The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VI. The Drama to 1642, Part Two.
X. The Elizabethan Theatre.
§ 11. The Newington Butts Playhouse.
| Little is known of the playhouse at Newington Butts. The direct evidence consists of, first, an entry in the privy council register for 1586, stating that the council had desired the lord mayor to prohibit plays in the city, and had taken the like order for the prohibiting of plays at the Theater “and th’ other places about Newington”; secondly, an undated warrant from the privy council, now referred to August, 1592, 16 rescinding an order which had restrained lord Strange’s servants from playing at the Rose, and had enjoined them to play three days (? a week) at Newington Butts; thirdly, an entry in the accounts of Philip Henslowe, the theatrical manager, at the head of a list of receipts from performances: “In the name of God Amen begininge at Newington my Lord Admeralle men and my Lorde Chamberlen men, As ffolowethe 1594”; and, last, an enumeration by Howes, in his continuation of Stow’s Annals (1631), of the London playhouses built within the last sixty years, which concludes with: “besides one in former time at Newington Buts.” Indirect evidence has been drawn from analogy. 17 The warrant of the privy council above mentioned implies that the house had then been standing for some years. Nothing further is known of its history. |
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