of
the goods and chattles of Christopher Beddingfield, deceased," a small
plot of land, known by the name of "The Red Bull." This plot of land,
which contained one house, was situated "at the upper end of St.
John's Street" in the Parish of St. James, Clerkenwell, the exact
location being marked by "Red Bull Yard" in Ogilby and Morgan's _Map
of London_, printed in 1677. The property was not much more distant
from the heart of the city than the Fortune property, and since it
could be easily reached through St. John's Gate, it was quite as well
situated for dramatic purposes as was the Fortune.

[Footnote 484: This playhouse is not to be confused with the famous
Bull Tavern in Bishopsgate Street, for many years used as a theatre.]

[Footnote 485: These statements are based upon the Woodford _v._
Holland documents, first discovered by Collier, later by Greenstreet,
and finally printed in full by Wallace, _Three London Theatres_.]

[Illustration: THE SITE OF THE RED BULL PLAYHOUSE

The site is indicated by Red Bull Yard. (From Ogilby and Morgan's _Map
of London_, 1677.)]

In or before 1605[486] Holland erected on this plot of ground "a
playhouse for acting and setting forth plays, comedies, and
tragedies." We may suspect that he did this at the instigation of the
Earl of Worcester's Men, who had just been taken under the patronage
of the Queen, and had been selected by the Privy Council as one of
three companies to be "allowed." The warrant of the Privy Council,
April 9, 1604, orders the Lord Mayor to "permit and suffer the three
companies of players to the King, Queen, and Prince publickly to
exercise their plays in their several and usual houses for that
purpose, and no other, viz. the Globe, situate in Maiden Lane on the
Bankside in the county of Surrey, the Fortune in Golding Lane, and the
Curtain, in Holywell."[487] Among these three companies, as Dekker
tells us, there was much rivalry.[488] No doubt the Queen's Men,
forced to occupy the old Curtain Playhouse, suffered by comparison
with the King's Men at the handsome Globe, and the Prince's Men at the
new and magnificent Fortune; and this, I suspect, furnished the
immediate cause for the erection of the Red Bull. In a draft of a
license to the Queen's Men, made late in 1603 or early in 1604, the
fact is disclosed that the actors, of whom Thomas Greene was the
leader, were contemplating a new playhouse. The company was licensed
to use any "playhouse not used by