Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

go to the common water stairs without danger of their lives and limbs." "These inconveniences" were said to last "every day in winter from one or two of the clock till six at night."

As one might infer from the above complaint, Blackfriars became exceedingly fashionable. Even the Queen did not hesitate occasionally to engage the building for private performances before herself and her invited guests.1 At a sitting of the Privy Council in 1633 (the King being present) we hear of "the discommodity that diverse persons of great quality, especially Ladies and Gentlewomen, did receive in going to the playhouse of Blackfriars by reason that no coaches may stand" there. And a glimpse of high society at the theatre is given in a letter written by Garrard, January 25, 1636: "A little pique happened betwixt the Duke of Lenox and the Lord Chamberlain [the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery] about a box at a new play in the Blackfriars, of which the Duke had got the key, which, if it had come to be debated betwixt them, as it was once intended, some heat or perhaps other inconveniences might have happened."

The possession of this splendid theatre in the very heart of the city gave the King's Men a decided advantage over their less fortunate rivals, and marked an important step in the long history of English playhouses. Gradually the theatres crept into the city, and, at the same time, the old style of unroofed amphitheatre passed away.

For performance at Blackfriars Shakespeare soon had ready a new play. In North's translation of Plutarch's Lives, whence he had just drawn Antony and Cleopatra, he found the fascinating, though not altogether pleasing, story of Caius Marcus, known as Coriolanus, and his

1 See my Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, pp. 65, 75, 76, 77.

go to the common water stairs without danger of their lives and limbs." "These inconveniences" were said to last "every day in winter from one or two of the clock till six at night."

As one might infer from the above complaint, Blackfriars became exceedingly fashionable. Even the Queen did not hesitate occasionally to engage the building for private performances before herself and her invited guests.1 At a sitting of the Privy Council in 1633 (the King being present) we hear of "the discommodity that diverse persons of great quality, especially Ladies and Gentlewomen, did receive in going to the playhouse of Blackfriars by reason that no coaches may stand" there. And a glimpse of high society at the theatre is given in a letter written by Garrard, January 25, 1636: "A little pique happened betwixt the Duke of Lenox and the Lord Chamberlain [the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery] about a box at a new play in the Blackfriars, of which the Duke had got the key, which, if it had come to be debated betwixt them, as it was once intended, some heat or perhaps other inconveniences might have happened."

The possession of this splendid theatre in the very heart of the city gave the King's Men a decided advantage over their less fortunate rivals, and marked an important step in the long history of English playhouses. Gradually the theatres crept into the city, and, at the same time, the old style of unroofed amphitheatre passed away.

For performance at Blackfriars Shakespeare soon had ready a new play. In North's translation of Plutarch's Lives, whence he had just drawn Antony and Cleopatra, he found the fascinating, though not altogether pleasing, story of Caius Marcus, known as Coriolanus, and his 1 See my Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, pp. 65, 75, 76, 77.

Inner Temple. From his father, the Justice, and from his brother, Sir Henry, who died in 1605, he inherited a competence, so that his labors for the theatre were probably inspired by a sheer love for dramatic composition. Fletcher was the son of Richard, later Bishop of London, "a comely and courtly prelate" who lived, we are told, in the Queen's "gratious aspect and favour," until without royal permission he married Lady Baker, relict of Sir Richard Baker, and sister-in-law of Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, kinsman of the Queen. John was educated at Cambridge, and, it seems, traveled for a time on the Continent. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, each with a university training, and each thoroughly familiar with the life of the upper classes, were of the "newer stamp" now demanded by a drama which was more or less subservient to the Court. They were close friends of the Damon and Pythias type, living together in one house on the Bankside, sharing, if we may believe tradition, all things in common, and writing mainly in collaboration. Their plays proved to be especially popular with courtly audiences, for they understood the tastes, and pictured with great effectiveness the life, of the higher ranks of society. The products of their industrious pens, together with manuscripts the troupe bought from other writers, gradually relieved Shakespeare from the burden of composing a larger number of plays than he naturally felt disposed to attempt. And, as we shall see, he availed himself of this opportunity to withdraw more and more to the quiet of Stratford and the pleasures of his garden and orchard.

Coriolanus is further significant as Shakespeare's last effort at tragedy, for from now on he devotes himself to the composition of tragi-comedy and romance. Many scholars have sought to explain this change on purely subjective grounds. Having already assumed that the

« ZurückWeiter »