he Swan is invariably referred
to as a _playhouse_, and there is no evidence--beyond that cited
above--to indicate that the building was ever employed for the baiting
of bears and bulls.

In the summer of 1596 a Dutch traveler named Johannes de Witt, a
priest of St. Mary's in Utrecht, visited London, and saw, as one of
the most interesting sights of the city, a dramatic performance at the
Swan. Later he communicated a description of the building to his
friend Arend van Buchell,[248] who recorded the description in his
commonplace-book, along with a crude and inexact drawing of the
interior (see page 169), showing the stage, the three galleries, and
the pit.[249] The description is headed: "Ex Observationibus
Londinensibus Johannis de Witt." After a brief notice of St. Paul's,
and a briefer reference to Westminster Cathedral, the traveler begins
to describe what obviously interested him far more. I give below a
translation of that portion relating to the playhouses:

There are four amphitheatres in London [the Theatre,
Curtain, Rose, and Swan] of notable beauty, which from their
diverse signs bear diverse names. In each of them a
different play is daily exhibited to the populace. The two
more magnificent of these are situated to the southward
beyond the Thames, and from the signs suspended before them
are called the Rose and the Swan. The two others are outside
the city towards the north on the highway which issues
through the Episcopal Gate, called in the vernacular
Bishopgate.[250] There is also a fifth [the Bear Garden],
but of dissimilar structure, devoted to the baiting of
beasts, where are maintained in separate cages and
enclosures many bears and dogs of stupendous size, which are
kept for fighting, furnishing thereby a most delightful
spectacle to men. Of all the theatres,[251] however, the
largest and the most magnificent is that one of which the
sign is a swan, called in the vernacular the Swan
Theatre;[252] for it accommodates in its seats three
thousand persons, and is built of a mass of flint stones (of
which there is a prodigious supply in Britain),[253] and
supported by wooden columns painted in such excellent
imitation of marble that it is able to deceive even the most
cunning. Since its form resembles that of a Roman work, I
have made a sketch of it above.

[Footnote 248: Apparent