Three London Theatres of Shakespeare's Time 5 1 



pay this compl 1 And the said Biston & the company were both 

 contented & requested this compl 1 to take the sayd course — / 



IV. 



THE FORTUNE THEATRE AND THE BEAR GARDEN. 



The part played by the Fortune theatre and the Bear Garden in 

 the evolution of the drama of Shakespeare's time cannot properly 

 be told until we are in possession of all available data. The chief 

 items formerly known, besides not a little new matter, I have pre- 

 sented in University Studies for April-July, 1908, as incidental 

 to the treatment of The Children of the Chapel at Blachfriars 

 1597-1603. Old materials and new must ultimately be gathered 

 together and presented, not as mere isolated facts, but as essen- 

 tial members of a living, palpitating organism. But it is my 

 purpose now to do no more than add certain new facts that will 

 finally fall into their proper relations in later presentations of 

 other literary historians as well as my own. It has long been 

 known that Edward Alleyn, within a year after he built the 

 Fortune, leased one half of it to his father-in-law, Philip Hens- 

 lowe. The lease bore date 4 April, 1601, and was to continue 

 twenty- four years at an annual rental of 8 /. An unexecuted 

 assignment of it, after Philip Henslowe's death, in 1616 by Agnes 

 Henslowe, his wife and executrix, is now preserved among the 

 voluminous papers of Alleyn and Henslowe at the college 

 founded by Alleyn at Dulwich. The papers there preserved 

 furnish us some of our most valuable information on the Eliza- 

 bethan-Jacobean drama and stage. But among them the lease 

 itself has not been found, nor any record of payments of rent 

 from time to time by Henslowe to Alleyn for the Fortune. 



It is evident from the documents I now present that no 

 payments in money were made by Henslowe for the rent of 

 one half of the Fortune. It was simply offset by rent of 

 other property to Alleyn. It is here stated that an agree- 

 ment was made in or about 16 10 whereby Alleyn released 

 Henslowe from payment of the 8 /. in consideration of Hens- 



337 



