"THE GLOBE" - THE MOST FAMOUS THEATRE IN THE WORLD was funded and built by Richard Burbage (1568-1619), the son of James Burbage and also one of the most famous actors in his day) in 1599. The main timbers for its construction were taken from James Burbage's theatre, 'The Theatre' which was built in 1576 in Shoreditch, north of the River Thames. According to tradition, these timbers were taken during the Christmas festival after protracted negotiations for the extension of the lease had broken down. The original lease had said that Burbage could 'take down and carry away' the structure and that is exactly what happened.
Burbage, together with his actors and a dozen or so supporters and workmen dismantled the 'Theatre' and ferried the timbers over the river to the site near where the modern reconstruction of the Globe now stands. The new building was a round hollow, or to be exact, a twenty-sided polygon, and in typical Elizabethan style, it was similar to the Colleseum in Rome. Shakespeare reminds us of this particular construction in the opening Chorus of Henry V.
...may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did afright the air at Agincourt?
The Globe could house an audience of three thousand who sat in three tiers around the sides (and who paid extra for being protected from the rain) as well as the groundlings who stood in the middle in the open and who paid a penny to enter. This penny they dropped into a box as they entered, hence the use of the term 'box office.'
The wealthier citizen who wished to watch from one of the surrounding tiers had to pay an extra penny in another box at the foot of the stairs to go up to the second and third levels. (Today, a groundling pays five pounds and a higher level seat costs about twenty-five pounds.)At the end of the play, the 'box' was opened and the money was shared among the actors etc. WS and several others received more as he was a 'sharer' - a shareholder in the Globe.
Since there were no toilets in the building, and since Elizabethan personal hygiene was somewhat different from today's standards, the groundlings were also known as 'stinkards,' - fish that swim on the riverbed and gape upwards. Such a description sounds very apt especially when you imagine all of these happy spectators all crammed and standing in the lower 'pit' on a hot and clammy summer's day in good ol' Elizabethan London. WS's rival playwright, Ben Jonson, called the stinkards, 'the understanding gentlemen of the ground.'
A crest also appeared above the main entrance to the Globe saying, Totus mundus agit historionem - 'The whole world is a playhouse.' (Sounds somewhat similar to another well-known WS line?) In addition, to let everyone know that the play was about to begin, a trumpet would be sounded.When a play was showing, a different coloured flag on the roof: red - historical play, white - comedy and black for a tragedy. (A bit like the system of different coloured warning flags on beaches about the dangers of swimming).
The performances began between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. This meant that a long play such as Hamlet could only be shown in the summer as otherwise it would be dark before the play was over.
Next time: More about the Globe, its destruction and resurrection.
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