er as a theatrical manager, he had had to
face competition with Richard Farrant who had opened a small "private"
playhouse in Blackfriars. Although that building had not been used as
a "public" playhouse, and had been closed up after a few years of sore
tribulation, it had revealed to Burbage the possibilities of the
Blackfriars precinct for theatrical purposes. In the first place, the
precinct was not under the jurisdiction of the city, so that actors
would not there be subject to the interference of the Lord Mayor and
his Aldermen. As Stevens writes in his _History of Ancient Abbeys,
Monasteries, etc._: "All the inhabitants within it were subject to
none but the King ... neither the Mayor, nor the sheriffs, nor any
other officers of the City of London had the least jurisdiction or
authority therein." Blackfriars, therefore, in this fundamental
respect, was just as desirable a location for theatres as was Holywell
to the north of the city, or the Bankside to the south. In the second
place, Blackfriars had a decided advantage over those two suburban
localities in that it was "scituated in the bosome of the
Cittie,"[277] near St. Paul's Cathedral, the centre of London life,
and hence was readily accessible to playgoers, even during the
disagreeable winter season. In the third place, the locality was
distinctly fashionable. To give some notion of the character of its
inhabitants, I record below the names of a few of those who lived in
or near the conventual buildings at various times after the
dissolution: George Brooke, Lord Cobham; William Brooke, Lord Cobham,
Lord Chamberlain of the Queen's Household; Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham,
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports; Sir Thomas Cheney, Treasurer of the
Queen's Household, and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports; Henry Carey,
Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain of the Queen's Household; George Carey,
Lord Hunsdon, who as Lord Chamberlain was the patron of Shakespeare's
troupe; Sir Thomas Cawarden, Master of the Revels; Sir Henry
Jerningham, Fee Chamberlain to the Queen's Highness; Sir Willam More,
Chamberlain of the Exchequer; Lord Zanche; Sir John Portynary; Sir
William Kingston; Sir Francis Bryan; Sir John Cheeke; Sir George
Harper; Sir Philip Hoby, Lady Anne Gray; Sir Robert Kyrkham; Lady
Perrin; Sir Christopher More; Sir Henry Neville; Sir Thomas Saunders;
Sir Jerome Bowes; and Lady Jane Guildford.[278] Obviously the
locality was free from the odium which the public always associated