rer ph i eho te a a a oa 
‘ ee 
‘ * 
156 CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL AT BLACKFRIARS 
ing the Globe on the Bankside. January 8, 1599-[1600]* the — 
Fortune was begun in Golding-lane on the opposite side of the 
City to the north. During the course of its construction, com-_ 
plaints against the theatres were renewed. We are not told by — 
contemporary records whether the complainants were City offi-_ 
cials or not. The common modern assumption that they were 
Puritans is gratuitous.” 
June 22, 1600, the Privy Council in response to these complaints 
issued orders for carrying out her Majesty’s plans* as outlined 
in the order of 19 Feb., 1597-[8]. 
specified and their respective new houses, the Globe and Fortune, 
are to be permitted. But the idea of exclusiveness was extended 
in a way that displeased even these two favored companies. They 
were to be permitted to act but twice a week instead of daily as 
hitherto. 
The Lord Mayor and other authorities made no more effort to 4 
enforce this order than the one of July 28, 1597. 
I must here call attention to an important item. Of all the 
orders of the Privy Council from 1576 to 1597,* not one uses the 
word “common” or “public” in application to the theatres. The 
apparently hasty and choleric order of July 28, 1597,° is the first 
to employ either word thus. Within a space of eighteen lines, 
“common playhouse” is used twice, “publique place” twice, and 
general descriptions of public theatres coupled with the names 
“Curtain” and “Theatre” twice. 
In the order of 1600 and the two letters accompanying it,® 
“common stage-plaies” is used three times, and “publique” is ap- — 
plied twice. 
The first official use, antedating the Privy Council’s use, of 
“common” thus, so far as I have found, is in the law of 1597 
against strolling players.’ 
This distinction of “common” or “public” as a manifest differ- 
Only the two companies there 
* Supra, 29°. 
*See supra, 148°-50. 
*See quotations supra, 150°-51° 
and the document in extenso in 
Acts of the Privy Council, 1599- 
600 (ed. J. R. Dasent, New Series), 
XXX, 395-98, 411. Also in J: O. 
Halliwell-Phillips, op. cit., I, 307-8. 
“For the whole series covering 
these dates see the government pub- 
lications, Acts of the Privy Coun- 
cil, Those touching the Theatre 
and Curtain are collected in J. O. 
Halliwell-Phillips, op. cit., I, 346-75, 
passim. 
° Supra, 152-53. 
® Supra, 156°. 
™ Supra, 152. 
270 
