t an annual rental of L8--a
sum far below the real value of the moiety.[431]

[Footnote 431: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 25; Wallace, _Three London
Theatres_, p. 53. Later, Alleyn rented to the actors the playhouse
alone for L200 per annum. In the document, Alleyn _v._ William
Henslowe, published by Mr. Wallace in _Three London Theatres_, p. 52,
it is revealed that this annual rental of L8 was canceled by Alleyn's
rental of a house from Henslowe on the Bankside; hence no actual
payments by Henslowe appear in the Henslowe-Alleyn papers.]

Whatever the details of the arrangement between the two partners, the
main outlines of their procedure are clear. On December 22, 1599,
Alleyn purchased for L240 a thirty-three-year lease[432] of a plot of
ground situated to the north of the city, in the Parish of St. Giles
without Cripplegate. This plot of ground, we are told, stood "very
tolerable, near unto the Fields, and so far distant and remote from
any person or place of account as that none can be annoyed
thereby";[433] and yet, as the Earl of Nottingham wrote, it was "very
convenient for the ease of people."[434]

[Footnote 432: Later, by a series of negotiations ending in 1610,
Alleyn secured the freehold of the property. The total cost to him was
L800. See Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, pp. 14, 17, 108.]

[Footnote 433: _Ibid._, p. 50.]

[Footnote 434: _Ibid._, p. 49; cf. p. 51.]

The property thus acquired lay between Golding Lane and Whitecross
Street, two parallel thoroughfares running north and south. There were
tenements on the edge of the property facing Whitecross Street,
tenements on the edge facing Golding Lane, and an open space between.
Alleyn and Henslowe planned to erect their new playhouse in this open
space "between Whitecross Street and Golding Lane," and to make "a way
leading to it" from Golding Lane. The ground set aside for the
playhouse is described as "containing in length from east to west one
hundred twenty and seven feet and a half, a little more or less, and
in breadth, from north to south, one hundred twenty and nine feet, a
little more or less."[435]

[Footnote 435: Collier, _The Alleyn Papers_, p. 98. For a slightly
different measurement of the plot see Collier, _Memoirs of Edward
Alleyn_, p. 167.]

The lease of this property having been consummated on December 22,
1599, on January 8, 1600, Henslowe and Alleyn signed a contract with
the carpenter, Peter Street (who had recently gained valuabl