BOOK IV

THE PLAY-HOUSES

The world the stage, the prologue tears, The acts vain hope and varied fears: The scene shuts up with loss of breath, And leaves no epilogue but death. HENRY KING.

XVI

INTRODUCTION: THE PUBLIC THEATRES

[_Bibliographical Note._--Some notes in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1813–16 by Eu. Hood [Joseph Haslewood] are reprinted in _The Gentleman’s Magazine Library_, xv (1904), 86, and in _Roxburghe Revels_ (ed. J. Maidment, 1837). J. P. Collier, _History of English Dramatic Poetry_, iii. 79, has _An Account of the Old Theatres of London_, and chronological sections on the subject are in F. G. Fleay, _A Chronicle History of the London Stage_ (1890). T. F. Ordish, _Early London Theatres_ (1894), covers the Shoreditch and Bankside theatres ‘in the Fields’ other than the Globe; a companion volume on the urban houses has never appeared. The Bankside houses are also dealt with by W. Rendle, _The Bankside, Southwark, and the Globe_ (1877), being Appendix I to F. J. Furnivall, _Harrison’s Description of England_,