entrance to the theatre,’ di 
the same performance. 
‘QUEEN ELIZABETH AT BLACKFRIARS 
97 
the Queen dined, the gate to whose mansion adjoined the south 
himself the honor likewise to attend 
This is the only known record of Elizabeth’s attending a “te 
Supra, 26°-26*. 
*“Neither Elizabeth nor King 
James the First, nor Charles the 
First, I believe, ever went to the 
public theatre.”—E. Malone, Shake- 
speare Variorum (ed. Boswell, 
1821), III, 166. 
Some one who has made pains- 
taking marginal notes in the copy 
of the above volume of Malone in 
the Hof- und Stadts-Bibliothek, 
Miinchen, says against Elizabeth’s 
name here, “She went, however, to 
_the Blackfriars in Cynth. Revels.” 
There are reasons to believe she 
did. Proof of it would be most 
gratifying. On the evidence of the 
play itself, the masque in Cynthia’s 
Revels if not the whole play seems 
written in compliance with the 
_ Queen’s requirements in the train- 
atre,? and is the first known instance of such attendance by any 
-sovereign.® 
ing and use of the Children. (Jn- 
fra, 122"). But this does not prove 
she saw the play. On page 
504 of the bose volume, the sig- 
nature “Dibdin” to a note would 
seem to indicate not an author 
quoted, but the author of the mar- 
eee comments.—But which “Dib- 
in’ 
*It has hitherto been supposed, 
as Malone (u. s.), J. P. Collier, op. 
cit. (1831"), Il, 64; (1879%), I, 489; 
BPG: Fleay, op. cit., 313, ‘and the 
rest, have taken it, that Queen 
Henrietta, wife of Charles I, was 
the first person of royalty to attend 
a theatre. She attended the private 
theatres of Blackfriars, Phoenix 
(Cockpit), and Salisbury Court. 
But this record shows Elizabeth in 
priority. 
211 
