following 1 May the vestry of St. Saviour's were viewing new buildings of his, and at the same time negotiating with Henslowe and Meade for money for the poor 'in regarde of theire playe-houses'.[1] During the next few years, however, such notices as we get of the Swan, while showing that it was still in existence and available for occasional entertainments, carry no evidence of any use by a regular company. Francis Meres, in his Palladis Tamia of 1598, tells us that it was the scene of a challenge in 'extemporall' versifying by Robert Wilson.[2] It was one of the wooden theatres which were seen by Hentzner in the same year, and no doubt the one near which he describes the royal barge as lying.[3] On 15 May 1600 the Council sanctioned its use for feats of activity by Peter Bromvill.[4] On 7 February 1602 it was occupied by fencers, and while two of these, by names Turner and Dun, were playing their prizes upon its stage, Dun was unfortunate enough to receive a mortal wound in the eye.[5] On 6 November 1602 it was chosen by Richard Vennar for his impudent mystification of England's Joy. The accounts of this transaction show that it was fitted with 'hangings, curtains, chairs, and stools', and capable of scenic effects, such as the appearance of a throne of blessed souls in heaven and of black and damned souls with fireworks from beneath the stage.[6] Meanwhile Langley had died in 1601 and in January 1602 the Paris Garden estate was sold to Hugh Browker, a proto-*notary of the Court of Common Pleas, in whose family it remained to 1655.[7] About 1611 it was once more taken into use for plays. The Roaring Girl (1611), itself a Fortune play, has an allusion to a knight who 'lost his purse at the last new play i' the Swan',[8] and the accounts of the overseers of Paris Garden contain entries of receipts from 'the play house' or 'the Swan' in each April from 1611 to 1615.[9] The last entry is of so small an amount that it probably only covered a fraction of a year, and I think the inference is that the Swan was disused on the opening of the Hope in 1614.[10] If so, it had probably been taken over by Henslowe for the use of the Lady Elizabeth's men, who came into existence in
- ↑ App. D, No. cxv.
- ↑ App. C, No. lii.
- ↑ Cf. p. 362.
- ↑ App. D, No. cxxiii.
- ↑ Manningham, 130; Gawdy, 93.
- ↑ Ch. xxiii (Vennar).
- ↑ E. S. xliii. 342.
- ↑ Act v, sc. i.
- ↑ P. Norman, The Accounts of the Overseers of the Poor of Paris Garden, 1608-71 (1901, Surrey Arch. Colls. xvi. 55), from Addl. MS. 34, 110, and again by C. W. Wallace as a new discovery in E. S. xliii. 390. The amounts are £4 6s. 8d. in 1611, £5 3s. 4d. in 1612, £5 5s. in 1613, £3 0s. 10d. in 1614, 19s. 2d. in 1615, and £3 19s. 4d. in 1621.
