(Printed from Rendle's The Bankside.)

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The name given to the new playhouse was "The Swan." What caused Langley to adopt this name we do not know;[244] but we may suppose that it was suggested to him by the large number of swans which beautified the Thames. Foreigners on their first visit to London were usually very much impressed by the number and the beauty of these birds. Hentzner, in 1598, stated that the river "abounds in swans, swimming in flocks; the sight of them and their noise is vastly agreeable to the boats that meet them in their course"; and the Italian Francesco Ferretti observed that the "broad river of Thames" was "most charming, and quite full of swans white as the very snow."[245]

From a [map of the Manor of Paris Garden] carefully surveyed by order of the King in 1627[246] (see page [163]), we learn the exact situation of the building. It was set twenty-six poles, or four hundred and twenty-six feet, from the bank of the river, in that corner of the estate nearest London Bridge. Most of the playgoers from London, however, came not over the Bridge, but by water, landing at the Paris Garden Stairs, or at the near-by Falcon Stairs, and then walking the short distance to the theatre.

THE SWAN PLAYHOUSE

(From Visscher's View of London, 1616).

An excellent picture of the exterior of the Swan is furnished by Visscher's [View of London], 1616, (see page [165]). From this, as well as from the survey of 1627 just mentioned, we discover that the building was duodecahedral—at least on the outside, for the interior probably was circular. At the time of its erection it was, so we are told, "the largest and the most magnificent playhouse" in London. It contained three galleries surrounding an open pit, with a stage projecting into the pit; and probably it differed in no essential respect from the playhouses already built. In one point, however, it may have differed—although of this I cannot feel sure: it may have been provided with a stage that could be removed so as to allow the building to be used on occasions for animal-baiting. The De Witt drawing shows such a stage; and possibly Stow in his Survey (1598) gives evidence that the Swan was in early times employed for bear-baiting:

And to begin at the west bank as afore, thus it followeth. On this bank is the bear gardens, in number twain; to wit, the old bear garden [i.e., the one built in 1583?] and the new [i.e., the Swan?], places wherein be kept bears, bulls, and other beasts, to be baited at stakes for pleasure; also mastiffs to bait them in several kennels are there nourished.[247]

Moreover, in 1613 Henslowe used the Swan as the model for the Hope, a building designed for both acting and animal-baiting. It should be noted, however, that in all documents the Swan is invariably referred to as a playhouse, and there is no evidence—beyond that cited above—to indicate that the building was ever employed for the baiting of bears and bulls.