all, perhaps--the yards of inns.
These yards, especially those of carriers' inns, were admirably suited
to dramatic representations, consisting as they did of a large open
court surrounded by two or more galleries. Many examples of such
inn-yards are still to be seen in various parts of England; a picture
of the famous White Hart, in Southwark, is given opposite page 4 by
way of illustration. In the yard a temporary platform--a few boards,
it may be, set on barrel-heads[1]--could be erected for a stage; in
the adjacent stables a dressing-room could be provided for the actors;
the rabble--always the larger and more enthusiastic part of the
audience--could be accommodated with standing-room about the stage;
while the more aristocratic members of the audience could be
comfortably seated in the galleries overhead. Thus a ready-made and
very serviceable theatre was always at the command of the players; and
it seems to have been frequently made use of from the very beginning
of professionalism in acting.

[Footnote 1: "Thou shalt not need to travel with thy pumps full of
gravel any more, after a blind jade and a hamper, and stalk upon
boards and barrel-heads." (_Poetaster_, III, i.)]

One of the earliest extant moralities, _Mankind_, acted by strollers
in the latter half of the fifteenth century, gives us an interesting
glimpse of an inn-yard performance. The opening speech makes distinct
reference to the two classes of the audience described above as
occupying the galleries and the yard:

O ye sovereigns that sit, and ye brothers that stand right
up.

The "brothers," indeed, seem to have stood up so closely about the
stage that the actors had great difficulty in passing to and from
their dressing-room. Thus, Nowadays leaves the stage with the request:

Make space, sirs, let me go out!

New Gyse enters with the threat:

Out of my way, sirs, for dread of a beating!

While Nought, with even less respect, shouts:

Avaunt, knaves! Let me go by!

Language such as this would hardly be appropriate if addressed to the
"sovereigns" who sat in the galleries above; but, as addressed to the
"brothers," it probably served to create a general feeling of good
nature. And a feeling of good nature was desirable, for the actors
were facing the difficult problem of inducing the audience to pay for
its entertainment.

This problem they met by taking advantage of the most thrilling moment
of the plot. The