e it came here;
But good things are most cheap when they're most dear.
Nay, when you look into my galleries,
How bravely they're trimm'd up, you all shall swear
You're highly pleas'd to see what's set down there:
Stories of men and women, mix'd together,
Fair ones with foul, like sunshine in wet weather;
Within one square a thousand heads are laid,
So close that all of heads the room seems made;
As many faces there, fill'd with blithe looks
Shew like the promising titles of new books
Writ merrily, the readers being their own eyes,
Which seem to move and to give plaudities;
And here and there, whilst with obsequious ears
Throng'd heaps do listen, a cut-purse thrusts and leers
With hawk's eyes for his prey; I need not shew him;
By a hanging, villainous look yourselves may know him,
The face is drawn so rarely: then, sir, below,
The very floor, as 't were, waves to and fro,
And, like a floating island, seems to move
Upon a sea bound in with shores above.

_All._ These sights are excellent![448]

[Footnote 448: _The Roaring Girl_, I, i. Pointed out by M.W. Sampson,
_Modern Language Notes_, June, 1915.]

A closer view of this audience--"men and women, mix'd together, fair
ones with foul"--is furnished by one of the letters of Orazio
Busino,[449] the chaplain of the Venetian Embassy, who visited the
Fortune playhouse shortly after his arrival in London in 1617:

The other day, therefore, they determined on taking me to
one of the many theatres where plays are performed, and we
saw a tragedy, which diverted me very little, especially as
I cannot understand a word of English, though some little
amusement may be derived from gazing at the very costly
dresses of the actors, and from the various interludes of
instrumental music and dancing and singing; but the best
treat was to see such a crowd of nobility so very well
arrayed that they looked like so many princes, listening as
silently and soberly as possible. These theatres are
frequented by a number of respectable and handsome ladies,
who come freely and seat themselves among the men without
the slightest hesitation. On the evening in question his
Excellency [the Venetian Ambassador] and the Secretary were
pleased to play me a trick by placing me amongst a bevy of
young women. Scarcely