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BLACKFRIARS THEATRE BUILDING 51 
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“writers on stage-history that audiences put up with woeful dis- 
comforts simply to sce a great play well enacted, it would seem 
3 that reasonable consideration was given the tastes of different 
classes of patrons, and that those in the choicer parts of the house 
were charged the higher prices on account of the better accom- 
-modations as well as the better view. The theatre was then a 
larger centre of social contact than now,—a spirit still somewhat 
preserved in parts of Europe, but wholly lost to the amusement- 
loving theatre-goer of America. The best boxes or rooms were 
patronized by lords, nobles, and other gentlemen used to the best 
_ at home and in society, and it is unlikely that they should have 
gone in such numbers if discomforts had been so great as to 
cause them to do penance while watching the play. The Black- 
friars especially was frequented by the London élite, both gentle- 
- to accommodate farthingale and puffed trunk-hose. 
men and ladies, in the wake of Queen and Court, who must have 
found ample provision for comfort there, in seats not too crowded 
Thomas 
Platter of Basel, who visited London in 1599, in speaking of cer- 
tain unnamed theatres, mentions the fact that the higher priced 
seats there—costing but 3 d. however—were provided with cush- 
ions.t_ All this is suggestive that if the common art of upholster- 
ing of the time may not have contributed even more to the com- 
fort of seats ranging up to a shilling in price, at least the general 
comfort was satisfactory. 
In finally drawing these plats of Blackfriars and the Fortune, 
such width and arrangement of seats has been indicated as would 
reasonably provide for the comfortable and safe care of the audi- 
ence. In both plats all rows of seats in all galleries are 30 inches 
apart from heel to heel, and each seat in the side galleries is 22% 
_ inches wide, while in the rear galleries of the Fortune they are 
19 and of the Blackfriars 18 inches wide. The width of aisles 
and all other dimensions are sufficiently indicated in the plats. 
ec 
. . begeret er aber am lustig- 
esten ort auf kissen ze_ sitzen, 
da er nicht allein alles woll sihet, 
sondern auch gesehen kan werden, 
so gibt er bey einer anderen thiiren 
noch 1 Englischen pfennig.”— 
Thomas Platter’s Reisebericht, ex- 
tracts of which are published by 
Prof. Gustav Binz, “Londoner The- 
ater und Schauspiele im Jahre 
1599,” in Angha (1899), XXII, 459. 
*In modern theatres the seats 
are generally 30 inches apart from 
heel to heel and from 18 to 20 
inches wide. Theatre managers tell 
me they provide the wider seats in 
165 
