32 CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL AT BLACKFRIARS 
covered the entire exterior,’ and was probably marked off so as 
to give the appearance of stone blocks,’ or otherwise ornamented. 
Also the pillars “uppon and over the stage” of the Hope, like 
those of the Swan, were simply “turned cullumes [columns],’’ 
a very plain adornment at best, while the posts supporting the 
balconies were made of square dimension stuff measuring from 
ten by ten in the lower story to six by six in the upper. And 
The Fortune was plastered thus 
outside, as shown by the contract 
for its construction (wu. s., 29°) thus: 
“And alsoe all the saide frame and 
the [outside] stearcases thereof to 
be sufficyently enclosed without with 
lathe, lyme, and haire.” The Globe 
as the specified model of the For- 
tune must then have been built in 
the same manner. The general 
specifications in the Hope contract 
(u. s., 31*) calling for the use of 
“lyme lears [=hears], sand, brickes, 
tyles, laths, nayles,” &c., the whole 
building “to be made in suche forme 
and fashion as the said playhouse 
called the Swan,” indicate the same 
style of plaster exterior for both 
as for the Fortune and Globe. Cor- 
roborative of this evidence is the 
engraving of the Hope (“Bear Gar- 
den”) in R. Wilkinson, Londina II- 
lustrata (1819), I, pt. ii (no pag.), 
which shows a plaster exterior 
marked off into large stone-shaped 
blocks. Although Visscher’s view 
of 1616 was used as a basis for this 
engraving, it is fair to presume the 
engraver had more tangible evidence 
than mere imagination upon which 
to represent such an exterior. Par- 
ticularly so since it is not contra- 
dictory but corroborative of the 
other evidences, and is itself cor- 
roborated by common custom of the 
times represented. 
From the amount of lime, sand, 
lath, lath-nails, &c. used by Hens- 
lowe “a bowte my play howsse” 
(probably the Rose) in 1592, this 
theatre also had a similar exterior. 
(See items in Henslowe’s Diary, ed. 
Collier, S. S. Pub., 1845, 10-15.) 
In all these known cases of the 
Fortune (and Globe), the Hope 
(and Swan), as also in case of the 
addition to the Bear Garden in 1606 
(cf. contract in Memoirs of Edward 
Alleyn, ed. Collier, S. S. Pub., 1841, 
78-81), the heavy-timbered “frame” 
is mentioned and emphasized as the 
main thing in the structure. The 
plastering over heavy laths or 
“slates” was of course regarded as 
part of the “finishing.” 
There seems little room for 
doubt that the same sort of heavy- 
timbered “frame” and plaster ex- 
terior characterized the Globe, the 
Fortune, the Bear Garden, the 
Swan, the Hope, and the Rose, and 
probably all other public theatres 
prior to the building of the new 
Giobe and Fortune. (Cf. infra, 
34°. 
There was good reason why all 
the Elizabethan and early Jacobean 
public theatres should avail them- 
selves of this same general plan of 
unpretentious and comparatively in- 
expensive efficiency. In this they 
were using the mode of building 
that was most in vogue for common 
houses, inns, and other structures 
not intended for the centuries,—a 
mode, so far as the plaster exterior 
is concerned, still used widely in 
southern Europe and parts of Amer- 
ica, though not always for cheap- 
The theatre was more or less 
ness. 
an uncertain business enterprise, 
usually located on _ temporarily 
leased grounds, and did not war- 
rant the anticipations of the future 
in either the expense or permanence 
that the use of brick or stone,— 
much less of flint stone,—would 
carry with it. 
?See the Wilkinson engraving of 
the Hope (Bear Garden), w. s., 32%. 
5Cf. contract for Hope, u. s., 30°. 
vd 
146 
