The two recreation areas of Elizabethan London were Finsbury Field to the north of the city and the Bankside to the south. The playground to the north was a respectable place for family picnics and the practice of various sports, while the Bank had a "naughty" quality due to the long line of brothels along the edge of the river. In view of the antitheatrical attitude of the municipal authorities, the builder of the first London theater structure, James Burbage, wisely selected the reputable territory close to Finsbury Field as the site for "The Theatre" (1576). Not far from the Theatre, London's second playhouse, the Curtain, was erected in 1577. Eventually, however, the Bankside was developed as a region for theatrical entertainment. Players had invaded the territory for some time. The obscure Newington Butts playhouse and the Bear Garden had paved the way for Henslowe's Rose (1587). Burbage and Henslowe seemed to reap profits as theatrical operators. This prompted the goldsmith, Francis Langley, to build a playhouse on his Bankside property. He opened the Swan in 1594. The Lord Mayor had vainly protested against the enterprise. His letter to the Lord High Treasurer summed up the Puritan sentiment of the Common Council toward the stage in general:
My humble duetie remembred to your good L. I vnderstand that one Francis
Langley, one of the Alneagers for sealing of cloth, intendeth to erect a
niew stage or Theater (as they call it) for thexercising of playes vpon
the Banck side. And forasmuch as wee fynd by daily experience the great
inconuenience that groweth to this Citie & the government thearof by the
sayed playes, I haue embouldened my self to bee an humble suiter to your
good L. to bee a means for vs rather to suppresse all such places built
for that kynd of exercise, then to erect any more of the same sort. I am
not ignorant (my very good L.) what is alleadged by soom for defence of
these playes, that the people must haue soom kynd of recreation, & that
policie requireth to divert idle heads & other ill disposed from other
woorse practize by this kynd of exercize. Whearto may bee answeared
(which your good L. for your godly wisedom can far best iudge of) that as
honest recreation is a thing very meet for all sorts of men, so no kynd
of exercise, beeing of itself corrupt & prophane, can well stand with the
good policie of a Christian Common Wealth. And that the sayed playes (as
they are handled) ar of that sort, and woork that effect in such as ar
present and frequent the same, may soon bee decerned by all that haue any
godly vnderstanding & that obserue the fruites & effects of the same,
conteining nothing ells but vnchast fables, lascivious divises, shifts of
cozenage, & matters of Iyke sort, which ar so framed & represented by
them, that such as resort to see & hear the same, beeing of the base &
refuse sort of people or such yoong gentlemen as haue small regard of
credit or conscience, draue the same into example of imitation & not of
avoyding the sayed lewd offences. Which may better appear by the qualitie
of such as frequent the sayed playes, beeing the ordinary places of
meeting for all vagrant persons & maisterles men that hang about the
Citie, theeues, horsestealers, whoremoongers, coozeners, connycatching
persones, practizers of treason, & such other Iyke, whear they consort
and make their matches to the great displeasure of Almightie God & the
hurt and annoyance of hir Maiesties people, both in this Citie & other
places about, which cannot be clensed of this vngodly sort (which by
experience wee fynd to bee the very sinck & contagion not only of this
Citie but of this whole Realm), so long as these playes & places of
resort ar by authoritie permitted. I omit to trouble your L. with any
farther matter how our apprentices and servants ar by this means
corrupted & induced hear by to defraud their Maisters, to maintein their
vain & prodigall expenses occasioned by such evill and riotous companie,
whearinto they fall by these kynd of meetings, to the great hinderance of
the trades & traders inhabiting this Citie, and how people of all sorts
ar withdrawen thearby from their resort vnto sermons & other Christian
exercise, to the great sclaunder of the ghospell & prophanation of the
good & godly religion established within this Realm. All which disorders
hauing observed & found to bee true, I thought it my duetie, beeing now
called to this publique place, to infourm your good L., whome I know to
bee a patrone of religion & lover of virtue & an honourable a friend to
the State of this Citie, humbly beeseaching you to voutchsafe mee your
help for the stay & suppressing, not only of this which is now intended,
by directing your lettres to the Iustices of peace of Middlesex & Surrey,
but of all other places, if possibly it may bee, whear the sayed playes
ar shewed & frequented. And thus crauing pardon for this ouer much length
I humbly take my leaue. From London the 3. of November. I594.
The objections raised in the Lord Mayor's letter of protest against the Swan project were frequently reiterated by the municipal authorities. One more example must sufficeãa letter written by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to the Privy Council in I597:
The inconueniences that grow by Stage playes abowt the Citie of London.
