t; the other was a building of
excellent _Hope_, and though wild beasts and gladiators did
most possess it, yet the gallants that came to behold those
combats, though they were of a mixt society, yet were many
noble worthies amongst them; the last which stood, and, as
it were, shak'd hands with this fortress, being in times
past as famous as any of the other, was now fallen to decay,
and like a dying _Swanne_, hanging down her head, seemed to
sing her own dirge.

[Footnote 276: What seems to be a picture of this famous house may be
seen in Merian's _View of London_, 1638 (see opposite page 256), with
a turret, and standing just to the right of the Swan.]

This is the last that we hear of the playhouse, that was "in times
past as famous as any of the other." What finally became of the
building we do not know. It is not shown in Hollar's _View of London_,
in 1647, and probably it had ceased to exist before the outbreak of
the Civil War.

CHAPTER XI

THE SECOND BLACKFRIARS

In 1596 Burbage's lease of the plot of ground on which he had erected
the Theatre was drawing to a close, and all his efforts at a renewal
had failed. The owner of the land, Gyles Alleyn, having, in spite of
the terms of the original contract, refused to extend the lease until
1606, was craftily plotting for a substantial increase in the rental;
moreover, having become puritanical in his attitude towards the drama,
he was insisting that if the lease were renewed, the Theatre should be
used as a playhouse for five years only, and then should either be
torn down, or be converted into tenements. Burbage tentatively agreed
to pay the increased rental, but, of course, he could not possibly
agree to the second demand; and when all negotiations on this point
proved futile, he realized that he must do something at once to meet
the awkward situation.

In the twenty years that had elapsed since the erection of the Theatre
and the Curtain in Holywell, the Bankside had been developed as a
theatrical district, and the Rose and the Swan, not to mention the
Bear Garden, had made the south side of the river the popular place
for entertainments. Naturally, therefore, any one contemplating the
erection of a playhouse would immediately think of this locality.
Burbage, however, was a man of ideas. He believed that he could
improve on the Bankside as a site for his theatre. He remembered how,
at the outset of his care