a familiar place, since for the most part the English do not much use to travel, but are content ever to learn of foreign matters at home, and ever to take their pastime.'
A year later than Platter, another traveller thus describes
a visit to the Bankside:[1]
'1600 die Lunae 3 Julii. Audivimus comoediam Anglicam; theatrum
ad morem antiquorum Romanorum constructum ex lignis, ita
formatum ut omnibus ex partibus spectatores commodatissime singula
videre possint. In reditu transivimus pontem magnificis aedificiis
ornatum e quibus uni adhuc affixa cernuntur capita quorundam comitum
et nobilium, qui laesae Majestatis rei supplicio affecti sunt.'
When Lewis of Anhalt and de Witt wrote, there were four
theatres, exclusive of the City inn-yards, which were probably
already closed. Platter found two, and sometimes three,
performances being given daily. This agrees with the
evidence available from other sources. After the scandal
of The Isle of Dogs in 1597, the Privy Council decreed a limitation
of the London companies to two, the Chamberlain's
men and the Admiral's. The former played at the Curtain
until 1599, when they destroyed the Theatre and built the
Globe. The latter played at the Rose until 1600, when they
migrated to the newly built Fortune. But it is clear that the
ordinance of the Privy Council was not strictly observed.
An intruding company was playing in February 1598, either
at the Theatre or the Swan. Platter's three houses in 1599
included the Curtain, together presumably with the Globe
and the Rose. When the Council sanctioned the opening of
the Fortune in 1600, they understood that the Curtain was
to be 'either ruinated or applied to some other good use',
but it was still the scene of plays in 1601. Finally, in the spring
of 1602 Elizabeth ordered the Council to tolerate a third
company, that of the Earl of Worcester, Master of the Horse.
This was then playing at the Boar's Head, a short-lived
house of which practically nothing is known; in the autumn
it moved to the Rose. The Swan possibly went out of use,
except for the occasional performances of acrobats and fencers,
or of amateurs. On the other hand, Lord Hertford's men
were in London during the winter of 1602-3, in addition to
the three privileged companies, and they must have practised
somewhere.
To the above must be added, for the closing years of Eliza-*
- ↑ C. A. Mills in The Times (11 April 1914) from the travels of 'a foreign nobleman, to be published by J. A. F. Orbaan from a Vatican MS.'. Mills says that the visit was to the Globe, but the passage quoted does not exclude the Rose or Swan.
