arry, if he drop but sixpence at the door, and will censure a
crown's worth, it is thought there is no conscience or justice in
that." It is probable, however, that the dramatist was referring to
the prices charged at the first representation of his play. Sixpence
might then be the lowest admission; on other occasions, twopence, or
even one penny. The prologue to "Henry VIII." states:

Those that come to see
Only a show or two, and so agree,
The play may pass; if they be still and willing,
I'll undertake, may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours.

And there is evidence that in Shakespeare's time one shilling was the
price of admission to the best rooms or boxes. Sir Thomas Overbury
writes in his "Characters," published in 1614: "If he have but twelve
pence in his purse he will give it for the best room in a playhouse."
And the "Gull's Horn Book," 1609, counsels, "At a new play you take up
the twelvepenny room next the stage, because the lords and you may
seem to be hail-fellow well met!"

But it is plain that the tariff of admission was subject to frequent
alterations, and that as money became more abundant, the managers
gradually increased their charges. In the "Scornful Lady" "eighteen
pence" is referred to as though it were the highest price of admission
to the Blackfriars Theatre. Sir John Suckling writes, about the middle
of the seventeenth century:

The sweat of learned Jonson's brain,
And gentle Shakespeare's easier strain,
A hackney-coach conveys you to,
In spite of all that rain can do,
And for your eighteenpence you sit,
The lord and judge of all fresh wit.

It must always be doubtful, however, as to the precise portion of the
theatre these writers intended to designate. As Mr. Collier suggests,
the discordances between the authorities on this question arise,
probably, from the fact that "different prices were charged at
different theatres at different periods."

In our early theatres, the arrangements for receiving the money of the
playgoers were rather of a confused kind. There would seem to have
been several doors, one within the other, at any of which visitors
might tender their admission money. It was understood that he who,
disapproving the performance, withdrew after the termination of the
first act of the play, was entitled to receive back the amount he had
paid for his entrance. This system led to much brawling and fraud. The