came to the decision that it could not entertain the case, until Miles had endeavoured to obtain relief at common law, by suing on the two bonds which Burbadge had given to Brayne in 1578.[1] He does not seem to have thought it worth while to do this, probably because he saw very little chance of recovering money from James Burbadge, while Cuthbert, who now held the lease, was not a party to the bonds.[2]
It is the personality of Burbadge rather than the conduct of the Theatre that these details illumine. But we may gather that the building was constructed mainly of timber with some ironwork, that it had a tiring-house and galleries, one at least of which was divided into upper rooms, where spectators could sit as well as stand, and that money was taken by appointed gatherers, placed in locked boxes, and subsequently shared out amongst those entitled to it.[3] From other sources it appears that 1d. was charged for admission to the building and 1d. or 2d. more for a place in the galleries.[4] Apparently the players took the entrance fee and the owners of the house the whole or an agreed proportion of the gallery money. In the winter of 1585 an interesting arrangement was entered into between Burbadge and Brayne on the one hand and Henry Lanman, owner of the neighbouring Curtain, on the other, by which during a period of seven years the Curtain was taken 'as an Esore' to the Theatre, and the profits of both houses pooled and equally divided between the two parties. This arrangement was still operative in 1592.[5] Kiechel tells us that the number of galleries was three, and De Witt that the shape was that of an 'amphitheatrum'.[6] It is impossible to trace with any certainty the successive occupation of the Theatre by various companies of players or to reconstruct the list of plays produced upon the boards. Its occupants were Burbadge's 'fellows' at the time of his frauds of 1576-8, and may reasonably be identified with Leicester's, of whom he was certainly one in 1574.[7] Stephen Gosson tells us in 1579 that amongst plays then 'vsually
- ↑ Wallace, 156.
- ↑ Ibid. 161, 263. Miles still held Burbadge's bonds in 1600.
- ↑ Ibid. 137, 'iron worke which the said Braynes bestowed vppon the same Theater'.
- ↑ Cf. ch. xviii.
- ↑ Wallace, 62 (Burbadge), 88 (Bett), 125 (Alleyn), 149 (Lanman).
- ↑ Cf. pp. 358, 362. This evidence outweighs the rather slight grounds on which T. S. Graves, The Shape of the First London Theatre (South Atlantic Quarterly, xiii. 280), conjectures that it may have been rectangular.
- ↑ G. Harvey, Letter Book, 67, suggests in 1579 that he may be asked by Leicester's, Warwick's, Vaux's or Rich's men, or 'sum other freshe starteup comedanties' for 'sum malt conceivid comedye fitt for the Theater, or sum other paintid stage' (cf. p. 4). It is a pity he was not more precise.
