Records of Early English Drama is pleased to announce the launch of Early Modern London Theatres (EMLoT), version 3, phase 1, which introduces records of the first and second Blackfriars theatres (1576, 1596), the Whitefriars theatre (1609), and Porter's Hall (1613). 

This latest work adds 280 new events to the collection, extending EMLoT's purview to the theatres located within London's city bounds, introducing boys' companies to the roster of troupes, and offering up the records of one of early modern London's most celebrated theatres. 

Most famously associated with Shakespeare and the King's Men, the Blackfriars theatre was already an established part of the London scene by the latter decades of the sixteenth century. Blackfriars I was the brainchild of the musician Richard Farrant, first established to feature a troupe of boy players drawn from the choristers of Windsor Chapel (led by Farrant), and the Chapel Royal (led by William Hunnis). The theatre opened its doors in 1576, housed in a converted tenement on the grounds of what was once a Dominican priory. In its brief eight-year history, the playhouse boasted productions by such sixteenth-century stage luminaries as John Lyly, and produced in its own hefty drama of lawsuits. In the 1590s, James Burbage acquired a piece of Blackfriars property and a built a new space, which he leased to Henry Evans for a joint venture with Nathaniel Giles (Hunnis's successor as master of the Chapel Royal). In its earliest incarnation, Blackfriars II featured performances by a boys' troupe known as the Children of the Chapel, made up of choristers and grammar school boys. By 1608 – following another round of lawsuits and the wane of public enchantment with boy companies – the King's Men had taken over the playhouse and until the closing of the theatres in 1642 the Blackfriars remained one of London's premiere playing spaces.

The Whitefriars enjoyed a comparatively fleeting tenure. Like the first Blackfriars, the venue was established as a private indoor theater featuring boy companies – first the King's Revels boys, and then the children of the Queen's Revel – but later the space was also to be used by the Lady Elizabeth's men. When the theatre closed its doors around 1613, owner Philip Rosseter turned to a new venture at Porter's Hall, but the project faltered in less than two years under the force of local protest.

Collectively, the documents of the Blackfriars, Whitefriars, and Porter's Hall represent more than a century in the history of the early stage, from legal records that reflect a community's dismayed response to the repurposing of traditionally religious spaces during the 1540s, to nostalgic interregnum meditations on the glory days of the active stage. Consistent themes tie the stories of the playhouses together: ongoing tensions between the neighbourhood residents and theatrical prospectors and audiences; the recurring threat of plague, spawning closures and more closures (theatrical contracts drafted to account for closures). 
 
As it currently stands, EMLoT's bibliographic record of these three London venues draws on over seventy published sources, spanning more than three hundred years of scholarship, and offering transcriptions from over two hundred primary sources, in print and manuscript – plays, pamphlets, chronicles, letters, licenses, legal documents. The efforts of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century editors and scholars are represented here – including early editions of Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger, of the letters of the Earl of Strafford, and histories and documentary collections by Warton, Chalmers, and Malone – and of the key figures in twentieth-century theatre history – Wallace, Feuillerat, Chambers, and later, Wickham, Berry, and Ingram.* We have attempted to provide the most accurate citations available for all primary materials, correcting and updating the information given by our transcription sources where necessary (and possible).  

EMLoT, version 3, phase 2, comprehends the remaining theatres located within the bounds of the city of London: St Paul's I and II (1575, 1599), and the theatres known as the 'Four Inns'  – the Bel Savage Inn (1575), the Bell Inn (1576), the Bull Inn (1578), the Cross Keys Inn (1578) – as well as several other smaller and occasional venues scattered across the city. This work is slated for completion in 2022. 

We gratefully acknowledge the British Academy for its generous support of EMLoT research. 

Click the link below to check out EMLoT in its most recent version:

https://emlot.library.utoronto.ca/ 

*EMLoT only abstracts records based on transcriptions from original documents, so not all recent or significant scholarship in the field will necessarily be represented here. EMLoT is a work in progress, and collections already in the database will continue to be updated and revised. We welcome all comments, questions, and suggestions. 

Tanya Hagen
EMLoT Editor and Bibliographer