Three London Theatres of Shakespeare's Time 3 



that class is, and what to hunt for. But one might search a 

 life-time, as many illustrious men. some of them my prede- 

 cessors, have done, without finding any of these. It looks all 

 very simple after it is done. And it is simple, — after it is done, 

 — as illustrated by the famous story of standing an egg on end. 



I may add that we have examined every document preserved 

 in the Court of Requests for the period in hand, and are able 

 to report that the following are the only records that still exist 

 there in the cases of Woodford vs. Holland, Smith vs. Beeston, 

 and Alleyn vs. Henslowe. 



The contemporary records now presented reedify three old 

 London theatres of Shakespeare's time, revivify their owners 

 and actors, and make us see and realize and share in the exist- 

 ence of each, as if we were of and in and properly belonging 

 to that long past that was just as real and just as human as 

 our own present. These old theatres were not things of romantic 

 wonder, nor were the actors glorified beings that trod the boards 

 with god-like movement and divine passion. Both were as real 

 and as common as life and its means of existence. Partly from 

 their contemporaneousness with Shakespeare and partly for their 

 own sakes in a revered past, the dramas that first spoke to the 

 little audiences from the lips of these actors, and from the stages 

 of these theatres, and through the financial risks of these share- 

 holders and managers, have come down to us with so much 

 of idealization and so little of these living voices that we have 

 long been wont to think romantically, rather than really, about 

 them. But it is good to walk among living men, to meet them, 

 talk with them, know and feel their lives, careless of what may 

 come of it, but sure in the end that such good is best. If these 

 documents did that only, then they would be well worth reading. 

 But they inform, as well as bring us to a proper mental attitude. 



In presenting the new information I have not followed the 

 severe scientific methods of my own models and ideals, because 

 these records are but fragments of large history, and I desire 

 here mainly to put the matter into print for future reference 

 of both myself and others who may engage in the scholar's 

 task and privilege of editing data into truth. I do not feel, 



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