Non longe ab uno horum theatrorum, quae omnia lignea sunt, ad Thamesim navis est regia, quae duo egregia habet conclavia, fenestris perlucidis, picturis & sculpturis eleganter exornata, in sicco & quidem sub tecto collocata, propterea, ut a pluviis & coeli injuria immunis sit.'
Hentzner then describes the baiting.[1] He concludes:
'Utuntur in hisce spectaculis sicut & alibi, ubicunque locorum sint
Angli, herba Nicotiana, quam Americano idiomate Tabacam nuncupant
(Paetum alii dicunt) hoc modo frequentissime; Fistulae in hunc finem
ex argilia factae, orificio posteriori, dictam herbam probe exiccatam,
ita ut in pulverem facile redigi possit, immittunt, & igne admoto
accendunt, unde fumus ab anteriori parte ore attrahitur, qui per nares
rursum, tanquam per infurnibulum exit, & phlegma ac capitis defluxiones
magna copia secum educit. Circumferuntur insuper in hisce
theatris varii fructus venales, ut poma, pyra, nuces & pro ratione
temporis, etiam vinum & cerevisia.'[2]
It is perhaps natural that foreign visitors should be more
struck by the English theatres at a time when the English
stage was serving as a model to northern Europe, than was
the case with a native chronicler of grave and slightly Puritanic
tendencies. John Stowe, when he published his Survey
of London in 1598, had nothing to say of the Bankside houses,
and but little of those in Middlesex. After writing of the
miracle plays, he says:
'Of late time in place of those Stage playes, hath beene vsed Comedies,
Tragedies, Enterludes, and Histories, both true and fayned:
For the acting whereof certaine publike places as the Theater, the
Curtine, &c., haue been erected' [in margin, 'Theater and Curten for
Comedies & other shewes'].[3]
In another place, at the end of a description of Holywell, he
adds:
'And neare therevnto are builded two publique houses for the acting
and shewe of Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories, for recreation.
Whereof the one is called the Courtein, the other the Theatre: both
standing on the Southwest side towards the field.'[4]
Even these scanty references were pruned in the second
edition of 1603, after the Theatre had disappeared at the end
of 1598 and the Chamberlain's men had left the Curtain.
- ↑ Cf. p. 456.
- ↑ Hentzner, 196.
- ↑ Survey (ed. Kingsford), i. 93. In 1603 the words 'as the Theater, the Curtine, &c.' are omitted from the body of the passage.
- ↑ Survey, ii. 73. This passage was omitted altogether in 1603. The early draft in Harl. MS. 538 (Kingsford, ii. 369) runs, 'Neare adjoyning are builded two houses for the shewe of Activities, Comedies, tragedies and histories, for recreation. The one of them is named the Curtayn in Holy Well, the other the Theatre.'
