The latter included the Queen and her Privy Council; the
former found spokesmen in the mayor and City Fathers. Between Privy
Council and Corporation there could be no compromise, for the
Corporation insisted that within its jurisdiction dramatic performances
should be entirely suppressed. The yearly outbreaks of the plague, with
its weekly death-roll of thirty, forty, fifty, periodically compelled
the summer performances to cease, and lent themselves as a powerful
argument against packed gatherings of dirty and clean, infected and
uninfected, together. At last one of the leading companies, fearing that
time would bring victory to the Puritans and to themselves extinction,
decided to solve the difficulty by migration beyond the jurisdiction of
the mayor. Accordingly, about the year 1572, 'The Theatre' was built
outside the city boundary and occupied by Leicester's company. Not long
afterwards other companies followed suit, and 'The Curtains' and
'Newington Butts' were erected. After that many other theatres rose. In
1599 was built the famous Globe Theatre in which most of Shakespeare's
plays were represented. But the three earlier theatres (and perhaps 'The
Rose') were probably all that Marlowe ever knew.

What we know of the Elizabethan theatre is based on information
concerning the Globe, Fortune and Swan Theatres. From this a certain
clear conception--not agreed upon, however, in all points by
critics--may be deduced with regard to the earlier ones. They were round
or hexagonal in shape. The stage was placed with its back to the wall
and projected well into the centre. The spectators were gathered about
its three sides, the poor folk standing in the area and crushing right
up to it, the rich folk occupying seats in the galleries that formed the
horse-shoe round the area. A roof covered the galleries but not the rest
of the building--the first completely roofed theatre was probably not
built before 1596. Performances took place between two and five o'clock
in the afternoon. The title of the piece was posted outside; a flag
flying from a turret informed playgoers in the city that a performance
was about to take place, and the sound of a trumpet announced the
commencement of the play. An orchestra was in attendance, not so much to
enliven the intervals--for they were few and brief--as to lend its aid
to the effect of certain scenes, in exactly the same way as it is used
to-day.

Of the stage itself little can be said po