ried out. The
actors, as we learn from Henslowe's _Diary_, did not restrict
themselves to two plays a week. Why, then, did the Lords issue this
order, and why was it not put into effect? A study of the clever way
in which Alleyn, Nottingham, and the Privy Council overcame the
opposition of the puritanical officers of St. Giles who were
interfering with the erection of the Fortune will suggest the
explanation. The Lords were making a shrewd move to quiet the noisy
enemies of the drama. They did not intend that the Admiral's and the
Chamberlain's Men should be driven out of existence; they were merely
meeting fanaticism with craft.

[Footnote 439: See page 174.]

Alleyn and Henslowe must have understood this,--possibly they learned
it directly from their patron Nottingham,--for they proceeded with the
erection of their expensive building. The work, however, had been so
seriously delayed by the restraints of the local authorities that the
foundations were not completed until May 8.[440] On that day
carpenters were brought from Windsor, and set to the task of erecting
the frame. Since the materials had been accumulating on the site since
January 17, the work of erection must have proceeded rapidly. The
daily progress of this work is marked in Henslowe's _Diary_ by the
dinners of Henslowe with the contractor, Peter Street. On August 8,
these dinners ceased, so that on that date, or shortly after, we may
assume, the building proper was finished.[441]

[Footnote 440: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 10.]

[Footnote 441: Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_, I, 158-59.]

For erecting the building Street received L440. But this did not
include the painting of the woodwork (which, if we may judge from De
Witt's description of the Swan, must have been costly), or the
equipment of the stage. We learn from Alleyn's memoranda that the
final cost of the playhouse was L520.[442] Hence, after Street's work
of erection was finished in August, the entire building had to be
painted, and the stage properly equipped with curtains, hangings,
machines, etc. This must have occupied at least two months. From
Henslowe's _Diary_ it appears that the playhouse was first used about
the end of November or the early part of December, 1600.[443]

[Footnote 442: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 108.]

[Footnote 443: Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_, I, 124.]

The original contract of Henslowe and Alleyn with Peter Street for the
erection of the Fortune, preserved among the