This theatre was open in summer and the performances took place by daylight; the King’s company usually began to play in the month of May.  The exhibitions appear to have been calculated for the lower class of people, and to have been more frequent than those at the Blackfriars, till 1604 or 5, when it became less fashionable and frequented.  Being contiguous to the Bear Garden, it is probable that those who resorted there went to the theatre, when the bear-baiting sports were over, and such persons were not likely to form a very refined audience.

We have no description of the interior of the Globe, but that it was somewhat similar to our modern theatres, with an open space in the roof:  or perhaps it more resembled an inn-yard, where, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, many of our ancient dramatic pieces were performed.  The galleries in both were arranged on three sides of the building; the small rooms under the lowest, answered to our present boxes and were called rooms; the yard bears a sufficient resemblance to the pit, as at present in use, and where the common people stood to see the exhibition; from which circumstance they are called by Shakspeare “the groundlings,” and by Ben Jonson, “the understanding gentlemen of the ground.”  The stage was erected in the area, with its back to the gateway where the admission money was taken.  The price of admission into the best rooms, or boxes, was in Shakspeare’s time, a shilling, though afterwards it appears to have risen to two shillings and half-a-crown.  The galleries, or scaffolds, as they were sometimes called, and that part of the house which in private theatres was named the pit, seem to have been the same price, which was sixpence, while in some meaner playhouses it was only a penny, and in others two-pence.

We learn from Sir Henry Hebert, that 20_l_. was the greatest receipt for one day’s performance; by that we may calculate upon the house having contained about 700 persons, at the prices before stated; that is to say, 100 for the boxes, and the rest in the other parts of the house.

Part of the site of this theatre is now occupied by the brewery of Messrs. Barclay and Perkins; and in the History of St. Saviour’s, already quoted, we read that “the passage which led to the Globe Tavern, of which the playhouse formed a part, was, till within these few years, known by the name of Globe Alley, and upon its site now stands a large store-house for porter.”

The Rose or smaller theatre, was erected in the year 1592, and is stated to have cost L103. 2_s_. 7_d_.—­a sum which would scarcely pay half the expenses of a modern patent theatre for a single night!