8 CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL AT BLACKFRIARS 
The advantages of the private theatre buildings of the chil- 
dren-companies recommended themselves to the theatrical public 
at once as an advance in playhouse evolution. The patronage 
of the Blackfriars is sufficient index in itself. Paul’s reopened 
soon after, and Whitefriars began early in the reign of James. 
Even in the first half of the reign of James I, one more was added 
to the list of private theatres. This was the Cockpit,’ built on 
the model of Blackfriars. 
The new Globe, built in 1613-14, can hardly have failed to 
adopt some of the improved features of the Blackfriars, which 
was then occupied by the same company. At least its modern, 
up-to-date accommodations were such that it was reported at the 
time to be of all theatres “the fairest that ever was in England.’ 
speare-Jahrbuch (1898), xxxiv, 324, 
and both are presented in miniature 
by G. P. Baker, The Development 
of Shakespeare as a. Dramatist 
(1907), 270. The Roxana and the 
Messalina are pictures of university 
stages. 
The Red Bull picture from Kirk- 
man’s Drolls (1672), certainly many 
years older however than the date 
indicates, has been often printed. 
A contract by Henslowe and Al- 
leyn with Peter Street, carpenter, 
Jan. 8, 1599-[1600], for building the 
Fortune on the style of the Globe 
gives detailed specifications. (In J. 
O. Halliwell-Phillips, Outlines of 
the Life of Shakespeare, 9th ed., 
1890, I, 304; E. Malone, Shakespeare 
Variorum, ed. Boswell, 1821, III, 
338-43.) 
Another contract by Henslowe 
and Meade with Gilbert Katherens, 
carpenter, Aug. 29, 1613, for the 
building of the Hope (Bear Gar- 
den) on the plan of the Swan is 
also helpful. (Malone, op. cit., ITI, 
848-47; Baker, op. cit., 320-25). 
The Diary of Thomas Platter in 
the university library at Basel gives 
much information on the public the- 
atres of 1599,—Curtain, Bear Gar- 
den, and Globe. (Extracts by Prof. 
Gustav Binz, Londoner Theater und 
Schauspiele im Jahre 1599, in An- 
glia (1899), xxii, 456-64. 
These sources agree in the most 
general features and furnish most 
of the knowledge we ‘Possess of 
such interiors. 
Some additional sources are pre- 
sented in the present work. 
Many references in the plays 
themselves and in other contempo- 
rary literature here and there give 
us the feel of what it would be to 
see a play there. 
Stage-directions and other evi- 
dences of acting furnish a source 
for scientific investigation that has 
never yet been satisfactorily worked 
out. The latest attempts are by | 
Cecil Brodmeier, Die Shakespeare- 
Biihne nach den alten Bihnenan- 
weisungen (Diss. Jena, 1904), and 
G. F. Reynolds, op. cit., who makes 
a tentative study with a promise of 
a complete treatise on the right line 
of considering the theatres individ- 
ually. 
*The date of building is not sure. 
J. P. Collier, op. cit., III, 136, takes 
it to be about 1616-17. F. G. 
Fleay, A Chronicle History of the 
London Stage (1890), 299, 368, 
dates it 1617. There is some evi- 
dence of an earlier dating. But 
upon reconsideration it seems not 
sufficient for a final statement, 
though it may prove correct. 
* Infra, 35°. 
I22 
