FOUR hundred years after the event seems a convenient time to ask whether the accession of James I on March 24, 1603, affected the schemes of people who built (or, more accurately, caused to be built) the professional London playhouses that comprised the Shakespearean stage. This essay begins with a general review of the building of all twenty-three of them, from 1567 to 1629, and concludes with comments on the first scheme in hand after the accession.
Curiously diverse people ...