APOTHECARIES' HALL 19 



landing place a steeper descent than it is at 

 present ; for New Bridge Road, to which it 

 now leads, was afterwards built above the 

 Fleet, which still flows underneath it. 1 A 

 motor omnibus to-day passing under Holborn 

 Viaduct on its way to Blackfriars Bridge, by 

 Ludgate Circus, would run along and above 

 the imprisoned Fleet river up which barges 

 once found their way to Holborn. 



Almost next door to Cobham House was a 

 small theatre used by a theatrical company in 

 the winter, when their summer theatre, " The 

 Globe," across the water, was found too cold 

 and too much exposed to the weather. Black- 

 friars theatre was roofed all over, well lit with 

 tallow candles, and a pleasanter place than 

 " The Globe " on a winter's evening for both 

 actors and audience. 



Many of the Apothecaries must have known 

 it twenty years before, in the lifetime of its 

 manager, who wrote many plays, put life into 

 all his stories, and whose company had often 

 performed before King James, and even before 

 the old Queen, who " to his lays opened her 

 royal ear." 2 



' Although Blackfriars theatre was not quite 

 what it had been, the Apothecaries' apprentices 

 must still have enjoyed their laugh at Falstaff, 

 and have come away inspired by Henry the 

 Fifth. But the theatre was slowly coming to 

 an end. The frivolous side of play-acting 

 had perhaps grown, and, on the other hand, 



1 The arching of the Fleet was completed in 1765. 



2 Chettle. Life of William Shakespeare, by Sir Sidney Lee, 

 page 376. 



