ae 
r. 
5. 
BLACKFRIARS THEATRE BUILDING 39 
In certain documents which I have recently found, the exact 
size of the “Great Hall” or auditorium is stated as 66 x 46 feet, 
with the length running north and south.’ It is made ciear that 
this is the full size of the south section. The dimensions of the 
north section can only be approximated from this, in connection 
with items already referred to in the deed, and others yet to be 
mentioned from other documents. The width was certainly 46 
feet, while no possible conception of the arrangement of rooms 
from first floor to garret would seem to allow an approximation 
of less than 4o feet north and south. This would make the entire 
building 46 feet wide and something over 100 feet long. 
The auditorium section of Blackfriars theatre, therefore, was 
about half the size of the Globe or the Fortune.?. The entire build- 
ing was also at least four feet wider than Salisbury Court theatre, 
but may or may not have exceeded it in length.® 
The alterations by the Burbages in converting the Blackfriars 
building into a theatre were extensive and cost much time and 
money.* The north section alone required but little change to 
*The “Great Hall” of the Black- 
friars is described as “existens pars 
et parcella illorwm domorum et 
aedificacionum ibidem quae fuerunt 
tune nuper perquisitae et emptae de 
Willelmo Moore Milite per Jaco- 
bum Burbidge defunctum patrem 
praedicti Ricardi et per dictum Ri- 
cardum Burbidge continens per es- 
timacionem in longitudine ab aus- 
trale ad borealem partem eiusdem 
sexaginta ef sex pedes assissae sit 
plus siue minus ef in latitudine ab 
occidentale ad orientalem partem 
eiusdem quadraginta et sex pedes 
assissae sit plus siue minus.” [Ital- 
ics supplied by me in place of the 
original characters of abbreviation]. 
—See documents in extenso in vol. 
III of forthcoming work. 
*The Fortune, 80 x 80=6400 sqft. 
(See Contract for Fortune, in Hal- 
liwell-Phillips, op. cit., I, 305a.) 
The Blackfriars “Great Hall,” 66x 
46 = 3036 sqft. The Globe, though 
the model for the Fortune in struc- 
tural details, was not square but 
octagonal. 
*The grounds purchased for the 
erection of Salisbury Court theatre 
(1629) were 42x 140 feet. It is not 
likely that the theatre occupied the 
full length of the grounds, but its 
‘width was certainly narrow enough 
at 42 feet—See Indenture, 15 July, 
1629, Brit. Mus., Add. ch. 9290. See 
this and other documents on Salis- 
bury Court theatre published by Pe- 
ter Cunningham in The Shakespeare 
Society's Papers (1849), IV, 91-92, 
102. 
From the preceding data, the 
statement of James Wright, His- 
toria Histrionica (1699), in Haz- 
litt’s Dodsley, Old Plays (1876), 
XV, 408 (uw. s., 36°) that Black- 
friars, the Cockpit, and Salisbury 
Court “were all three built almost 
alike for form and bigness,” is not 
quite exact—nor is it intended to be. 
No farther data are known as to 
dimensions of the Cockpit. 
*“Now for the Blackfriars, that 
is our inheritance; our father pur- 
chased it at extreame rates, and 
made it into a playhouse with great 
charge and troble,” say Cuthbert, 
Winifred, and young William Bur- 
153 
