THE INNER TEMPLE
Interior of the old Inner Temple Hall.
Facsimile of passage in Manningham’s Diary, referring to Twelfth Night.
The Inner Temple and the Middle Temple cover the site formerly occupied by the Knights Templars. After their suppression in 1312, the Temple Church and the surrounding buildings passed into the possession of the Crown. Thirty years later the Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John, were the owners, who eventually leased the ground and buildings to the lawyers, who have remained in possession ever since.
¶ The Tragidie of Ferrex
and Porrex,
set forth without addition or alteration
but altogether as the same was shewed
on stage before the Queenes Maiestie,
about nine yeares past, vz. the
xviij. day of Ianuarie. 1561.
by the gentlemen of the
Inner Temple.
Seen and allowed. ce.
❧ Imprinted at London by
Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer
Aldersgate.
(Original Image)
Acted at the Inner Temple in 1561 and repeated before the Queen at Whitehall in the same year
The Inner Temple had the distinction of possessing a famous library as early as the fifteenth century, being the first of the Inns of Court which possessed a library worthy of the name.
The ancient Hall of the Inner Temple, where plays and masques were held on Festival and other occasions, was rebuilt early in the last century. The modern Hall has been erected in close imitation of the former one. Historically and architecturally the new Hall cannot compare with the exquisite building of the Middle Temple, and every Englishman should consider it his duty to pay at least one visit to this monument of ancient learning.
The first English Tragedy, properly so called, was acted in the ancient Hall of the Inner Temple on the occasion of the Christmas Revels in 1561. The same play was performed the next year before the Queen at Whitehall. The first edition of this work was a piratical one, published in 1565, a unique copy of which is in the Eton Library. The title page of this edition states that the first three acts were written by Thomas Norton, and the last two by Thomas Sackville. The play is styled the “Tragedie of Gorboduc.” The second edition is called “The Tragedie of Ferrex and Porrex,” published in 1570. The third edition was issued in 1590. Each act of this play is preceded by a dumb show similar to the one produced in the play scene of “Hamlet.” Another play acted by the members of the Inner Temple in 1567 is “Gismund of Salerne,” a tale adapted from one of Boccaccio’s novels. Two manuscripts of this play exist, as well as a printed version, dated 1591, called “Tancred and Gismonda,” a revised version of the earlier play. This tale had been translated by Painter and published in his Palace of Pleasure, Vol. I, 1566. The author translated the version from the original Italian, but it is quite possible they consulted Painter’s version.