About 1576 Burbadge built his theatre in the
Liberty of the Blackfriars--a precinct in which civic authority was at
any rate disputed. Within a year or so The Curtain and The Theatre,
both in Shoreditch, were also opened to the public. The Mayor and
Corporation persistently endeavoured to assert authority over these
establishments, but without much practical result. It may be added
that the Blackfriars Theatre was permanently closed in 1647, part of
the ground on which it stood, adjoining Apothecaries' Hall, still
bearing the name of Playhouse Yard; that The Theatre in Shoreditch was
abandoned about 1598 (it was probably a wooden erection, and in twenty
years might have become untenantable); and that The Curtain fell into
disuse at the beginning of the reign of Charles I.
The prices of admission to the theatres varied according to the
estimation in which they were held, and were raised on special
occasions. "Twopenny rooms," or galleries, were to be found at the
larger and more popular theatres. In Goffe's "Careless Shepherdess,"
1656, acted at the Salisbury Court Theatre, appear the lines:
I will hasten to the money-box
And take my shilling out again;
I'll go to the Bull or Fortune, and there see
A play for twopence and a jig to boot.
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