lustre, . . . by being . . . filled with . . . sinnes, which . . . are . . . maintained, in Play-houses, Ale-houses, Bawdy-houses, Dising-houses,. . . All which houses, and traps for Gentlemen, and others, of such Receipt, were formerly taken notice of by many Citizens, and well disposed graue Gentlemen . . . wherevpon some of the pious magistrates made humble suit to the late Queene Elizabeth of ever-liuing memorie, and her priuy Counsaile, and obteined leaue from her Majesty to thrust those Players out of the Citty and to pull downe the Dicing houses: which accordingly was affected, and the Play-houses in Gracious street, Bishops-gate-street, nigh Paules, that on Ludgate hill, the White-Friars were put down, and other lewd houses quite supprest within the Liberties, by the care of those religious senators, . . . and surely had all their successors followed their worthy stepps, sinne would not at this day haue beene so powerfull, and raigning as it is.'
The play-houses in Gracious or Gracechurch Street, Bishopsgate
Street, and Ludgate Hill were presumably the Bell and
the Cross Keys, the Bull, and the Bel Savage. By the house
'nigh Paul's' Rawlidge possibly meant the choir song-school;
but in fact there had been no plays by the Paul's boys since
1590. If there was really a Whitefriars house at so early
a date, this is the only notice preserved of it. It may be
suspected that Rawlidge confused it with the Blackfriars,
which James Burbadge was apparently prevented, upon representations
by the City, from reopening in 1596. The claim
of the City to exercise any control over the old religious
precincts of the Blackfriars and the Whitefriars was a doubtful
one; and although they ultimately secured jurisdiction,
they were not able to prevent the so-called 'private' theatres
from establishing themselves in these 'liberties'.[1] With
these exceptions, however, and possibly that of the Boar's
Head, which seems to have been used for a few years after
1602, but was more likely just outside the bars, 1596 probably
saw the last of playing within the actual gates of the City.
Londoners had now to look wholly to the suburbs for their dramatic entertainment. Prince Lewis of Anhalt-Cöthen found four theatres in 1596.[2] These were doubtless the Theatre and the Curtain on the north and the Rose and the Swan on the south of the river. The Newington house was still used in 1594, but even before that had long been out of fashion. It was probably also about 1596 that John
