al license under
the Great Seal of England "to erect, build, and set up in and upon the
said premises before mentioned one convenient playhouse for the said
Children of the Revels, the same playhouse to be used by the Children
of the Revels for the time being of the Queene's Majesty, and for the
Prince's Players, and for the Lady Elizabeth's Players."[571]

[Footnote 570: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 277. For the
location of Puddlewharf see the map of the Blackfriars precinct on
page 94.]

[Footnote 571: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 277.]

The work of converting Porter's Hall into a playhouse seems to have
begun at once. On September 26, 1615, the Privy Council records "that
one Rosseter, and others, having obtained license under the Great Seal
of England for the building of a playhouse, have pulled down [i.e.,
stripped the interior of] a great messuage in Puddlewharf, which was
sometimes the house of the Lady Saunders, within the precinct of the
Blackfriars, and are now erecting a new playhouse in that place."[572]

[Footnote 572: _Ibid._, p. 373.]

The city authorities, always hostile to the actors and jealous of any
new theatres, made so vigorous a complaint to the Privy Council that
the Lords of the Council "thought fit to send for Rosseter." He came,
bringing his royal license. This document was carefully "perused by
the Lord Chief Justice of England," who succeeded in discovering in
the wording of one of its clauses a trivial flaw that would enable the
Privy Council, on a technicality, to prohibit the building: "The Lord
Chief Justice did deliver to their Lordships that the license granted
to the said Rosseter did extend to the building of a playhouse without
the liberties of London, and not within the city."[573] Now, in 1608
the liberty of Blackfriars had by a special royal grant been placed
within the jurisdiction of the city. Rosseter's license unluckily had
described the Lady Saunders's house as being "in the suburbs," though,
of course, the description was otherwise specific enough: "all which
premises are situate and being within the precinct of the Blackfriars,
near Puddlewharf, in the suburbs of London, called by the name of the
Lady Saunders's House, or otherwise Porter's Hall."

[Footnote 573: The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 373.]

Since "the inconveniences urged by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were
many," the Lords of the Privy Council decided to take advantage of the