How soon this mightiness meets misery:
And if you can be merry then, I’ll say
A man may weep upon his wedding day.
I’ll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two hours.
In commenting upon this play, the reader must bear in mind that this is one of the doubtful plays of Shakespeare. Much ingenuity has been displayed in endeavouring to unravel the mystery of its authorship. Most scholars discern the hand of Fletcher, together with that of Shakespeare. Others would award the entire play to Fletcher, while on the other hand, the entire play has been considered as fully Shakesperean. A great poet, Tennyson, was of the opinion that most of the play was written by Fletcher. Spedding, who has devoted much thought to this problem, would assign to Fletcher a great portion of the dialogue, including the famous “Farewell” speech of Wolsey, which I for one cannot for a moment allow, as this speech, above all others, has the true Shakesperean ring. Two very interesting items of theatrical history can be gathered from this prologue, namely, the price of admission to the best seats and the duration of a five act play of Shakespeare’s time. Spedding would give the Prologue and the Epilogue to Fletcher.
The price of admission to the best seats would be a shilling, as we learn from Dekker’s books of Gull’s, where he mentions the twelvepenny rooms as being the best place in the theatre. This price was for the best seats or a seat upon the stage, which at this period was allowed at some of the theatres. When the custom was introduced of allowing a few of the spectators a seat on the stage is uncertain. The matter has not been fully examined or explained, and little information can be gathered from contemporary sources. The boxes, or rooms, as they were styled, were priced at a shilling at the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres. The twelvepenny rooms were situated near the stage, in the lowermost gallery, and are seen on the drawing of the interior of the Swan Theatre, close to the word orchestra. Why the writer should refer to the shilling seats only is difficult to make out. Perhaps for the first performance of a new play a shilling was charged for all the seats. We know that a different scale of charges did exist, but the accounts are somewhat confused. It was during a performance of this play that the thatched roof of the Globe Theatre caught fire and was burnt to the ground. This took place on St. Peter’s Day, June 29th, 1613.
ACT. PART. PLAYED.
I would have play’d
The part my father meant to act upon