“RELATIONS OF BLACKFRIARS 165 
: In Poetaster (ca, April, 1601) Histrio, a player standing for 
the spirit of the public theatres in general and of the Globe in 
‘particular, is made to declare this condition of leanness as a re- 
- sult of the lack of gentleman patronage. In Cynthia’s Revels 
_ (ca, April, 1600) the better classes are represented as avoiding 
_ the public theatres because of the immodesty and obscenity in 
_ the plays there, and attending Blackfriars where there was a more 
' wholesome vogue.” 
_By a comparison it will be seen that the Blackfriars plays of 
1597-1603 are freer from such offensive qualities than the plays 
Again, in Poetaster the public theatre audiences on the Bank- 
:. 
yt 
; of any other theatre except Shakespeare’s at the Globe. 
Pe) 
ont; 
made us all poorer than so many 
_ stafved snakes: nobody comes at us, 
side are ridiculed as composed of “all the sinners of the suburbs.’ 
*Histrio is speaking of the play 
Horace [Jonson] supposed was in 
progress against him under the hand 
of Demetrius [Dekker] thus :— 
“O, it will get us a huge deal of 
money, captain, and we have need 
for this winter [1600-1] has 
not a gentleman nor a ——. 2 
—Poetaster, III, i., Jonson’s Works 
(ed. Gifford-Cunningham), I, 234b- 
235a. 
*In the Induction to Cynthia’s 
Revels a genteel auditor who has 
come to Blackfriars because dis- 
pleased with the plays offered by 
the public theatres is giving advice 
to the Children and their poets as 
to what to avoid. His part is spo- 
ken thus :— 
“3 Child [Sal Pavy]— 
: It 
is in the general behalf ‘of this 
fair society here that I am to speak, 
at least the more judicious part of 
it, which seems much distasted with 
the immodest and obscene writing 
of many in their plays.” 
Then he goes on to advise their 
poets what to avoid. . This part is 
not aimed as satire at the Boys, nor 
at their poets (Jonson himself and 
Chapman), but is a shaft shot over 
their shoulders at the public the- 
_ atres, thus :— 
“Besides, they could wish your 
poets would leave to be promoters 
of other men’s jests, and to waylay 
all the stale apothegms, or old 
books, they can hear of, in print or 
otherwise, to farce their scenes with- 
al. That they would not so penu- 
riously glean wit from every laun- 
dress or hackney-man, or derive 
their best grace, with servile imi- 
tation, from common stages, or ob- 
servation of the company they con- 
verse with; as if their invention 
lived wholly upon another man’s 
trencher. Again, that feeding their 
friends with nothing of their own, 
but what they have twice or thrice 
cooked, they should not wantonly 
give out, how soon they had drest 
it; nor how many coaches came to 
carry away the broken meat, besides 
hobby-horses and foot-cloth nags. 
2 Child [Jack Underwood].—So, 
sir, this is all the reformation you 
seek? 
3 Child.—It is; do not you think 
it necessary to be practiced, my lit- 
tle wag? 
2 Child—yYes, where any such 
ill-habited custom is received.” 
This last statement, as the spirit 
throughout, shows the “custom” was 
not “received” at Blackfriars, but 
on the “common stages,” whose 
practice is to be avoided. 
*Histrio, speaking of “Humours, 
Revels, and Satire,” is made to say, 
“They are on the other side of Ty- 
ber [7. e., at Blackfriars] : we [pub- 
279 
