117111 SITE OF THE GLOBE PLAYHOUSE.
Tas old controversy as to the site of Burbage and Shakespeare's famous theatre has been sealed in a masterly pamphlet, The Site of the Globe Playhouse, Southwark, written by Mr. W. IV. Braines, principal assistant to the Clerk of the London County Council, and published by the Council. (P. S. King. Is. 6d.) As a piece of topographical research, nothing could be better. It is agreed that the Globe stood in Maiden Lane, now called Park Street, between Southwark Bridge Road and the South-Eastern Railway. The question is whether it stood on the south side of the street, as the memorial erected by the Shakespeare Reading Society affirms, or whether it stood on the north side, between the street and the river at Bankside, as Dr. C. W. Wallace, of Nebraska University, confidently asserts. What Mr. Brains has done is to show, by an exhaustive examination of local records, wills and leases, first, that the Globe could not have stood on the north side of Maiden Lane ; secondly, that it stood on the south side of the street on a site now partly covered by the Southwark Bridge Road ; and thirdly, that Dr. Wallace was misled by the original lease of the Globe site, the engrosser of which described the site from a plan which had the north at the bottom instead of at the top, and thus reversed all the boundaries. Mr. Braines's proof of these propositions. is an admirable example of how to collect and marshal topographical evidence. It shows, too, how rich are the London municipal records, and inspires us with the hope that a good many more references to Shakespeare may yet be found. The Globe Theatre was built and opened in 1599, and was burnt in 1613. It was rebuilt soon afterwards, and was used until the Civil War put an end to all theatrical enterprise. In 1644 the theatre was demolished and the site covered with buildings. Part of the Globe site is now included in Messrs. Barclay and Perkins's brewery, and part of it is under the Southwark Bridge Road. Mr. G. Topham Forrest, the architect to the Council, appends an interesting essay on the architecture of Shakespeare's Globe, illustrated with drawings and plans. This is necessarily con- jectural, but it is plausible. Mr. Forrest does not think that the Globe was a circular building, because it was far cheaper to erect a polygonal structure of sixty or seventy feet in diameter which, from a distance, would look like the " Wooden 0 " of " Henry V."
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