POLITICAL HISTORY 



inhabitants who formed the corporation were, and they objected to stage 

 plays altogether, and with good grounds objected to the disorder which 

 surrounded the play-houses and bear-pits. When these were erected 

 therefore they were just outside the jurisdiction of the City. The Black- 

 friars, where Sir Thomas Cawarden had had a house when he was 

 Master of the Revels, had been a centre for amusements, close under the 

 eyes of the corporation, from which it was protected by the ancient 

 liberties of the friars ; but the Surrey side offered a more extensive field 

 for braving their displeasure, while keeping close to the population who 

 were to be amused. The rogues and vagabonds of the southern bound- 

 aries of Surrey had their more civilized counterpart in the stage players 

 who hung about South wark. So in 1580 a theatre was opened at New- 

 ington Butts, called after the name of the place. In 1585 the Rose and 

 the Hope were opened near Bankside, and in 1588 the Paris Garden 

 Theatre. The Rose and the Paris Garden, perhaps the Hope also, 

 could be used as either theatres or bear-pits. In 1595 the Swan was 

 opened, and in 1599 the Globe. 1 They were all in the Clink Liberty 

 or Paris Garden Manor, being very close together. The corporation 

 prevailed upon the Privy Council to close all the theatres in Surrey, 

 except the Globe, in 1601 ; but bear-baiting remained too popular for 

 suppression. In James' reign theatres were opened again. But the era 

 of the building of these houses marks the period when Southwark was, 

 as we have said, more than merely annexed by London. It as a district 

 became then a necessary part of London, developing a distinctive charac- 

 ter of its own, and attracting a population of a particular kind, which 

 separated it entirely in spirit and manners from the rural districts and 

 country towns. It was no more a possibly debatable land ; there could 

 henceforth be no question but that it was London. The theatres were 

 outside the jurisdiction of the corporation, the actors of course lived 

 inside. Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher all lived in Southwark at 

 various times. Massinger at least died there, as did Shakespeare's 

 brother Edmund. Not strictly contemporaneously, but within some ten 

 years, from 1590 to 1600, Surrey contained four residents whom she 

 could scarcely equal for their various claims to distinction by four at any 

 other time. The lord admiral lived at Haling, Sir Francis Walsingham 

 at Barn Elms, the queen constantly lay at Richmond, and Shakespeare 

 had a house at the Boar's Head opposite St. Mary Overie. The first 

 three died in Surrey. 



When the great queen had passed away in gloom and loneliness at 

 Richmond there was no revolution in Surrey government. The queen 

 had died early on March 24, 1603. That day the Earl of Northumber- 

 land thrust himself into the Council, claiming a place in their delibera- 

 tions. On the 25th, when they wrote to the Surrey justices ordering 

 them to proclaim King James, it is amusing to find Northumberland's 

 signature in the place of honour, far more prominent than the humble 



1 The dates are Mr. Fleay's ; see Transactions R. Hist. S. 1888. See Topographical Section for a 

 more detailed examination of the Surrey side theatres. 



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