Note 1623 — BOOK IV THE PLAY-HOUSES (continued 4)

Text in Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 311, and Harrison, iv. 323, from City Repertory, xxxiv, f. 38v. The two petitions of the officials and inhabitants are in M. S. C. i. 90, from Remembrancia, v. 28, 29. They are undated, but can be identified from a recital in the order. The officials allege ‘that whereas in November 1596 divers both honorable persons and others then inhabiting the said precinct made knowne to the Lordes and others of the privie Counsell, what inconveniencies were likelie to fall vpon them, by a common Play-house which was then preparinge to bee erected there, wherevpon their Honours then forbadd the vse of the said howse for playes, as by the peticion and indorsemente in aunswere thereof may appeare.... Nevertheles ... the owner of the said play-house doth vnder the name of a private howse (respectinge indeed private comoditie only) convert the said howse to a publique play-house.’ They dwell on the inconvenience caused by the congested streets and the difficulty of getting to church ‘the ordinary passage for a great part of the precinct aforesaid being close by the play house dore’.