of theatre which has come down to our own day. The distinction between 'private' and 'public' is an unessential one, depending probably upon some difference in the methods of paying for admission necessitated by the regulations of the City or the Privy Council.[1] The performances in all the houses were public in the ordinary sense. There was, however, another important factor, besides the baiting ring, which greatly affected the structure of the open-air theatre. This was the inn-yard. Long before 1576, interludes had been given in public, as well as in the private halls of the great, and even the need for some kind of permanent, or quasi-permanent, installation had been felt. No doubt there were halls in London which could be hired. The keeper of the Carpenters' Hall in Shoreditch was prosecuted towards the end of Henry VIII's reign for procuring a Protestant interlude 'to be openly played'.[2] Fees for the letting of Trinity Hall for plays occur among the 'casuall recepts' of the churchwardens of St. Botolph without Aldersgate in 1566-7.[3] A jest-book of 1567 records a play at Northumberland Place.[4] But an even more convenient hospitality was afforded by the great court-yards of the City inns, where there was sack and bottle-ale to hand, and, as the Puritans averred, chambers ready for deeds of darkness to be done, when the play was over.[5] In these yards, approached by archways under the inn buildings from one or more streets, and surrounded by galleries with external staircases giving access to the upper floors, an audience could quickly gather, behold at their ease, and escape payment with difficulty. The actors could be accommodated with a tiring-room on the ground floor, and perform as on a natural stage between the pillars supporting the galleries. An upper gallery could be used to vary the scene. The first performances in London inns upon record were at the Saracen's Head, Islington, and the Boar's Head, Aldgate, both in 1557.[6] By the beginning of Elizabeth's reign the use of them was normal. Plays 'in hostels and taverns' wereinquest and other assemblyes within the time of this accompt'.]
- ↑ Cf. ch. xviii.
- ↑ Mediaeval Stage, ii. 221.
- ↑ G. Fothergill in 10 N. Q. vi. 287, from Guildhall MS. 1454, roll 70, 'And wyth 22^s 2^d for money by them receyved for the hyer of Tryntie Halle for playes, the warmanthe [ward-moot
- ↑ Cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Vennar.
- ↑ Several galleried inns are illustrated in W. Rendle and P. Norman, The Inns of Old Southwark (1888), and by Ordish, 119 (Tabard), Baker, 200 (Four Swans), Adams, 4 (White Hart). Probably, however, none of these are pre-Restoration. The only ones still extant are the George in Southwark and a much later one in Theobalds Road (V. H. Surrey, iv. 128).
- ↑ Mediaeval Stage, ii. 190, 223.
