Early London Theatres; In the Fields (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE CURTAIN. THE litigious troubles of the Burbages, by employment given to the scriveners, wrought a benefit to history. Facts relating to The Theatre became embedded in the chronicle of conflicting interests, and lay waiting three hundred years for the zealous research of the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps. The career of the Curtain was presumably more peaceful; with the result that we know less about it. As to who built it, the date of its opening, how much it cost ?all points on which information has been discovered in respect of The Theatre?we know nothing at all. That the Curtain was the second playhouse erected in London we infer from the facts: (1) the Burbages distinctly claim that The Theatre was the first playhouse built in England; (2) the names of The Theatre and the Curtain are coupled in allusions shortly after The Theatre was opened, when no other playhouses but these two were in existence. It is remarkable that a name of such apparent theatrical significance as the Curtain was not suggested by anything connected with the stage. As will have been gathered in the preceding chapter, the Curtain was erected in the near neighbourhood of The Theatre, within the precinct of the dissolved Priory of Holywell; the name of the playhouse being derived from the land on which it was erected. This land is mentioned in a lease in the year 1538, shortly after the dissolution of the establishment to which it belonged: ' . . . ac duo stabula et unum fenilem supra edificatum, scituata et existentia extra portas ejusdem nuper monasterii prope pasturam dicte nuper Priorisse vocatam the Curtene.' The gates of the Priory opened into Holywell Lane on the northern side of the road, and consequently, as the ground called the Curtain was outside the gates, it...