[1645] Lawrence, i. 230; cf. App. D, No. xxxii.
[1646] The earliest example is The Troublesome Reign of King John (1591).
[1647] But ‘priuately’ is also used of strictly private performances on the title-pages of Caesar’s Revenge (1607) acted at Trinity College, Oxford, and, later, W. Montague’s Shepherd’s Paradise (1659) acted by amateurs at Court.
[1648] T. M., Black Book (1604), in Bullen, Middleton, viii. 42, ‘arch tobacco-taker of England ... upon stages both common and private’; Malcontent (1604), ind., ‘we may sit upon the stage at the private house’; Sophonisba (1606), ad fin., ‘it is printed only as it was represented by youths, and after the fashion of the private stage’; Dekker, Gull’s Horn Book (cf. App. H), ‘Whether therefore the gatherers of the publique or priuate Play-house stand to receiue the afternoones rent’; Dekker, Seven Deadly Sins (1606, Works, ii. 41), ‘All the Citty lookt like a priuate Play-house, when the windowes are clapt downe’; Roaring Girl (1611), ii. 1, ‘the private stage’s audience, the twelve-penny stool gentlemen’; Daborne to Henslowe (1613, Henslowe Papers, 79), ‘as good a play for your publique howse as ever was playd’.
[1649] Cf. Wright (App. I).
[1650] Lawrence (Fortnightly, May 1916) has shown that the rebuilt Fortune of 1623 and Red Bull of c. 1632 were probably roofed, and Wright’s description confuses the two phases of these houses.
[1651] Chapman’s Byron (1625) is said to have been acted ‘at the Blacke-Friers and other publique Stages’, Heywood’s English Traveller (1633), A Maidenhead Well Lost (1634), and Love’s Mistress (1636) to have been ‘publikely acted’ at the Cockpit, and Shirley’s Martyred Soldier (1638) to have been acted ‘at the Private House in Drury Lane and at other publicke Theaters’. This is exceptional terminology, but shows the obsolescence of the distinction.
[1652] Cf. ch. xvi.
[1653] Old Fortunatus (Rose, 1599), prol. 81, ‘this small circumference’; Warning for Fair Women (? Curtain, 1599), prol. 83, 88, ‘all this fair circuit ... this round’; Hen. V (Curtain or Globe, 1599), prol. 11, ‘this cockpit ... this wooden O’; E. M. O. (Globe, 1599), prol. 199, epil. 4406, ‘this thronged round ... this faire-fild Globe’; Sejanus (Globe, 1603), comm. v, ‘the Globe’s fair ring’; Three English Brothers (Curtain or Red Bull, 1607), epil., ‘this round circumference’; Merry Devil of Edmonton (Globe, 1608), prol. 5, ‘this round’. On the other hand, Whore of Babylon (Fortune, 1607), prol. 1, ‘The charmes of Silence through this Square be throwne’.
[1654] Ordish, 12.