his theatre, which is always associated with Shake­speare (q.v.), was built in 1599 on Bank-side, Southwark, by Cuthbert Burbage (q.v.) with timber from London’s first playhouse, the Theatre (q.v.), built by his father. It was round, with a large platform-stage with a ‘tiring-house’ be­hind and a thatched roof over the stage and the three galleries. Above the stage rose a tower or penthouse from which a flag was flown when the theatre was open. A trumpet was blown from there to give warning of the play’s opening. A spectator entering by the one main door who paid a penny and stood in the pit was known as a groundling; a further penny would admit him to a gallery; and for a third penny he could have a seat. Stools on the stage were for privileged people, usually young noblemen who entered through the stage door at the back. In this theatre a strong company led by Richard Burbage (q.v.) presented most of the plays of Shakespeare for the first time, as well as those of other contemporary dramatists, their only rivals being Henslowe’s company at the Fortune.

under Alleyn (qq.v.). In 1613 the Globe was burnt down after a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII. It was rebuilt with a tiled roof in place of the thatch which had caused the fire, and reopened in 1614. It remained in use until the closing of the theatres in 1642, and in 1644 was pulled down. The site is now occupied by a brewery. A replica of the Globe, designed by the Shakespearian scholar, Dr. John Cranford Adams, was erected in 1950 at Hofstra College, Long Island.

  1. Sefton Parry, a speculator who
    had a hand in several London theatres,
    built a Globe Theatre in Newcastle Street,
    Strand, which opened on 28 Nov. 1868.
    It was not a success, and constantly
    changed hands until in 1884 Charles
    Hawtrey (q.v.) transferred his play, The
    Private Secretary, to the Globe from the
    Prince of Wales’, where it had not done
    well in spite of the presence of Tree (q.v.)
    in the lead. With Penley (q.v.) in his place
    it was a success, and became one of the
    classic stage farces, as did Brandon
    Thomas’s Charley’s Aunt (1892), trans­
    ferred from the Royalty (q.v.). In March
    1902 the theatre closed after a revival of
    Sweet Nell of Old Drury with Fred Terry
    and Julia Neilson (qq.v.). It was a jerry-
    built place and it and the Opera Comique
    (q.v.), which backed on to it, were known
    as the Rickety Twins. Had a fire broken
    out it would have been a death-trap.
  2. The present Globe, in Shaftesbury
    Avenue, opened on 27 Dec. 1906 as the
    Hicks, with Seymour Hicks and his wife
    Ellaline Terriss (qq.v.) in The Beauty of
    Bath, transferred from the Aldwych.
    It was under the management of Charles
    Frohman (q.v.), who in 1909 renamed it
    the Globe and made it his London
    headquarters. After his death in 1915 it
    was acquired by Alfred Butt, who trans­
    ferred there the successful comedy, Peg o’
    My Heart, by J. Hartley Manners. In the
    following year Gaby Deslys made her
    last London appearance in the musical
    Suzette, and from 1918 to 1927 the theatre
    was under the joint management of Marie
    Lbhr and her husband Anthony Prinsep.
    Among their successful productions, in
    most of which Marie Lohr appeared, were
    Somerset Maugham’s Our Betters (1923)
    and Noel Coward’s Fallen Angels (1925).
    In 1930 Maurice Browne presented the
    German actor Moissi (q.v.) in Hamlet
    and the Pitoeffs (q.v.) in Shaw’s Saint
    Joan. A year later came Pagan’s The
    Improper Duchess, with Yvonne Arnaud

GODFREY, T.

(q.v.), and in 1935 Dodie Smith’s Call It a Day. In Feb. 1937 H. M. Tennent took over, opening with a revival of Shaw’s Candida. Among the successful produc­tions of this management were St. John Ervine’s Robert’s Wife (1937), with Owen Nares and Edith Evans, Emlyn Williams’s Morning Star (1942), Terence Rattigan’s While the Sun Shines (1943), Christopher Fry’s The Lady’s Not for Burning (1949), and Anouilh’s Ring Rouna the Moon (1950), with Paul Scofield (q.v.). Gielgud was seen in 1956 in Noel Coward’s Nude With Violin and in 1958 in Graharr Greene’s The Potting Shed, and Scofiek again in 1960 in Robert Bolt’s play abou Sir Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons In 1965 Flanders and Swann appeared ii At the Drop of Another Hat, and on I June 1966 Terence Frisby’s There’s a Gil in My Soup began a long run.

(See also rotunda; for the Glob Theatre, New York, see lunt-fontann

THEATRE.)

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