Pre-performance entertainment at Shakespeare’s Globe.
A musical entertainment before a performance of William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado about Nothing at the reconstructed Globe Theatre opened in 1997. The modern theatre stands just a few yards away from the theatre where Tomas Platter watched Julius Caesar in September 1599. Sadly, the first ‘Globe’ burnt down in 1613. Note the S-shaped wind instrument, a serpent, carried by the musician on the left.
Part 1 of 2
ON September 21st after lunch, about two o’clock, I and my party crossed the water, and there in the house with the thatched roof witnessed an excellent performance of the tragedy of the first Emperor Julius Caesar with a cast of some fifteen people; when the play was over, they danced very marvellously and gracefully together as is their wont, two dressed as men and two as women.
The playhouses are so constructed that they play on a raised platform, so that everyone has a good view. There are different galleries and places, however, where the seating is better and more comfortable and therefore more expensive.
Précis
In 1599, Swiss doctor Thomas Platter visited London. In his journal, he recorded that in September he crossed the Thames to attend a play at a theatre in Southwark (apparently the Globe) where he enjoyed a performance of what would seem to have been William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, followed by some particularly fine dancing. (53 / 60 words)
Part Two
The Assassination of Julius Caesar, by William Holmes Sullivan (1836-1908).
A moment from Act III, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, where the great general and de facto of Rome is assassinated by Brutus and his fellow conspirators.
For whoever cares to stand below only pays one English penny, but if he wishes to sit he enters by another door, and pays another penny, while if he desires to sit in the most comfortable seats which are cushioned, where he not only sees everything well, but can also be seen, then he pays yet another English penny at another door. And during the performance food and drink are carried round the audience, so that for what one cares to pay one may also have refreshment.
The actors are most expensively and elaborately costumed; for it is the English usage for eminent lords or Knights at their decease to bequeath and leave almost the best of their clothes to their serving men, which it is unseemly for the latter to wear, so that they offer them then for sale for a small sum to the actors.
Précis
Platter went on to explain that theatre tickets were priced at a penny, rising to thruppence for the most confortable and fashionable seats. Refreshments were also on sale for all. The actors’ impressive costumes, he discovered, had been left to servants by their late masters. The servants could scarcely wear gentlemen’s clothes, so they sold them to the theatres. (59 / 60 words)
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