been discovered,[6] described with ingenuous sympathy the
delight which the populace displayed in the new playhouses.

[Footnote 6: Professor Binz of Basle printed in September 1899 some
extracts from Thomas Platter's unpublished diary of travels under the
title: _Londoner Theater und Schauspiele im Jahre 1599_. Platter spent
a month in London--September 18 to October 20, 1599. Platter's
manuscript is in the Library of Basle University.]

Some attractions which the theatres offered had little concern with
the drama. Their advantages included the privileges of eating and
drinking while the play was in progress. After the play there was
invariably a dance on the stage, often a brisk and boisterous Irish
jig.

Other features of the entertainment seem to have been less
exhilarating. The mass of the spectators filled the pit, where there
was standing room only; there were no seats. The admission rarely cost
more than a penny; but there was no roof. The rain beat at pleasure on
the heads of the "penny" auditors; while pickpockets commonly plied
their trade among them without much hindrance when the piece absorbed
the attention of the "house." Seats or benches were only to be found
in the two galleries, the larger portions of which were separated into
"rooms" or boxes; prices there ranged from twopence to half-a-crown.
If the playgoer had plenty of money at his command he could, according
to the German visitor, hire not only a seat but a cushion to elevate
his stature; "so that," says our author, "he might not only see the
play, but"--what is also often more important for rich people--"be
seen" by the audience to be occupying a specially distinguished place.
Fashionable playgoers of the male sex might, if they opened their
purses wide enough, occupy stools on the wide platform-stage. Such a
practice proved embarrassing, not only to the performers, but to those
who had to content themselves with the penny pit. Standing in front
and by the sides of the projecting stage, they could often only catch
glimpses of the actors through chinks in serried ranks of stools.

The histrionic and scenic conditions, in which Shakespeare's plays
were originally produced, present a further series of disadvantages
which, from our modern point of view, render the more amazing the
unqualified enthusiasm of the Elizabethan playgoer.

There was no scenery, although there were crude endeavours to create
scenic illusion by means of "properties" lik