Page:Shakespeare of Stratford (1926) Yale.djvu/152

Shakespeare of Stratford

special performances at court were frequent under Elizabeth and much more numerous under James I. The stage would usually be erected on such occasions in the great hall of the palaces of Greenwich, Whitehall, and Hampton Court. At the Christmas season of 1594, for example, Shakespeare is known to have acted in two comedies before Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich. At Christmas, 1597, Love’s Labour’s Lost was acted before the Queen at Whitehall; and at Christmas, 1608, Shakespeare’s company presented a total of six plays before the court of James I at Hampton Court.

(ii) The Inns of Court. Gala performances in the halls of the London Inns of Court, under the auspices of the lawyers who composed the particular ‘inn,’ were notable events. We have record of the performance of The Comedy of Errors at Gray’s Inn in 1594 and of Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple in 1602.

(iii) The Private Houses of Noblemen. In 1605 a performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost, for the amusement of James I’s queen, Anne of Denmark, was arranged, to take place either at Lord Southampton’s London house or at that of Sir Robert Cecil, Viscount Cranborne. In December, 1603, Shakespeare’s company traveled much farther afield and performed before James I at Wilton, the country house of the Earl of Pembroke.