How many would the peaceful city quit
To welcome him!”
This passage commemorates a very exciting contemporary event. The Earl of Essex, the Queen’s favourite, was despatched to Ireland, in command of a large force with the object of subduing the rebel Earl of Tyrone. Essex set out in March, 1599, not returning until September of the same year. When these lines were written, Essex was the idol of the people. The Irish expeditionary force under his command was a complete failure, and the Earl suffered greatly in reputation, and in no sense returned as a conquering hero.
Professor Lawrence affirms that there does not exist any authentic view of either the exterior or the interior of the first Globe Theatre. Professor Baker, of Harvard University, maintains that the circular building in the foreground of Hondius’s map of London, dated 1610, is intended for the Globe. Halliwell-Phillipps, a great authority on all Shakesperean matters, identifies this theatre with the first Globe. Fleay, on the contrary, argues that the Rose is the theatre depicted. Professor Lawrence further states that no reliance can be placed on the evidence of old maps. They were based for the most part on surveys made many years previously, and published in later years without careful alterations in details, and in them the Bankside theatres are seldom correctly located. This building must either indicate the Rose or the Globe; nothing is known after 1606 of the Rose, which may have fallen into desuetude whereas the Globe was at the zenith of its reputation.
Critically examined, the evidence favours the Globe, and in my opinion may fairly be declared as the theatre indicated. The structure marked the Globe, in Visscher’s view, is the second Globe Theatre, built after the disastrous fire of 1613, the new theatre being erected on the site of the old one.
This view so well known by frequent reproductions, is by most people regarded as the original theatre. In a map, dated 1657, a copy of the original being in my possession, four theatres are shown—namely, The Swan, The Hope, The Rose, and The Globe. The Hope and Globe occupy the spaces formerly marked in Aggas and Hofnagel maps as “The Bolle Bayting and The Bear Bayting.” The Rose is misplaced in the 1657 map, being too far north of the Hope and the Globe, the proper position should be marked south-east of the Hope and south-west of the Globe. Considering the historical importance of the Globe Theatre, how much cause for regret exists that such scanty records remain of this time-honoured building.
In spite of these limitations, diligent research by patient and skilful scholars have greatly increased the knowledge necessary for a complete understanding of this theatre.
The building was circular or octagonal in shape, and was open to the sky. The roof running round the topmost gallery was thatched; a large aperture in this part of the building admitted the light. The drawing of the interior of the Swan, a most important Elizabethan document, gives a fairly representative view of an early Shakesperean theatre, and it is more than likely that the interior of the Globe presented a like appearance. An extra volume would be required in formulating the conditions under which a Shakesperean play was produced, and then three-fourths of the treatise would be mere conjecture.