to have ever attended the Blackfriars, but Anne certainly did.[1] And the price of the seats, which ranged from 6d. to 2s. 6d., was of itself sufficient to keep out persons of the 'groundling' or 'stinkard' type.[2] Performances did not necessarily take place every day, and they could begin rather later and go on rather longer than those out of doors, since they were not dependent on daylight.[3] Windows were certainly used, for we hear of them being clapped down to give the illusion of night scenes.[4] But candles and torches supplied an artificial lighting.[5] As both the Paul's boys and those ofhaue but sixpenny fees all the year long, yet we dispatch you in two hours without demur: your suits hang not long here after candles be lighted'; Faithful Shepherdess (1608-9, Blackfriars), Beaumont's c. v., 'Some like, if the wax lights be new that day'. Otho of Hesse-Cassel (1611) says that the Whitefriars plays were 'nur bei lichtern'. Later we have G. Wither, Fair Virtue (1622), 1781:
those lamps which at a play
Are set up to light the day;
Lenton, The Young Gallants Whirligig (1629):
spangled, rare perfumed attires,
Which once so glister'd at the torchy Friars.
Cf. Lawrence (ii. 1), Light and Darkness in the Elizabethan Theatre; also E. S. xlviii. 213.]
- ↑ Cf. chh. i, x, and M. L. R. ii. 12.
- ↑ Jonson, supra; Mich. Term (c. 1606, Paul's), 'sixpenny fees all the year long'; Otho of Hesse-Cassel (1611, Whitefriars), 'hier kostet der eingang einen halben schilling nur, da an andern orten wohl eine halbe kron'; Scornful Lady (1613-16, ? Whitefriars), IV. i. 238, 'I . . . can see a play For eighteen-pence again: I can, my lady'; Wit Without Money (? 1614, Whitefriars), i. 1, 'And who extoled you in the half-*crown boxes, where you might sit and muster all the beauties'. So later, Jonson, Magnetic Lady (1632, Blackfriars), ind., 'the faeces or grounds of your people, that sit in the oblique caves and wedges of your house, your sinful sixpenny mechanicks'. I am rather puzzled by Percy, C. and C. Errant, 'Poules steeple stands in the place it did before; and twopence is the price for the going into a newe play there'. Even in 1589 (cf. p. 532) the price at Paul's was 4d. according to a Marprelate tract, and William Darrell in that year paid 6d. (Hall, Society in Elizabethan Age, 211).
- ↑ In Isle of Gulls (1606, Blackfriars), ind., a Gent. can only see an act or two out, for 'I lay in bed till past three a clock, slept out my dinner and my stomache will toule to supper afore fiue'. Otho of Hesse-Cassel (1611) says that the Whitefriars plays were at three, and from Michaelmas to Easter only. Percy, on the other hand (cf. ch. xii), says that the Paul's boys were not allowed to begin before four, after prayers, and the gates of Paul's shut at six. So, too, Ram Alley (King's Revels), epil., 'Thus two hours have brought to end'. Gerschow in 1602 (cf. ch. xii) says that the Chapel acted once a week; cf. Eastward Hoe (1605, Blackfriars), epil., 'May this attract you hither once a week'.
- ↑ Dekker, Seven Deadly Sins (1606, Works, ii. 41), 'All the Citty lookt like a priuate Play-house, when the windowes are clapt downe, as if some Nocturnall, or dismal Tragedy were presently to be acted'.
- ↑ What You Will (1601, Paul's), 'Enter Atticus, Doricus, and Philomuse, they sit a good while on the stage before the Candles are lighted. . . . Enter Tier-man with lights'; Mich. Term (1607, Paul's), 'Ours [terms
