A Speech Spoken to Their Two Excellent Majesties at
the First Play Play'd by the Queen's Servants in
the New Theatre at Whitehall.
When Greece, the chief priority might claim
For arts and arms, and held the eminent name
Of Monarchy, they erected divers places,
Some to the Muses, others to the Graces,
Where actors strove, and poets did devise,
With tongue and pen to please the ears and eyes
Of Princely auditors. The time was, when
To hear the rapture of one poet's pen
A Theatre hath been built.
By the Fates' doom,
When th' Empire was removed from thence to Rome,
The Potent Cæsars had their circi, and
Large amphitheatres, in which might stand
And sit full fourscore thousand, all in view
And touch of voice. This great Augustus knew,
Nay Rome its wealth and potency enjoyed,
Till by the barbarous Goths these were destroy'd.
But may this structure last, and you be seen
Here a spectator, with your princely Queen,
In your old age, as in your flourishing prime,
To outstrip Augustus both in fame and time.
The exact date of this Speech is not given, but it was printed[665] in 1637 along with "The Prologue to the Famous Tragedy of The Rich Jew of Malta, as it Was Played Before the King and Queen in His Majesty's Theatre at Whitehall"; and this Prologue Heywood had already published with the play itself in 1633. He dedicated the play to Mr. Thomas Hammon, saying, "I had no better a New-Year's gift to present you with." Apparently, then, the play had been acted at Court shortly before New Year's, 1633; and this sets a forward date to Heywood's Speech. Other evidence combines with this to show that "His Majesty's Theatre at Whitehall" was "new" at the Christmas season of 1632-33.
In erecting this, the first "theatre royal," King Charles would naturally call for the aid of the great Court architect Inigo Jones,[666] and by good luck we have preserved for us [Jones's original sketches] for the little playhouse (see page [396]). These were discovered a few years ago by Mr. Hamilton Bell in the Library of Worcester College (where many valuable relics of the great architect are stored), and printed in The Architectural Record of New York, March, 1913. Mr. Bell accompanied the plans with a valuable discussion, but he was unable to discover their purpose. He writes:
We have still no clue as to what purpose this curiously anomalous and most interesting structure was to serve—whether the plan was ever carried out, or whether it remained part of a lordly pleasure-house which its prolific designer planned for the delectation of his own soul.
That the plan actually was carried out, at least in part, is shown by a [sketch of the Whitehall buildings] made by John Fisher at some date before 1670, and engraved by Vertue in 1747, (see page [398]).[667] Here, in the northeast corner of the palace, we find a little theatre, labeled "The Cockpit." Its identity with the building sketched by Inigo Jones is obvious at a glance; even the exterior measurements, which are ascertainable from the scales of feet given on the two plans, are the same.
INIGO JONES'S PLANS FOR THE COCKPIT-IN-COURT
Now preserved in the Worcester College Library at Oxford; discovered by Mr. Hamilton Bell, and reproduced in The Architectural Record, of New York, 1913.
