“But the burning of the Globe or Playhouse on the Bankside on S. Peter’s Day cannot escape you which fell out by a peal of chambers that I know not upon what occasion, were to be used in the play, the tampin or stopple of one of them lighting in the thatch that covered the house, burned it to the ground in less than two hours with a dwelling house adjoining, and it was a great marvel and fair grace of God that the people had little harm having but two narrow doors to get out at.”
John Chamberlain wrote to Sir Ralph Winwood on July 8th, 1613.
Sir Henry Wotten’s letter, previously quoted supplies us with the use of the chambers which so puzzled John Chamberlain. This letter acquaints us with the important fact that only two narrow doors admitted the spectators at the theatre.
“Well-fare the Wise-man yet on the Bankside
My friends the Waterman. They could provide
Against thy furie, which to serve their needs
They made a vulcan of a sheafe of Reedes
Whom they durst handle in their holyday coates
And safely trust to dresse, not burn their boats
But O these Reeds’ they mere disdaine of them