downe the playehowse then I wold do so & he beade me do & sayd he gaue me leaue & wold beare me owt for yt wasse in him to do yt.'[1]
It is impossible to say whether 'Mr. Pope' was Thomas
Pope of the King's men at the neighbouring Globe, or Morgan
Pope, who was formerly interested in the Bear House, or
some other Pope; nor is it clear how he was in a position to
authorize Henslowe to pull down the theatre. Dr. Greg draws
the natural inference from the wording that he may have given
his consent as a prospective lessee of the property.[2] In any
case the Rose was not pulled down until two or three years
later. The Sewers records show that in January 1604 not
Philip but Francis Henslowe was amerced 6s. 8d. for it,
which may mean that Lennox's men were playing there;
that on 4 October 1605 Philip Henslowe was amerced, but
return was made that it was 'out of his hands'; that on
14 February 1606 Edward Box, of Bread Street, London,
was amerced for it; and that on 25 April 1606 Box was
amerced for the site of 'the late playhouse in Maid lane'.[3]
There is no record of plays at the Rose after 1603.[4] It is in the Delaram engravings, but not in any later views except those of the Merian group, where it appears, flagged but unnamed, on the river edge.[5] Nor is it mentioned with the Hope, Globe, and Swan in Holland's Leaguer (1632). The explanation may perhaps be that the Merian engraver followed some out-of-date authority, such as Delaram, which had got the house farther north than Norden puts it, and as it had long ceased to exist, did not know its name. On the other hand, it is also just conceivable that for a short period the Rose, or some other building at the north end of the Rose site, had a renewed life as a place of public entertainment. Alleyn was paying 'tithe dwe for the Rose' in 1622.[6] And Malone cites Herbert's 'office-book' for a statement that after 1620 the Swan and the Rose were 'used occasionally for the exhibition of prize-fighters'.[7]
- ↑ Henslowe, i. 178.
- ↑ Ibid. ii. 55.
- ↑ Wallace, in The Times (1914).
- ↑ Rendle, Bankside, xv, quotes
In the last great fire
The Rose did expire,and adds 'but when that was, I am not clear'. It reads like Collier.
- ↑ I cannot endorse the suggestion of Dr. Martin (cf. p. 378) that the 'Globe' of Visscher (1616) was really the Rose. Baker, 165, reproducing a cut from Hollar (1640), also misnames the Globe as the Rose.
- ↑ Young, ii. 241.
- ↑ Variorum, iii. 56. I should have been happier if Malone had quoted verbatim, but I do not see that Adams, 160, explains away the statement by suggesting that a source for Malone's 'error' is a note on p. 66, where he again cites Herbert for fencing at the Red Bull in 1623.
