the Globe and the Hope, but clearly also as derelict, in the following passage from Holland's Leaguer (1632):
'Especially, and aboue all the rest, she was most taken with the
report of three famous Amphytheators, which stood so neere scituated,
that her eye might take view of them from the lowest Turret, one was
the Continent of the World, because halfe the yeere a World of Beauties,
and braue Spirits resorted vnto it; the other was a building of excellent
Hope, and though wild beasts and Gladiators did most possesse it,
yet the Gallants that came to behold those combats, though they were
of a mixt Society, yet were many Noble worthies amongst them; the
last which stood, and as it were shak'd handes with this Fortresse,
beeing in times past as famous as any of the other, was now fallen to
decay, and like a dying Swanne, hanging downe her head, seemed to
sing her owne dierge.'[1]
I turn now to the maps of the Bankside, which, had they
been datable, and drawn with cartographical precision, ought
not only to have furnished valuable evidence as to the duration
of the theatres, but also to have indicated accurately the
position of each amongst the streets and lanes of the district.
Neither condition is, however, fulfilled. Even where the
date of an engraving is known, the date of the survey on
which it was based can, as a rule, be only approximately
determined. And the constant intrusion of pictorial elements,
which gives the maps the character of perspective views
rather than of plans, is naturally emphasized on the Bankside,
which has to serve as a foreground to the design. The main
topographical features which have to be borne in mind are
simple, and can easily be related to those in John Rocque's
map of 1746, as interpreted by Strype's Survey of 1720, or in
a modern Ordnance map. The whole region concerned lies
roughly between the southern approaches to London and
Blackfriars Bridges. It underwent a good deal of development
during one period, especially in the area of the Clink,
a liberty lying between Southwark on the east and another
liberty of Paris Garden on the west, and affording a convenient
suburban resort outside the jurisdiction of the City. Stowe's
account of the neighbourhood in 1598 is perhaps a little
misleading. He describes no more than the Bankside proper,
'a continuall building of tenements' on the riverside, extending
about half a mile west of London Bridge. Here he places,
from west to east, the bear gardens, the former stews, the
prison of the Clink, Winchester House, and the church of
St. Mary Overie in Southwark.[2] This agrees pretty well withHollands Leaguer or an historical Discourse of
the Life and Actions of Dona Britanica Hollandia the Arch-Mistris of the
wicked women of Evtopia (1632), sig. F 2; cf. C. W. Wallace in Engl. Stud.
xliii. 392.]
