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Rh Pl. II. will be found reproductions of two of the most important —that of Aspendus in Pamphylia, which illustrates the Eastern type showing Hellenistic influence, and that of Arausio (Orange) in South Gaul. Covered theatres were sometimes built, whether on account of climatic conditions (as at Aosta) or more commonly for musical performances. These latter were generally called Odea. (Gr., a place for singing). The best preserved is the Odeum of Herodes Atticus, at the south-west angle of the Athenian Acropolis, which has a semicircular orchestra. It was built in the reign of Hadrian by Herodes Atticus, a very wealthy Greek, who spent enormous sums in beautifying the city of Athens, in honour of his wife Regilla. Its cavea, which is excavated in the rock, held about 6ooo people; it was connected with the great Dionysiac theatre by a long and lofty porticus or stoa, of which considerable remains still exist, probably a late restoration of the stoa built by Eumenes II. of Pergamum. It was also a common practice to build a small covered theatre in the neighbourhood of an open one, where performances might take place in bad weather. We have an example of this at Pompeii. The Romans used scenery and stage effects of more elaboration than was the custom in Greece. Vitruvius (iii. 7) mentions three sorts of movable scenery:—(1) for the tragic drama, façades with columns representing public buildings; (2) for comic plays, private houses with practicable windows and balconies; and (3) for the satyric drama, rustic scenes, with mountains, caverns and trees.

.—By far the fullest account of the Greek theatre is given in Dörpfeld and Reisch, Das griechische Theater (Athens, 1896). Its main thesis is, however, rejected by many archaeologists on the grounds stated above. Puchstein, Die griechische Bühne, endeavours to prove that a stone theatre was built at Athens in the 5th century, and that the proscenium usually supposed to be Hellenistic dates from the time of Lycurgus (above). For English readers the best account of the Greek theatre is to be found in A. E. Haigh's Attic Theatre (3rd ed., revised by A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, 1907), where a bibliography of the voluminous literature of recent times is given. Albert Müller's Lehrbuch der griechischen Bühnenaltertümer (Freiburg, 1886) is indispensable to the student. For the Roman theatre reference may be made to Durm, Baukunst der Römer, ed. 2, pp. 645 ff.

During the middle ages miracle plays with sacred scenes were the favourite kind of drama; no special buildings were erected for these, as they were represented either in churches or in temporary booths. In the 16th century the revival of the secular drama, which, in the reign of Elizabeth, formed so important a part of the literature of England, was carried on in tents, wooden sheds, or courtyards of inns, mostly by strolling actors of a very low class. It was not till towards the close of the century that a permanent building was constructed and licensed for dramatic representations, under the management of Shakespeare and Burbage.

The first building specially erected in London for dramatic purposes was built in 1576–77 by the actor James Burbage. It was constructed of timber, and stood in Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, till 1598, when it was pulled down; it was known as "The Theatre" par excellence. Of almost equally early date was the "Curtain" theatre, also in Shoreditch; so called from the plot of ground, known as "The Curten," on which it stood. It probably continued in use till the general closing of theatres by order of the parliament in 1642. The "Globe" theatre, famous for its association with Shakespeare, was built by James Burbage, who used the materials of "The Theatre," in the year 1599. Its site was in Southwark, in the Bankside, near the "Bear Gardens." It was an octagonal structure of wood, with lath and plaster between the main framework. It was burnt in 1613, rebuilt, and finally pulled down and its site built over in 1644. Its name was derived from its sign of Atlas supporting the globe. Near it were two less important theatres, "The Rose," opened in 1592 by Henslowe, and "The Swan" (see below), opened in 1598 and partly owned also by Henslowe, like the Globe, the latter was an octagonal wood-and-plaster building. The "Blackfriars" theatre, another of the Burbages' ventures, was built in 1596, near the old Dominican friary. The "Fortune" theatre was built by Edward Alleyn, the actor, in 1599, at a cost, including the site, of £1320. It stood between Whitecross Street and Golding Lane. It stood as late as 1819, when a drawing of it was given by Wilkinson (Londina illustrata, 1819). The "Red Bull" theatre was probably originally the galleried court of an inn, which was adapted for dramatic purposes towards the close of Elizabeth's reign. Other early theatres were the "Hope" or "Paris Garden" theatre, the "Whitefriars" and "Salisbury Court" theatres, and the "Newington" theatre. A curious panoramic view of London, engraved by Visscher in 1616, shows the Globe, the Hope and the Swan theatres.

The plan of the first English theatres appears to have had no connexion with those of classical times, as was the case in Italy: it was evidently produced in an almost accidental way by the early custom of erecting a temporary platform or stage in the middle of the open courtyard of an inn, in which the galleries all round the court formed boxes for the chief spectators, while the poorer part of the audience stood in the court on all sides of the central stage. Something similar to this arrangement, unsuitable though it now seems, was reproduced even in buildings, such as the Globe, the Fortune and the Swan, which were specially designed for the drama. In these and other early theatres there was a central platform for the stage, surrounded by seats except on one side, where there was a "green-room" or "tireynge-howse." The upper galleries or boxes completely surrounded the stage, even the space over the green-room being occupied by boxes. This being the arrangement, it is easy to see why the octagonal plan was selected in most cases, though not in all—the Fortune theatre, for example, was square. An interesting specification and contract for the building of the Fortune theatre (see below) is printed by Halliwell-Phillipps (op. cit. infra, p. 164). In all its details the Fortune is specified to be like the Globe, except that it is to be square in plan, and with timbers of heavier scantling. The walls are to be of wood and plaster, the roof tiled, with lead gutters, the stage of oak, with a "shadow" or cover over it, and the "tireynge-howse" to have glazed windows. Two sorts of boxes are mentioned, viz., "gentlemen's roomes" and "twoo-pennie roomes." A woodcut showing this arrangement of the interior is given in a collection of plays edited by Kirkman in 1672. The vexed question of the construction of these theatres has been much discussed in recent years. In 1888 a drawing of the Swan theatre (fig. 4), apparently copied from a rough drawing in a London letter from the traveller Johannes de Witt, was discovered by Dr Karl Gaedertz in a manuscript volume in the Utrecht University library, consisting of the commonplace book of Arend van Buchell (1565–1641). While undoubtedly authentic, and probably broadly accurate, this copied sketch cannot be accepted, however, as giving the regular or typical plan of the contemporary theatre, as in some respects it does not fulfil the known conditions of the stage. What that typical plan was, if (as is probable) one actually existed, has led to much learned conjecture and great difference of opinion as regards the details required by the interpretation of contemporary stage directions on the necessities of the action in contemporary drama. The ingenious reconstruction (fig. 5), drawn by W. H. Godfrey in 1907, of the Fortune theatre, following the builder's specification, appears to approach very nearly to satisfying all the requirements. (See "The Elizabethan Stage," in the Quarterly Review (London), April 1908.)

In the 16th and 17th centuries a favourite kind of theatrical representation was in the form of "masques," with processions of grotesquely attired actors and temporary scenic effects of great splendour and mechanical ingenuity. In the reigns of James I.