Note 1097 — BOOK IV THE PLAY-HOUSES

Stowe, Survey (ed. Kingsford, ii. 262, 369), ends his account of Holywell in the 1598 edition, ‘And neare therevnto are builded two publique houses for the acting and shewe of Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories, for recreation. Whereof the one is called the Courtein, the other the Theatre: both standing on the South-west side towards the field’. This is omitted from the 1603 edition, probably not so much, as has been suggested, because Stowe shared the Puritan dislike of the stage, as because in 1603 the Theatre was gone and the Curtain little used. Stowe’s draft (c. 1598) in Harl. MS. 538 runs, ‘Neare adjoyning are builded two houses for the shewe of Activities, Comedies, tragedies and histories, for recreation. The one of them is named the Curtayn in Holy Well, the other the Theatre.’ No contemporary map shows the Theatre, although that of Agas (c. 1561) gives a good idea of the Halliwell district before it was built. The representation from the seventeenth-century ‘Ryther’ map, given as the Theatre by Baker, 135, is presumably the Curtain.