flaw discovered by the Lord Chief Justice, and prohibit the erection
of the playhouse. Their order, issued September 26, 1615, reads as
follows:

It was this day ordered by their Lordships that there shall
be no playhouse erected in that place, and that the Lord
Mayor of London shall straightly prohibit the said Rosseter
and the rest of the patentees, and their workmen to proceed
in the making and converting the said building into a
playhouse. And if any of the patentees or their workmen
shall proceed in their intended building contrary to this
their Lordships' inhibition, that then the Lord Mayor shall
commit him or them so offending unto prison and certify
their Lordships of their contempt in that behalf.[574]

[Footnote 574: _Ibid._]

This order, for the time being, halted work on the new playhouse. The
Children of the Revels were forced to spend the next year traveling in
the provinces; and the Lady Elizabeth's Men and Prince Charles's Men
had to remain on the Bankside and endure the oppressions of Henslowe
and later of Meade. Possibly their sufferings at the hands of Meade
led them to urge Rosseter to complete at once the much desired house
in the city. At any rate, in the winter of 1616, Rosseter, believing
himself strongly enough entrenched behind his royal patent, resumed
work on converting Porter's Hall into a theatre. The city authorities
issued "diverse commandments and prohibitions," but he paid no
attention to these, and pushed the work to completion. The building
seems to have been ready for the actors about the first of January,
1617. Thereupon the company which had been occupying the Hope deserted
that playhouse and "came over" to Rosseter's Blackfriars.[575] In the
new playhouse they presented Nathaniel Field's comedy, _Amends for
Ladies_, which was printed the following year "as it was acted at the
Blackfriars both by the Prince's Servants and the Lady Elizabeth's."

[Footnote 575: See the chapter on "The Hope."]

The actors, however, were not allowed to enjoy their new home very
long. On January 27, 1617, the Privy Council dispatched the following
letter to the Lord Mayor:

Whereas His Majesty is informed that notwithstanding diverse
commandments and prohibitions to the contrary, there be
certain persons that go about to set up a playhouse in the
Blackfriars near unto His Majesty's Wardrobe, and for that
purpose have la