as they or anie of them shall as aforesaid lend or deliver betwene the razeinge of the saide fframe & finishinge thereof and of all the rest of the saide woorkes, shalbe reputed, accepted, taken & accoumpted in parte of the laste pamente aforesaid of the same somme of Fower hundred & Fortie poundes, anie thinge abouesaid to the contrary notwithstandinge. In witnes whereof the parties abouesaid to theis presente Indentures Interchaungeably haue sett theire handes and seales. Yeoven the daie and yeare ffirste abouewritten.
PS
Sealed and deliuered by the saide Peter Streete in the presence of me William Harris Pub[lic] Scr[ivener] And me Frauncis Smyth appr[entice] to the said Scr[ivener]
[Endorsed:] Peater Streat ffor The Building of the Fortune.
The constant references in the terms of the contract to the
model of the Globe, while bearing testimony to the stimulus
which the building of the Globe had given to theatrical
competition, leaves some uncertainty as to many details of
planning, and it is matter for regret that the 'plot' of the
stage and staircases furnished to the builder has not itself
been preserved. We learn, however, that the house was
a square one, 80 feet each way by outside and 55 feet by inside
measurement; that the stage was 43 feet wide and projected
into the middle of the yard; that the framework was of
wood, on a foundation of brick and piles, and with an outer
coating of plaster; that the framework and stage were
boarded within and strengthened with iron pikes; that there
were three galleries rising to a total height of 32 feet, and that
sections of these were partitioned off and ceiled as 'gentlemens
rooms', of which there were four, and 'twopenny
rooms'; that the tiring-house had glazed windows; that
there was a 'shadowe or cover' over the stage, and that this,
with the galleries and staircases, were tiled and supplied with
lead gutters to carry off the rain-water. Two divergences
from the Globe model are specified: the timber work is
to be stouter, and the principal posts of the frame work and
stage are to be square and carved with satyrs. An ingenious
attempt has been made by Mr. William Archer and Mr. W. H.
Godfrey to reconstruct the plan of the theatre from these and
other indications, with a liberal allowance of conjecture.[1]
- ↑ Quarterly Review, ccviii. 442; Architectural Review, xxiii. 239. Models by Mr. Godfrey are at the Columbia and Illinois Universities (Adams, 277). M. W. Sampson has pointed out in M. L. N. for June 1915 (cited by Adams, 279) that the passage in The Roaring Girl (1611), i. 1, where Sir Alexander Weargrave displays his house to his friends, is really a description of the Fortune when 'Within one square a thousand heads are laid'.
