r which resulted was completely roofed, was
lighted by candles, and had seats in the pit as well as in the
galleries--when there were galleries. As soon as such theaters were
built, admission was, of course, no longer by invitation, but the
prices were so much higher than those of the public theaters that the
audiences remained much more select. The first of these theaters was
the Blackfriars, the remodeled hall of the former monastery of the
Blackfriars, done over by Burbage in 1596. Others {46} were those in
which the 'Children of Paul's' acted, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury
Court. The Blackfriars was at first under royal patronage, the actors
being the 'Children of the Chapel Royal.' These choir boys were
carefully trained in acting and dancing as well as singing, and were
subsidized by royalty, so that their performances tended to be much
more spectacular than those of the public theaters. The performances
at the Blackfriars seem to have retained this characteristic even after
1608, when Shakespeare's company took over the theater. Probably
because of the patronage and interest of royalty, it was in the private
theaters that painted scenes, already used in court masques, were first
introduced. Thus these roofed theaters are really the forerunners, so
far as England is concerned, of our modern playhouses.

+Effect of Stage Conditions on the Drama+.--When studied in the light
of Elizabethan stage conditions, many characteristics of the plays
written by Shakespeare and his contemporaries cease to be surprising or
puzzling. A complete conception of all the effects which these
conditions had upon the drama can only be gained by a careful study of
all the plays. Here, moreover, we are obliged to pass over many points
of more general character, such as the impossibility of representing
night by darkness when the performances were given by daylight in a
theater open to the sun. Two or three are, however, especially
important. For instance, since it was possible to leave many scenes
indefinitely localized, and since there was no necessity of long pauses
for the change of heavy scenery, the dramatists were not limited as
ours are to a {47} comparatively small number of scenes. This was an
advantage in that it gave great freedom and variety to the action; but
it was also a disadvantage in that it led to a scattering of effect and
to looseness of construction. So in _Antony and Cleopatra_ there are
forty-two scen