hall into a playhouse seems to have
begun at once. On September 26, 1615, the Privy Council records "that
one Rosseter, and others, having obtained license under the Great Seal
of England for the building of a playhouse, have pulled down [i.e.,
stripped the interior of] a great messuage in Puddlewharf, which was
sometimes the house of the Lady Saunders, within the precinct of the
Blackfriars, and are now erecting a new playhouse in that place."[572]
[Footnote 572: _Ibid._, p. 373.]
The city authorities, always hostile to the actors and jealous of any
new theatres, made so vigorous a complaint to the Privy Council that
the Lords of the Council "thought fit to send for Rosseter." He came,
bringing his royal license. This document was carefully "perused by
the Lord Chief Justice of England," who succeeded in discovering in
the wording of one of its clauses a trivial flaw that would enable the
Privy Council, on a technicality, to prohibit the building: "The Lord
Chief Justice did deliver to their Lordships that the license granted
to the said Rosseter did extend to the building of a playhouse without
the liberties of London, and not within the city."[573] Now, in 1608
the liberty of Blackfriars had by a special royal grant been placed
within the jurisdiction of the city. Rosseter's license unluckily had
described the Lady Saunders's house as being "in the suburbs," though,
of course, the description was otherwise specific enough: "all which
premises are situate and being within the precinct of the Blackfriars,
near Puddlewharf, in the suburbs of London, called by the name of the
Lady Saunders's House, or otherwise Porter's Hall."
[Footnote 573: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 373.]
Since "the inconveniences urged by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were
many," the Lords of the Privy Council decided to take advantage of the
flaw discovered by the Lord Chief Justice, and prohibit the erection
of the playhouse. Their order, issued September 26, 1615, reads as
follows:
It was this day ordered by their Lordships that there shall
be no playhouse erected in that place, and that the Lord
Mayor of London shall straightly prohibit the said Rosseter
and the rest of the patentees, and their workmen to proceed
in the making and converting the said building into a
playhouse. And if any of the patentees or their workmen
shall proceed in their intended building contrary to this
their Lordships' inhibition, that then the Lord Mayor shall
commit him or them so offending unto prison and certify
their Lordships of their contempt in that behalf.[574]
[Footnote 574: _Ibid._]
This order, for the time being, halted work on the new playhouse. The
Children of the Revels were forced to spend the next year traveling in
the provinces; and the Lady Elizabeth's Men and Prince Charles's Men
had to remain on the Bankside and endure the oppressions of Henslowe
and later of Meade. Possibly their sufferings at the hands of Meade
led them to urge Rosseter to complete at once the much desired house
in the city. At any rate, in the winter of 1616, Rosseter, believing
himself strongly enough entrenched behind his royal patent, resumed
work on converting Porter's Hall into a theatre. The city authorities
issued "diverse commandments and prohibitions," but he paid no
attention to these, and pushed the work to completion. The building
seems to have been ready for the actors about the first of January,
1617. Thereupon the company which had been occupying the Hope deserted
that playhouse and "came over" to Rosseter's Blackfriars.[575] In the
new playhouse they presented Nathaniel Field's comedy, _Amends for
Ladies_, which was printed the following year "as it was acted at the
Blackfriars both by the Prince's Servants and the Lady Elizabeth's."
[Footnote 575: See the chapter on "The Hope."]
The actors, however, were not allowed to enjoy their new home very
long. On January 27, 1617, the Privy Council dispatched the following
letter to the Lord Mayor:
Whereas His Majesty is informed that notwithstanding diverse
commandments and prohibitions to the contrary, there be
certain persons that go about to set up a playhouse in the
Blackfriars near unto His Majesty's Wardrobe, and for that
purpose have lately erected and made fit a building, which
is almost if not fully finished. You shall understand that
His Majesty hath this day expressly signified his pleasure
that the same shall be pulled down, so as it be made unfit
for any such use; whereof we require your Lordship to take
notice and to cause it to be performed accordingly, with all
speed, and thereupon to certify us of your proceeding.
There can be no doubt that an order so peremptory, carrying the
authority both of the Privy Council and of the King, and requiring an
immediate report, was performed "with all speed." After this we hear
nothing more of the playhouse in Puddlewharf.[576]
[Footnote 576: I can find no further reference to the Puddlewharf
Theatre either in the _Records_ of the Privy Council or in the
_Remembrancia_ of the City. Collier, however, in his _History of
English Dramatic Poetry_ (1879), I, 384, says: "The city authorities
proceeded immediately to the work, and before three days had elapsed,
the Privy Council was duly and formally made acquainted with the fact
that Rosseter's theatre had been 'made unfit for any such use' as that
for which it had been constructed." Collier fails to cite his
authority for the statement; the passage he quotes may be found in the
order of the Privy Council printed above.]