The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 2

by E. K. Chambers

[1038] Text by H. B. Wheatley, On a Contemporary Drawing of the Interior of the Swan Theatre, 1596 (N. S. S. Trans. 1887–92, 215), from Utrecht Univ. Library MS. Var. 355, ff. 131^v, 132, with facsimile reproduction of drawing. The passage was first made known by K. T. Gaedertz, Zur Kenntniss der altenglischen Bühne (1888). The reproduction of the drawing published by Gaedertz and further reproduced from him in many modern books is not an exact facsimile; the only material difference is that the engraver has made the figure at the door of the loft rather more obviously a man than it is in the original. Letters of the early part of the seventeenth century from de Witt to Buchell, who was his fellow-student at Leyden in 1583, are also in the Utrecht Library (Gaedertz, 57). The last sentence of the passage appears from ‘narrabat’ to be a report by Buchell either of something not directly copied by him or of de Witt’s conversation; but the rest is pretty clearly from ‘ea quae alio loco a me notata sunt’ a verbatim extract from a manuscript of de Witt’s own. If so, ‘adpinxi’ further shows that the eye-witness of de Witt and not the imagination of Buchell is the source of the drawing. Gaedertz, 63, indeed suggests that the drawing is an original given by de Witt to Buchell, but as Wheatley, 219, points out, this is impossible, as the paper is the same as that used in the rest of the volume. There remains the question of date. De Witt is traceable at Amsterdam in Nov. 1594, at Utrecht in the winters of 1595 and 1596, and in 1599, and at Amsterdam again in March 1604 (Gaedertz, 58). His visit to London obviously falls between Nov. 1594, when the Swan was still only an intention, and Dec. 1598, when the Theatre was pulled down. Gaedertz, 55, puts it in the summer of 1596, largely because Shakespeare, whom he thinks de Witt would certainly have mentioned if he had met him, may have been in Stratford about that time. This is hopeless. Nor does the further suggestion of Gaedertz that a lameness from which de Witt was suffering in Dec. 1596 was due to his travels carry much conviction. But he is not likely, before that year, to have appended the words ‘A^o. 1596’ to his notice of Sir John Burgh’s tomb. If this is intended to be the date, not of his visit, but of the tomb, it is an error. Camden, Reges ... in Ecclesia ... West-monasterii sepulti (1600), gives the final words of the inscription as ‘G. B. A. M. P. anno Dom. 1595’, and although the tomb itself has disappeared since 1868 and some modern guides date it 1594 or 1598, Camden is confirmed by J. C[rull], Antiquities of Westminster (1711), 198. Burgh’s death, also given on the monument, was 7 March ‘1594’. On the whole 1596 is the most probable date for de Witt’s visit. Arend van Buchell was himself a traveller, and his Diarium has been edited (1907) by G. Brom and L. A. van Langeraad. But he did not visit England.

[1039] The emendation is due to Wallace (E. S. xliii. 356). Adams, 168, suggests that ‘cijn’ is Flemish for ‘swan’, but the dictionary gives ‘zwaen’, which is perhaps what de Witt wrote.

[1040] Cf. plan of the manor in Rendle, Bankside, i.

[1041] Cf. p. 456.

[1042] Hentzner, 196.

[1043] Survey (ed. Kingsford), i. 93. In 1603 the words ‘as the Theater, the Curtine, &c.’ are omitted from the body of the passage.

[1044] Survey, ii. 73. This passage was omitted altogether in 1603. The early draft in Harl. MS. 538 (Kingsford, ii. 369) runs, ‘Neare adjoyning are builded two houses for the shewe of Activities, Comedies, tragedies and histories, for recreation. The one of them is named the Curtayn in Holy Well, the other the Theatre.’

[1045] G. Binz in Anglia, xxii. 456 (from Platter’s narrative written in 1604–5 of his travels in 1595–1600, now in the Basle University Library): ‘Den 21 Septembris nach dem Imbissessen, etwan umb zwey vhren, bin ich mitt meiner geselschaft [:v]ber dz wasser gefahren, haben in dem streüwinen Dachhaus die Tragedy vom ersten Keyser Julio Caesare mitt ohngefahr 15 personen sehen gar artlich agieren; zu endt der Comedien dantzeten sie ihrem gebrauch nach gar [:v]berausz zierlich, ye zwen in mannes vndt 2 in weiber kleideren angethan, wunderbahrlich mitt einanderen.

Auf ein andere Zeitt hab ich nicht weit von unserem wirdtshaus in der Vorstadt, meines behaltens an der Bischofsgeet, auch nach essens ein Comoedien gesehen, da presentierten sie allerhandt nationen, mit welchen yeder zeit ein Engellender vmb ein tochter kempfete, vndt vberwandt er sie alle, aussgenommen den teütschen, der gewan die tochter mitt kempfen, satzet sich neben sie, trank ihme deszwegen mit seinem diener ein starken rausch, also dasz sie beyde beweinet wurden, vndt warfe der diener seinem Herren den schu an kopf, vnndt entschliefen beyde. Hiezwischen stige der engellender in die Zelten, vnndt entfuhret dem teütschen sein gewin, also [:v]berlistet er den teütschen auch. Zu endt dantzeten sie auch auf Englisch vnndt Irlendisch gar zierlich vnndt werden also alle tag vmb 2 vhren nach mittag in der stadt London zwo biszweilen auch drey Comedien an vnderscheidenen örteren gehalten, damitt einer den anderen lustig mache, dann welche sich am besten verhalten, die haben auch zum meisten Zuhörer. Die örter sindt dergestalt erbauwen, dasz sie auf einer erhöchten brüge spilen, vnndt yederman alles woll sehen kan. Yedoch sindt vnderscheidene gäng vnndt ständt da man lustiger vnndt basz sitzet, bezahlet auch deszwegen mehr. Dann welcher vnden gleich stehn beleibt, bezahlt nur 1 Englischen pfenning, so er aber sitzen will, lasset man ihn noch zu einer thür hinein, da gibt er noch 1^d, begeret er aber am lustigesten ort auf kissen ze sitzen, da er nicht allein alles woll sihet, sondern auch gesehen kan werden, so gibt er bey einer anderen thüren noch 1 Englischen pfenning. Vnndt tragt man in wehrender Comedy zu essen vndt zu trinken vnder den Leüten herumb, mag einer vmb sein gelt sich also auch erlaben.

Die Comedienspiler sindt beim allerköstlichsten vnndt zierlichsten bekleidet, dann der brauch in Engellandt, dasz wann fürnemme herren oder Ritter absterben, sie ihren dieneren vast die schönesten kleider verehren vndt vergaben, welche, weil es ihnen nicht gezimpt, solche kleider nicht tragen, sondern nachmahlen, den Comoedienspileren vmb ein ringen pfenning ze kaufen geben.