CHAPTER I 
THE BLACKFRIARS THEATRE BUILDING 
THE remodeling of one of the Priory buildings of the dissolved 
monastery of the Blackfriars at JLondon into a theatre, the leas- 
ing of it by Richard Burbage to Henry Evans for a playhouse, 
and the taking up of children therefor under the first royal com- 
mission to Nathaniel Gyles, Master of the Children of the Chapel 
Royal, date the beginning of this history. These three events 
took place in 1596-97. 
February 4, 1596, James Burbage, “the first builder of play- 
houses,”? purchased through Sir Thomas Cawarden’s executor, 
Sir William More of Losely, for £600? certain “romes” of the 
dissolved monastery “of the late Blackfryers Preachers.’? In 
November he was engaged in remodeling the structure for a the- 
atre,? in which month the inhabitants of the precinct petitioned® 
*The Globde-Blackfriars Share 
Papers of 1635, in J. O. Halliwell- 
Phillips, Outlines of the Life of 
Shakespeare (9th ed. 1890), I, 317. 
James Burbage built “The Theatre” 
in 1576, which was in fact the first 
modern theatre in England. But 
the commonly accepted view that 
this is the earliest theatre-building 
in England is not quite correct. 
Upon the contemporary evidence of 
Bishop Grandisson there was a the- 
atre in existence in which “ludi” 
were presented at Exeter in 1348. 
See two Latin mandates of the 
Bishop directed against the doings 
at this theatre, printed in Register 
of Bishop Grandisson (ed. F. C. 
Hingeston-Randolph), II, 1055, 
1120; reprinted in part, with com- 
ments, in E. K. Chambers, The 
Mediaeval Stage (1903), I, 383, II, 
190. 
*“Our father purchased it at ex- 
treame rates,” say Cuthbert, Wini- 
fred and William Burbage in the 
1635 Share Papers (u. s.). 
*Deed of Sir William More to 
James Burbage, 4 February, 1595- 
[6]. Original indenture at Loseley 
House. Abstracts in Appendix to 
Seventh Report of the Royal Com- 
mission on Historical Manuscripts 
under “The Manuscripts of William 
More Molyneux, Esq., of Loseley 
Park, Guildford, co. Surrey” 
(1879), 653b. In extenso in Halli- 
well-Phillips, op. cit., I, 299-304. 
*Petition of the Inhabitants of 
Blackfriars, u. i. 
“Petition of the Inhabitants of 
Blackfriars Precinct to the Queen’s 
Privy Council, [Nov., 1596]. The 
original document has not come to 
light. But an undated copy of it 
made ca. 1631 is preserved in the 
English national archives, the Pub- 
lic Record Office, State Papers, Do- 
mestic, Eliz., cclx, 116. Printed 
frequently; e. g., Halliwell-Phillips, 
op. cit., I, 304. 
The petition does not give the 
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