rsons of good
taste. But so had the Red Bull, and the actors there had no right to
throw stones. Apparently the large numbers that could be accommodated
in the great public theatres, and the quality of the audience
attracted by the low price of admission, made noise and rant
inevitable.[473] As chief sinners in this respect the Fortune and the
Red Bull are usually mentioned together.

[Footnote 473: Not even the Globe was entirely free from this; see the
Prologue to _The Doubtful Heir_.]

Upon the departure of the Red Bull Company, the Prince Charles's Men
(originally the Admiral's, and later the Palsgrave's Men), who had
been occupying the Red Bull, came to the Fortune.[474] Thus after an
absence of nearly nine years, the old company (though sadly altered in
personnel), for which the Fortune had been built, returned to its home
to remain there until the end.

[Footnote 474: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 79.]

On September 2, 1642, the Long Parliament passed an ordinance
suppressing all stage-plays; but for a time the actors at the Fortune
seem to have continued their performances. In the fifth number of _The
Weekly Account_, September 27-October 4, 1643, we find among other
entries: "The players' misfortune at the Fortune in Golding Lane,
their players' clothes being seized upon in the time of a play by
authority from the Parliament."[475] This, doubtless, led to the
closing of the playhouse.

[Footnote 475: _The Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1643_, p.
564.]

After the Fortune was thus closed, the lessees were in a predicament.
By a specific clause in their lease they were prevented from using the
building for any purpose other than the acting of stage-plays, and now
Parliament by a specific ordinance had forbidden the acting of
stage-plays. Hence the lessees, some of whom were poor persons, being
unable to make any profit from the building, refused to pay any rent.
The College entered suit against them, and exhausted all legal means
to make them pay, but without success.[476]

[Footnote 476: For an interesting comment on the situation, especially
in the year 1649, see _Notes and Queries_ (series X), I, 85.]

When the ordinance prohibiting plays expired in January, 1648, the
actors promptly reopened the Fortune, and we learn from _The Kingdom's
Weekly Intelligencer_ that on January 27 no fewer than one hundred and
twenty coaches were crowded about the building. But on February 9
Parliament passed a new and