han scenic art in its outer form was influenced and improved by
the Italians.

The fact that one of the principal characters in the oldest scenario,
_The Dead Man's Fortune_, bears the name of "Panteloun" further confirms
this supposition.

This is not the place to investigate how far the English were influenced
by Italian professional dramatic art. At any rate, the English national
character differed too much from the Italian to allow it to receive more
than an outward and formal stamp. And even this superficial effect is
much less significant in England than in France. Still, we are certainly
not mistaken in assuming that it helped to strengthen English dramatic
art, which already possessed no small amount of power; and we may take
it for granted that about the time of Shakespeare's birth London
possessed a socially and professionally organized class of actors, in
spite of the fact that they did not yet possess a theatre of their own.

Before proper theatres were built, and after the time of the great
mysteries, the actors found a refuge for their art chiefly in the inns,
those splendid and expensive old public-houses which convey to our minds
the idea of old-fashioned and picturesque comfort; where the nobility
and clergy sought their quarters in winter, and where the carriers
unloaded their goods in the large square yards, which were surrounded on
all sides by the walls of the inn. On these walls there were galleries
running all round, supported by wooden pillars and with steep
picturesque ladders running up to them.

It was in these yards of the Cross Keys in Gracechurch Street, of The
Bull in Bishopsgate Street, La Belle Sauvage on Ludgate Hill, or the
Tabbard Inn in Southwark that the actors set up their stages. Perhaps it
was this very circumstance that became one of the indirect reasons why
they finally were obliged to build a house for themselves.

Certainly the inns offered advantages to the actors; they were
meeting-places for the public, frequented by lords and other persons of
distinction; probably the companies paid next to nothing for the use of
them. In themselves they afforded good room for the audience, with a
natural pit for ordinary people in the yard, and with more comfortable
"boxes" for the more distinguished part of the audience on the
surrounding balconies and at the windows facing the yard.

On the other hand, these inn-theatres had their drawbacks. In the first
place, the actors were no