I. They are a speaciall cause of corrupting their Youth, conteninge
nothinge but vnchast matters, lascivious devices, shiftes of Coozenage, &
other lewd & vngodly practizes, being so as that they impresse the very
qualitie & corruption of manners which they represent, Contrary to the
rules & art prescribed for the makinge of Comedies eaven amonge the
Heathen, who vsed them seldom & at certen sett tymes, and not all the
year longe as our manner is. Whearby such as frequent them, beinge of the
base & refuze sort of people or such young gentlemen as haue small regard
of credit or conscience, drawe the same into imitacion and not to the
avoidinge the like vices which they represent.
2. They are the ordinary places for vagrant persons, Maisterles men,
thieves, horse stealers, whoremongers, Coozeners, Conycatchers,
contrivers of treason, and other idele and daungerous persons to meet
together & to make theire matches to the great displeasure of Almightie
God & the hurt & annoyance of her Maiesties people, which cannot be
prevented nor discovered by the Gouernours of the Citie for that they are
owt of the Citiees iurisdiction.
3. They maintaine idlenes in such persons as haue no vocation & draw
apprentices and other seruantes from theire ordinary workes and all
sortes of people from the resort vnto sermons and other Christian
exercises, to the great hinderance of traides & prophanation of religion
established by her highnes within this Realm.
4. In the time of sickness it is fownd by experience, that many hauing
sores and yet not hart sicke take occasion hearby to walk abroad & to
recreat themselves by heareinge a play. Whearby others are infected, and
them selves also many things miscarry.
The question whether Elizabethan acting was formal and stylized or realistic in character portrayal is still a topic of debate. Alfred Harbage has made a convincing case for formal acting as against those who prefer to assume that Elizabethan acting anticipated the Moscow Art Theater method. The following pieces of evidence should be examined by anyone intrigued by the subject: Hamlet's advice to the playersãa plea for moderation with "the mirror up to nature" thrown in as a clichÈ of Renaissance criticism (Harbage); two passages from Heywood's Apology for Actors (1612); a praise of the actor's social function written, perhaps with Burbage in mind, by John Webster (1615? ); a description of some Stanislavsky forerunners given by Edmund Gayton, who, in 1654, became nostalgic when he recalled the pre-revolutionary pleasures of play going; a few lines from a lengthy epitaph on Burbage; and, finally, Richard Flecknoe's "remembrances" of Burbage, written as late as 1664:
Hamlet: Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to see a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I could have such a fellow whipp'd for o'erdoing Termagant. It out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.
Player: I warrant your honour.
Hamlet: Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.
Player: I hope we have reform'd that indifferently with us, sir.
Hamlet: O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the Fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.
Manuscript additions to a copy of Stowe's Annales furnish us
with obituary information concerning the final fate of the
pre-revolutionary playhouses:
Play Houses. The Globe play house on the Banks side in Southwarke, was burnt downe to the ground, in the yeare 1612. And now built vp againe in the yeare 1613, at the great charge of King James, and many Noble men and others. And now pulled downe to the ground, by Sir Matthew Brand, On Munday the I5 of April 1644, to make tenements in the room of it.
The Blacke Friers players playhouse in Blacke Friers, London, which had stood many yeares, was pulled downe to the ground on Munday the Û day of August 1655, and tennements built in the rome.
The play house in Salsbury Court, in Fleetstreete, was pulled downe by a company of souldiers, set on by sectuaries of these sad times, on Saturday the 24 day of March 1649.
The Phenix in Druery Lane, was pulled downe also this day, being Saterday the 24 day of March 1649, by the same souldiers.
The Fortune Playhouse betweene White Crosse streete and Golding Lane was burnd downe to the ground in the yeare 1618. And built againe with brick worke on the outside in the yeare 1622. And now pulled downe on the inside by the souldiers this 1649.
The Hope, on the Banks side in Southwarke, commonly called the Beare Garden, a Play House for Stage Playes on Mundayes, Wedensdayes, Fridayes, and Saterdayes, and for the baiting of the Beares on Tuesdayes and Thursdayes, the stage being made to take vp and downe when they please. It was built in the year 1610, and now pulled downe to make tennementes, by Thomas Walker, a peticoate maker in Cannon Streete, on Tuesday the 25 day of March 1656. Seuen of Mr. Godfries beares, by the command of Thomas Pride, then hie Sheriefe of Surry, were then shot to death, on Saterday the 9 day of February I655, by a company of souldiers.