University Studies 



Vol. IX OCTOBER ipog No. 4 



THREE LONDON THEATRES OF SHAKE- 

 SPEARE'S TIME. 



#3' Charles William Wallace. 



I 



NATURE OF THE NEW DOCUMENTS. 



The records presented in the following pages came into my 

 hands in the natural course of research conducted in European 

 archives by myself and wife the past few years, resulting in a 

 series of similar discoveries on the stage and drama of Shake- 

 speare's time. They belong to the Court of Requests, of the 

 reign of James I, and are preserved in the Public Record Office 

 at London, the great national archives of England, where are 

 admirably kept the most varied and extensive sources of history 

 in existence. 



The pleadings of this branch of equity for the period in hand 

 are uncalendered, or unindexed, and have lain unexamined for 

 three hundred years. They were prepared by the officials for 

 inspection upon my request. Skins, or parchments, ranging from 

 twehe or fifteen square feet to occasional scraps an inch wide, 

 compose the chief bulk of the proceedings. Most of them are 

 as large as a sheep-skin would cut to straight edges, and the finely 

 written nnes run the entire width of the skin. Depositions, re- 



University Studies, Vol. IX, No. 4, October 1909. 



287 



