sed thereafter for masques and plays. Thus, when King James
came to the throne, he ordered plays to be given there in November,
1604. We find the following entry in the Treasurer's accounts:

For making ready the Banqueting House at Whitehall for the
King's Majesty against the plays, by the space of four days
... 78_s._ 7_d._

And the accounts of the Revels' Office inform us:

Hallomas Day, being the first of November, a play in the
Banqueting House at Whitehall, called _The Moor of Venice_.

Apparently, however, the King was not pleased with the Banqueting
House as a place for dramatic performances, for he promptly ordered
the Great Hall of the palace--a room approximately ninety feet in
length and forty feet in breadth[657]--to be made ready for the next
play:

For making ready the Great Chamber at Whitehall for the
King's Majesty to see the play, by the space of two days ...
39_s._ 4_d._

[Footnote 657: This had once already, on Shrove Tuesday, 1604, been
used for a play. The situation and ground-plan of the "Great Hall" are
clearly shown in Fisher's _Survey_ of the palace, made about 1670, and
engraved by Vertue, 1747.]

The work was completed with dispatch, for on the Sunday following the
performance of _Othello_ in the Banqueting House, _The Merry Wives of
Windsor_ was acted in the Great Hall. The next play to be given at
Court was also presented in the same room:

On St. Stephen's Night, in the Hall, a play called _Measure
for Measure_.

And from this time on the Great Hall was the usual place for Court
performances. The abandonment of the Banqueting House was probably due
to the facts that the Hall was smaller in size, could be more easily
heated in the winter, and was in general better adapted to dramatic
performances. Possibly the change was due also to the decayed
condition of the old structure and to preparations for its removal.
Stow, in his _Annals_ under the date of 1607, writes:

The last year the King pulled down the old, rotten,
slight-builded Banqueting House at Whitehall, and
new-builded the same this year very strong and stately,
being every way larger than the first.[658]

[Footnote 658: Stow's _Annals_, continued by Edmund Howes (1631), p.
891.]

This new Banqueting House was completed in the early part of 1608.
John Chamberlain writes to Sir Dudley Carleton on January 5, 1608:
"The masque goes forward at Court