A History of English Literature
A History of English Literature
A History of English Literature
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[Illustration: TIMON OF ATHENS, v, 4. OUTER SCENE.<br />
_Trumpets sound. Enter Alcibiades with his<br />
Powers before Athens._<br />
"_Alc_. Sound to this Coward, and lascivious<br />
Towne, Our terrible approach."<br />
_Sounds a parly. The Senators appears upon<br />
the Wals._<br />
Reproduced from _The Shakespearean Stage_, by V. E. Albright, through<br />
the courtesy <strong>of</strong> the publishers, the Columbia University Press.<br />
AN ELIZABETHAN STAGE]<br />
The medieval religious drama had been written and acted in many towns<br />
throughout the country, and was a far less important feature in the life <strong>of</strong><br />
London than <strong>of</strong> many other places. But as the capital became more and more<br />
the center <strong>of</strong> national life, the drama, with other forms <strong>of</strong> literature, was<br />
more largely appropriated by it; the Elizabethan drama <strong>of</strong> the great period<br />
was altogether written in London and belonged distinctly to it. Until well<br />
into the seventeenth century, to be sure, the London companies made<br />
frequent tours through the country, but that was chiefly when the<br />
prevalence <strong>of</strong> the plague had necessitated the closing <strong>of</strong> the London<br />
theaters or when for other reasons acting there had become temporarily<br />
unpr<strong>of</strong>itable. The companies themselves had now assumed a regular<br />
organization. They retained a trace <strong>of</strong> their origin (above, page 90) in<br />
that each was under the protection <strong>of</strong> some influential noble and was<br />
called, for example, 'Lord Leicester's Servants,' or 'The Lord Admiral's<br />
Servants.' But this connection was for the most part nominal--the companies<br />
were virtually very much like the stock-companies <strong>of</strong> the nineteenth<br />
century. By the beginning <strong>of</strong> the great period the membership <strong>of</strong> each troupe<br />
was made up <strong>of</strong> at least three classes <strong>of</strong> persons. At the bottom <strong>of</strong> the<br />
scale were the boy-apprentices who were employed, as Shakspere is said to<br />
have been at first, in miscellaneous menial capacities. Next came the paid<br />
actors; and lastly the shareholders, generally also actors, some or all <strong>of</strong><br />
whom were the general managers. The writers <strong>of</strong> plays were sometimes members<br />
<strong>of</strong> the companies, as in Shakspere's case; sometimes, however, they were<br />
independent.<br />
Until near the middle <strong>of</strong> Elizabeth's reign there were no special theater<br />
buildings, but the players, in London or elsewhere, acted wherever they<br />
could find an available place--in open squares, large halls, or,<br />
especially, in the quadrangular open inner yards <strong>of</strong> inns. As the pr<strong>of</strong>ession<br />
became better organized and as the plays gained in quality, such makeshift<br />
accommodations became more and more unsatisfactory; but there were special<br />
difficulties in the way <strong>of</strong> securing better ones in London. For the<br />
population and magistrates <strong>of</strong> London were prevailingly Puritan, and the<br />
great body <strong>of</strong> the Puritans, then as always, were strongly opposed to the<br />
theater as a frivolous and irreligious thing--an attitude for which the<br />
lives <strong>of</strong> the players and the character <strong>of</strong> many plays afforded, then as<br />
almost always, only too much reason. The city was very jealous <strong>of</strong> its<br />
prerogatives; so that in spite <strong>of</strong> Queen Elizabeth's strong patronage <strong>of</strong> the<br />
drama, throughout her whole reign no public theater buildings were allowed<br />
within the limits <strong>of</strong> the city corporation. But these limits were narrow,<br />
and in 1576 James Burbage inaugurated a new era by erecting 'The Theater'