lare Market, which they had fitted up as a theatre;
see Halliwell-Phillipps, _A Collection of Ancient Documents_, p. 34.]

[Footnote 518: See Pepys' _Diary_, April 25, 1664.]

CHAPTER XV

WHITEFRIARS

The district of Whitefriars, lying just outside the city wall to the
west, and extending from Fleet Street to the Thames, was once in the
possession of the order of White Friars, and the site of an important
monastery; but in Elizabeth's time the church had disappeared, most of
the ancient buildings had been dismantled, and in their place, as Stow
tells us, were "many fair houses builded, lodgings for noblemen and
others." Since at the dissolution of the monasteries the property had
come into the possession of the Crown, it was not under the
jurisdiction of the London Common Council--a fact which made
Whitefriars, like Blackfriars, a desirable refuge for players seeking
to escape the hostility of the city authorities.[519] One might
naturally expect the appearance of playing here at an early date, but
the evidence is slight.[520]

[Footnote 519: Whitefriars passed under city control in 1608 by grant
of King James I, but certain rights remained, notably that of
sanctuary. This has been celebrated in Shadwell's play, _The Squire of
Alsatia_, and in Scott's romance, _The Fortunes of Nigel_.]

[Footnote 520: Prynne, in _Histriomastix_ (1633), p. 491, quotes a
passage from Richard Reulidge's _Monster Lately Found Out and
Discovered_ (1628), in which there is a reference to a playhouse as
existing in Whitefriars "not long after" 1580. By "playhouse" Reulidge
possibly meant an inn used for acting; but the whole passage, written
by a Puritan after the lapse of nearly half a century, is open to
grave suspicion, especially in its details. Again Richard Flecknoe, in
_A Short Discourse of the English Stage_ (1664), states that the
Children of the Chapel Royal acted in Whitefriars. But that he
confused the word "Whitefriars" with "Blackfriars" is shown by the
rest of his statement.]

The first appearance of a regular playhouse in Whitefriars dates from
the early years of King James's reign. With our present knowledge we
cannot fix the date exactly, yet we can feel reasonably certain that
it was not long before 1607--probably about 1605.

The chief spirit in the organization of the new playhouse seems to
have been the poet Michael Drayton, who had secured a patent from King
James to "erect" a company of child actors, t