in
Golden Lane to the north of Cripplegate, on the model of the Globe, and
the Red Bull was erected in the upper end of St. John's Street about
1603-1607. These were all public theaters, open to the air, built of
wood, outside the city limits and the jurisdiction of the city
corporation.

Before the Theater, plays had been acted in various places about the
city, and especially in inn-yards, some of which long continued to be
used for dramatic performances. At an early date also, the companies of
children actors connected with the choirs of St. Paul's and the Queen's
Chapel had given public performances, probably indoors, at places near
St. Paul's and in Blackfriars. When the Burbages were in difficulties
about the Theater, they had leased certain rooms in the dismantled
monastery of Blackfriars, but had then released these to a company of
children which acted there for some years. In 1608 the Burbages regained
possession of this property, and Shakespeare's company began acting
there. This Blackfriars theater was known as a private theater in order
to avoid the application of certain statutes directed against the public
theaters, but it differed from them merely in being indoors, with
artificial lights, and higher prices. It was used by Shakespeare's
company as a winter theater, while the Globe served for summer
performances, and it was the model for various other private theaters,
two of which survived the Protectorate and became in turn the models for
the Restoration Theater. Drury Lane and Covent Garden, indeed, trace
their ancestry back directly to the Blackfriars through the Cockpit and
the Salisbury Court playhouses.

The companies of actors which occupied these theaters were cooeperative
organizations. Eight or ten actors formed a company, leased a theater,
hired supernumeraries, bought plays, and shared in the profits. In
Elizabeth's reign they secured a legal position by obtaining a license
from some nobleman, and so were known as the Earl of Leicester's men,
Lord Admiral's men, and so on. On the accession of James I, the leading
London companies were taken directly under patronage of members of the
royal family. During Shakespeare's time there were innumerable
companies, but the tendency was for the best actors to become associated
in a few companies, and for each company to keep to a particular
theater; so that at the accession of James I, there were only five adult
companies in London with permanent theate