153.]

[Footnote 56: Alleyn _v._ Burbage, Star Chamber Proceedings, 1601-02;
printed by Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 277.]

[Footnote 57: Myles _v._ Burbage and Alleyn, 1597; printed by Wallace,
_op. cit._, p. 159; cf. pp. 263, 106, 152.]

[Footnote 58: See Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 277.]

[Footnote 59: This agrees with the claim of Brayne's widow.]

[Footnote 60: Wallace, _op. cit._, p. 120.]

But if Burbage at the outset was "nothing able to contribute any"
great sum of ready money towards the building of the first playhouse,
he did contribute other things equally if not more important. In the
first place, he conceived the idea, and he carried it as far towards
realization as his means allowed. In the second place, he planned the
building--its stage as well as its auditorium--to meet the special
demands of the actors and the comfort of the audience. This called for
bold originality and for ingenuity of a high order, for, it must be
remembered, he had no model to study--he was designing the first
structure of its kind in England.[61] For this task he was well
prepared. In the first place, he was an actor of experience; in the
second place, he was the manager of one of the most important troupes
in England; and, in the third place, he was by training and early
practice a carpenter and builder. In other words, he had exact
knowledge of what was needed, and the practical skill to meet those
needs.

[Footnote 61: Mr. E.K. Chambers (_The Mediaeval Stage_, I, 383, note 2;
II, 190, note 4) calls attention to a "theatre" belonging to the city
of Essex as early as 1548. Possibly the Latin document he cites
referred to an amphitheatre of some sort near the city which was used
for dramatic performances; at any rate "in theatro" does not
necessarily imply the existence of a playhouse (cf., for example, _op.
cit._, I, 81-82). There is also a reference (quoted by Chambers, _op.
cit._, II, 191, note 1, from _Norfolk Archaeology_, XI, 336) to a
"game-house" built by the corporation of Yarmouth in 1538 for dramatic
performances. What kind of house this was we do not know, but the
corporation leased it for other purposes, with the proviso that it
should be available "at all such times as any interludes or plays
should be ministered or played." Howes, in his continuation of Stow's
_Annals_ (1631), p. 1004, declares that before Burbage's time he
"neither knew, heard, nor read of any such theatres, set stages, or
playhouses as have been