1890.] Mr. H. B, Wheatley on London Stage in EUzahetlis Beign. 27 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 7, 1890. 



John Eae, M.D. LL.D. F.E.S. Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 Henry B. Wheatley, Esq. F.S.A. 



The London Stage in ElizabetJCs Beign. 



As the words "stage" and "drama" are sometimes used synony- 

 mously, it is necessary to state at the outset that the subject of the 

 discourse is the material stage which grew up in this reign, and not 

 the Elizabethan drama. During the first eighteen years of Eliza- 

 beth's reign the growth of the drama was but gradual, and the 

 appliances for the acting of plays were but little different from what 

 they had been in the previous reigns, while in 1576 a great change 

 occurred, and the first playhouse was erected in the fields to the 

 west of the highway at Shoreditch. It was called the Theatre, and 

 the name alone seems to make it certain that this was the first 

 special building for the purpose ; but mention must be made of two 

 statements which seem to militate against this view. The Rev. 

 William Harrison, an Elizabethan divine, wrote a descrijjtion of 

 England, which was published with Holinshed's ' Chronicles,' and a 

 chronology of the world, which is still in MS. In the latter work, 

 under date 1572, Harrison writes "Plaies are banished for a time out 

 of London," on account of the plague ; and, he adds, " would to God 

 these common plaies were exiled for altogether as seminaries of 

 impietie and their theatres pulled down. It is an evident token of 

 a wicked time when plaiers waxe so riche that they can build such 

 houses." It is possible that this was written after 1572, and after 

 the Theatre was built ; but there was evidently a certain looseness of 

 writing respecting places where plays were acted as playhouses. Thus, 

 in the 1631 issue of Howes's edition of Stow's ' Annales' we read that 

 Whitefriars theatre of 1629 was " the 17th stage or common play 

 house which hath been new made within the space of three score 

 years within London and the suburbs." Now sixty years from 1629, 

 takes us back to 1569 ; but in these seventeen playhouses are includedl 

 inns, St. Paul's Singing-school, &c., which cannot be considered as 

 distinct buildings for the performance of plays. A modern instance 

 may be cited in the use of the dormitory of Westminster School for 

 the Latin play ; for the time being it would not be improper to 

 style it a theatre or playhouse, although the dormitory soon loses all 

 appearance of its late use. After considering the bearing of 

 Harrison's and Howes's words, I think we must come to the con- 

 clusion that the general opinion as to the Theatre being the first 



