The price of admission to the best seats would be a shilling, as we learn from Dekker’s books of Gull’s, where he mentions the twelvepenny rooms as being the best place in the theatre. This price was for the best seats or a seat upon the stage, which at this period was allowed at some of the theatres. When the custom was introduced of allowing a few of the spectators a seat on the stage is uncertain. The matter has not been fully examined or explained, and little information can be gathered from contemporary sources. The boxes, or rooms, as they were styled, were priced at a shilling at the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres. The twelvepenny rooms were situated near the stage, in the lowermost gallery, and are seen on the drawing of the interior of the Swan Theatre, close to the word orchestra. Why the writer should refer to the shilling seats only is difficult to make out. Perhaps for the first performance of a new play a shilling was charged for all the seats. We know that a different scale of charges did exist, but the accounts are somewhat confused. It was during a performance of this play that the thatched roof of the Globe Theatre caught fire and was burnt to the ground. This took place on St. Peter’s Day, June 29th, 1613.
I would have play’d The part my father meant to act upon The usurper Richard. I, 2, 195.
’Tis ten to one this play can never please All that are here; some come to take their ease And sleep an act or two; but those we fear We have frighted with our trumpets, so ’tis clear They’ll say ’tis naught. For this play at this time, is only on The merciful construction of good women; For such a one we show’d ’em if they smile, And say ’twill do I know within a while, All the best men are ours for ’tis ill hap If they hold when their ladies bid ’m clap.
Now this masque was cried incomparable. I, 1, 27.
’Tis well; the citizens, I am sure, have shown at full their royal minds And let ’em have their rights they are ever forward, In celebration of this day with shows, Pageants and sights of honour. IV, 1, 2.
These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse and fight for bitter apples; that no audience but the tribulation of Tower Hill or the limbs of Lime House, their dear brothers, are able to endure. V, 4.