ll not a fylthye playe wyth the blast
of a trumpette sooner call thyther a thousande than an houres tolling of
a bell bring to the sermon a hundred?--nay, even heere in the Citie,
without it be at this place and some other certaine ordinarie audience,
where shall you finde a reasonable company?--whereas, if you resort to
the Theatre, The Curtayne, and other places of playes in the Citie, you
shall on the Lord's Day have these places, with many other that I cannot
reckon, so full as possible they can throng."

That the bold defiance with which James Burbage and the other actors met
the lord mayor and the corporation should prove so successful lay almost
in the nature of things. The prohibition of plays within the bounds of
the city of London did not mean that they were looked upon with
animosity by the people, but merely that a majority of the corporation
was unfriendly to them. It was soon shown that, though the wise city
fathers could easily forbid the actors to perform their plays in London,
they could not prevent the enthusiastic public from walking in crowds a
mile out of town in order to see such performances, especially as people
were quite accustomed to the journey. Burbage, who was a business-like
man, had chosen his ground quite close to the public places, where the
Londoners practised their open-air sports and amused themselves with
tennis and football, stone-throwing, cock fights, and archery.

Although Burbage called his new building "The Theatre," the title was
not intended to mean _the_ theatre _par excellence_, for the word
"theatre" was not then commonly used to denote a building in which
dramatic representations were performed. It is more probable that he
thought he had succeeded in choosing an elegant name with a certain
suggestion of the old classics, which was euphonious and not quite
common.

The usual name for a theatre was the playhouse, a house intended for all
kinds of games and sport, such as fencing, bear-fights, bull-fights,
jigs, morris-dances, and pantomimes, as well as for dramatic
performances.

It cannot be sufficiently emphasized that the theatrical entertainments
of those times were something more or less literary; anyhow, something
quite apart from the dramatic performances of the present day. They were
meant to satisfy mixed desires in the nation; but, besides satisfying
its craving for beautiful, picturesque language, fine spectacles, and
merry jests, they also gratified its des