153 
THE QUEEN’S PURPOSES 
i The designation “Theatre, Curten, and Bankside” included all 
the public theatres then in existence. The only “other” known 
theatre “in or about the Citie” in 1597 was the private establish- 
ment of Blackfriars.» The Privy Council so understood it, and 
- immediately, on the same day, sent a reply “in her Majesty’s 
mame” expressing “her Majesties pleasure and commandment” 
_ for drastic measures against the “common playhouses,” thereby 
~ excluding the private theatre of Blackfriars, the suppression of 
which seems to have been the desired object of the request. The 
Theatre and Curtain are specifically named. They shall be dis- 
mantled and made unfit for further use as places for acting. All 
other “common playhouses’”’® are to be restrained until Allhallow- 
iide,* 
In response to this order the Lord Mayor and City Council did 
nothing, although their cae had exhibited great anxiety for 
_ power to act. 
This is the beginning of what seems to be a political game of 
. chess, with the theatres as pieces. 
The City had long before driven the theatres out of its pre- 
_cincts. Still the City authorities, always jealous of power and 
_ craving more, wished to control them. Still more, they wished 
to establish their long-contested claim to civic control of the pre- 
cincts of Blackfriars. The establishment of a theatre within the 
_ liberties of Blackfriars gave them renewed eagerness. Permis- 
sion granted to control all theatres, and therefore this theatre, 
*The Theatre and Curtain were plete work, vol. II., under Plays.) 
soon 
~ the City “in the fields.” 
on the north (Middlesex county) I+ is 
side of the Thames, and north of 
The Swan, 
Rose, Bear Garden, and Newington 
Butts were on the Bankside (south 
or Surry county side). The other 
Bankside theatres were built at later 
dates, the first Globe, 1599; Hope, 
1613; new Globe (after the fire) 
1613-14. Of the later public thea- 
tres only the Fortune (1600), in 
_ Golding-lane, and the Red Bull, St. 
John’s street, were in Middlesex co. 
*It is not known whether Paul’s 
was reopened by 1597 or not. The 
date of reopening is usually taken 
probable that Paul’s 
opened as a result of the establish- 
ment of Blackfriars. 
These and all other later private 
theatres were on the north (Mid- 
dlesex county) side—Whitefriars 
(ca. —?); Cockpit (ca. —?), re- 
built as Phoenix (1617) and known 
oftener as Drury Lane theatre; Sal- 
isbury Court (1629). 
°T. e., Swan, Rose, Bear Garden, 
and Newington Butts, on the Bank- 
side. 
*See the order of the Privy Coun- 
cil, July 28, 1597, published in Acts 
of the Privy Council, 1597 (ed. J. R. 
to be 1600. But I find evidence of Dasent, 1903), 313-14. Also in J. 
playing there in 1598. (See com-  O. Halliwell-Phillips, op. cit., I, 356. 
267 
