the stage and a standing audience, surrounded by three tiers of seated galleries. The first performance was probably Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar in late 1599.

To pay for the cost of the new building the Burbage brothers offered members of the cast shares and four of them, including Shakespeare, took up the offer. About fifteen of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed at the Globe including Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, Pericles, Othello and the Taming of the Shrew. Hamlet was first performed at the Globe in 1601 with Richard Burbage in the title role. The building, located at what is now the southern end of Southwark Bridge, was destroyed by fire in 1613 but rebuilt the following year. It was eventually demolished in 1644. (A smallerreplica version, which opened in 1997, stands near the original site).

Competition between the Globe and the Rose prompted Henslowe and Alleyn to look for a new site. They hired Peter Street, the carpenter of the Globe, to build the Fortune theatre at Golden Lane, Finsbury Fields. Unlike the previous playhouses it was a square building. That venue continued until closed in 1642 by the puritanical government authorities after the Civil War. Becoming wealthy from his theatrical ventures, Alleyn founded Dulwich College in 1619.

Audiences at playhouses such as the Globe came from all strata of society, from the criminal and working-classes to the nobility, each tending to watch from their own separate areas of the theatre. Being open-air and, without the convenience of modern lighting and heating, performances took