Shakespearean Playhouses: Original Text

By: Adams, Joseph Quincy

BEFORE the building of regular playhouses the itinerant troupes of actors were accustomed, except when received into private homes, to give their performances in any place that chance provided, such as open street-squares, barns, town-halls, moot-courts, schoolhouses, churches, and-most frequently of all, perhaps-the yards of inns. These yards, especially those of carriers' inns, were admirably suited to dramatic representations, consisting as they did of a large open court surrounded by two or more galleries. Many examples of such inn-yards are still to be seen in various parts of England; a picture of the famous White Hart, in Southwark, is given opposite page 4 by way of illustration. In the yard a temporary platform-a few boards, it may be, set on barrel-heads 1]-could be erected for a stage; in the adjacent stables a dressing-room could be provided for the actors; the rabble-always the larger and2 more enthusiastic part of the audience-could be accommodated with standing-room about the stage; while the more aristocratic members of the audience could be comfortably seated in the galleries overhead. Thus a ready-made and very serviceable theatre was always at the command of the players; and it seems to have been frequently made use of from the very beginning of professionalism in acting.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B087GR41BK
• ISBN13: 9798632880312
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"