Swan Theatre

Swan Theatre, London, on Bankside in Southwark, in Paris Garden. The fourth theatre to be built in London, it was a circular building constructed in about 1595. Although it did not have a very exciting history, a good deal is known about it, as Johannes de Witt, a Dutch visitor to London in 1596, sent a sketch of its interior, probably made from memory, to a friend in Utrecht, who copied it into his commonplace book. This is the only known drawing of an Elizabethan theatre interior and presents many interesting and puzzling features. According to de Witt's account of it, it held about 3,000, and was of wood on a brick foundation with flint and mortar work between wooden pillars painted to resemble marble. It served Henslowe as a model for the Hope, and is frequently mentioned in his diary, but it had no regular company, and was used as often for sports and fencing as for plays. In 1597 trouble arose over the presentation by Pembroke's Men of The Isle of Dogs, a ‘seditious’ comedy by Jonson and Nashe, which landed Jonson and others in prison. The company was broken up, the leading actors joined the Admiral's Men at the Rose, and the Swan was used only intermittently. In 1602 an infuriated audience wrecked the interior after paying for an entertainment which never materialized. The last play to be seen there was Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1611), performed by Lady Elizabeth's Men. When the Hope Theatre opened in 1614 the Swan fell into disuse, though it was still being used in 1620 for prize-fights.