Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/273

 ii s. xii. OCT. 2, ]9i5.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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is shown in its invariable position, with the original Globe Alley leading to it.

But to return to the Merian view. In regard to this DR. MARTIN says :

"In contemporary and later copies of Merian a lane Maid Lane is interposed between the Rose and the Bear Garden on the north, and the Globe on the south. Maid Lane was evidently in- terposed by those who knew the district at the time, and perceived the deficiency in the map."

Maid Lane falls wholly outside the view, and there has been no attempt to include it ; but in any case the Globe is shown on the north, and not the south, side of the alley (Globe Alley) which DR. MARTIN wrongly assumes to be Maid Lane.

DR. MARTIN does not offer any reason in his reply for this misstatement with respect to the Globe being shown on the north side of this alley, instead of, as he asserts, on the south ; but we may look to his pamphlet on 'The Site of the Globe Playhouse of Shakespeare ' for the explanation. From this it appears that Merian misnamed the buildings shown in his view. Thus, after discrediting Merian, DR. MARTIN selects the Bear Garden and calls that the Globe, and then claims that the Globe is on the south side of Maiden Lane ! Merian, I think, knew what he was doing, and made no mistake in naming his buildings ; and when DR. MARTIN refers to ' Londinum Urbs Praecipua Regni Anglise,' he will find the buildings again named as Merian named them.

At this point it seems necessary to return to first principles. It is generally accepted that the surest way to clear up misconcep- tions concerning past events is by a careful study of the contemporary evidence. By disregarding this evidence, or by denying its accuracy, it becomes possible to demonstrate anything ; but in such circumstances it is necessary to take into account the scholar's respect for his text in estimating the value of his conclusions.

DR. MARTIN, in order to support his view that the Globe was on the south side of Maiden Lane, does not hesitate to discredit the contemporary evidence. How does he meet the difficulty in the Coram Rege Roll, which quite definitely places the Globe on the north side of Maiden Lane ? He says :

"The draftsman of the Roll had before him a plan in which the south was at the upper edge of the plan, and he had consequently mistaken the north for the south."

But this is an assumption on his part. The discoverer of this Roll was Dr. Charles William Wallace, who, when writing about

it in The Times of 30 April, 1914, says with respect to the boundaries :

" The description was copied into several leases of shares in the Globe, all signed by Shakespeare and his associates. It was also copied into the new Globe lease of October 26th, 1613, from Sir John Bodley to the company. At present the only com- plete contemporary transcript is the one above quoted."

In the article Dr. Wallace has given par- ticulars at some length, together with a plan, and he continues as follows :

"The accuracy of that copy and the finality of the boundaries there set forth admit no ques- tion. The practices of the King's Bench settle that. First, these and the like records were copied by an- expert clerk of the Court for filing in the per- manent rolls. Then the Examiner checked them against the originals, and marked them 'ex, r attesting them as final records of the Court."

Is it likely that the original lease of 1598,, the subsequent lease of 1613, and the Roll of 1616, to say nothing of the various leases of the shares in the Globe, should all be erring in their orientation of the site of the Playhouse ?

Again, how does DR. MARTIN meet the evidence of the views of Southwark, which invariably place the Globe where it is recorded in the Roll on the north side of Maiden Lane ?

He says that " the unsupported representa- tions of Visscher are, so far as the Liberty of the Clink is concerned, wholly unreliable." But Visscher is supported by Hollar, De Wit, Vanden Hoeye, Merian, Boisseau, and the interesting view ' Londinum Urbs Praecipua Regni Anglise.' On DR. MARTIN'S own showing the evidence of Visscher should be accepted, for his representations are abund- antly supported, and I do not know of a single contemporary view which shows anything else.

Hollar comes in for a sweeping condem- nation, DR. MARTIN saying : " For topo- graphical exactitude Hollar is valueless." This condemnation will not, I hope, disturb- the general reliance which is placed in Hollar. Boisseau is a degraded derivative; Merian r we are told elsewhere, has misnamed his building ; and Visscher is wholly unreliable.

Can DR. MARTIN give a single reference to a contemporary document which supports iiis opinion, or can he instance a single contemporary map or view which definitely shows the Globe on the south side of Maiden Lane ?

As the Shakespeare Reading Society has erected a massive bronze memorial tablet on the south side of Park Street (Maiden Lane) to commemorate the site of the Globe,