1. See Colvin, H. M., ed., The History of the King's Works, vol. IV, Part II, 1485–1660 (London, 1982), pp. 242–3Google Scholar; hereafter cited as HKW. No records from Queen Mary's reign indicate that revels were presented at the palace; on one occasion in 1575 bears were baited there for Elizabeth: see Malone Society Collections VI (Oxford, 1962), pp. 9–10Google Scholar; hereafter cited as MSC.

2. MSC VI, pp. 38 ff.Google Scholar

3. The manuscript autobiography of Phineas Pette, BL Harl. 6279, p. 55; Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage (4 vols, Oxford, 1923), vol. IV, p. 124Google Scholar; Steele, M. S., Plays and Masques at Court During the Reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles (New Haven, 1926), p. 163Google Scholar; MSC VI, p. 48.Google Scholar

4. See Orrell, John, ‘The London Stage in the Florentine Correspondence, 1604–1618’, Theatre Research International, III, 3 (1978), 157–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; MSC VI, pp. 52–3.Google Scholar

5. MSC VI, p. 26.Google Scholar

6. Ibid., pp. 33, 34; accounts for 1621–2 and 1622–3.

7. Ibid., p. 47; The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, ed. Adams, J. Q. (New Haven, 1917), p. 53.Google Scholar

8. MSC VI, p. 50.Google Scholar

9. An anecdote concerning the size of the palace is related in a letter of June, 1625. ‘These priests have been very importunate to have the Chapel finished at St James's, but they find the king very slow in doing that. His answer (some told me) was, that if the queen's closet, where they now say mass, were not large enough, let them have it in the great chamber; and if the great chamber was not wide enough, they might use the garden; and if the garden would not serve their turn, then was the park the fittest place’. Birch, T. and Williams, R. F., The Court and Times of Charles I (2 vols, London, 1848), vol. I, p. 33.Google Scholar ‘The great chamber’, implicitly nominated by Charles as the largest room in the palace, was to become a venue for dramatic entertainment: see below.

10. Names for the various parts of the palace changed as their functions and associations changed. In the earliest surviving survey of St James's (1729), Colour Court is the ‘Great Court’. See reproductions in HKW, vol. V, 1660–1782 (London, 1976)Google Scholar, and The Seventh Volume of the Wren Society (Oxford, 1930).Google Scholar

11. The stair tower may be seen in the engraving titled ‘Comme La Reyne DAngleter… etc.’ in Jean Puget de la Serre's Histoire de l' Entrée (London, 1639)Google Scholar: reproduced in Sheppard, E., Memorials of St. James's Palace (2 vols. London, 1844), vol. I, p. 297.Google Scholar

12. Accounts of the precise number of rooms in the royal suite are not entirely in agreement: presumably the use of certain rooms, and possibly their structure, were changed to suit the needs of their occupant. Works accounts from Elizabeth's reign mention ‘y^e greate Chamber… y^e Bedchamb^r, presents, privie, and withdrawinge Chambers’ (PRO E/351, 3225, 1590–1). Four rooms are mentioned in the accounts of the funeral ceremonies for Prince Henry: see Birch, Thomas, The Life of Henry, Prince of Wales (London, 1760)Google Scholar, and Sheppard, op. cit., although Works accounts from 1603–4 speak of ‘the Prince his bedchamber, and the iiij^er roomes of the priuuy Closett kinges side’ (PRO E/351 3239). De la Serre's account begins with the ‘degré de pierre’ by which one ascends to ‘la grande salle des Gardes’. ‘La seconde salle a daix’ cornes next, then ‘la chambre priuee’. The fourth room, con-fusingly, is a ‘chambre de presence’, beyond which lay ‘La, chambre du Lict’ (Histoire de l' Entrée, 11r–12r).

13. See The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, London, vol. II (London, 1925), pp. 128–32Google Scholar; HKWIV, II.

14. PRO E/351 3230.

15. HKW V, p. 241Google Scholar; Seventh Vol. Wren Soc., p. 245.Google Scholar

16. PRO E/351 3245. Some doubt about its function, and further confirmation of its position, is revealed in the 1603–4 accounts which cover the repairs made for the new prince: in the accounts for laying mats the room is called ‘another great chamber next the great Chamber’ (PRO E/351 3239). The Guard Chamber and the Armoury Room are similar in size.

17. PRO E/351 3245. The height of the present flat ceiling is 16v′ – the room would not have been a great deal higher even if it were open to the roof.

18. PRO E/351 3255.

19. Cf. the plans for Florimène (Great Hall, Whitehall) and The Shepherds' Paradise (Paved Court Theatre, Somerset House, subsequently correctly identified by Orrell, John: ‘The Paved Court Theatre at Somerset House’, British Library Journal 3 (1977), 13–19)Google Scholar, reproduced in Leacroft, R., The Development of the English Playhouse (London, 1973), pp. 57, 62.Google Scholar

20. See MSC X (Oxford, 1977)Google Scholar, Introduction, pp. xix–xx.

21. Ibid.

22. Orrell, J., ‘The Theatre at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1605’, Shakespeare Survey 35 (1982), 129–40.Google Scholar

23. PRO E/351 3265.

24. Adams, , Herbert, pp. 53, 55–8.Google Scholar

25. Quoted in Sheppard, , op. cit., vol. I, p. 181.Google Scholar

26. Begins in 1644–5: PRO E/351 3273.

27. The ‘little gallery uppon Pillers’ with ‘Degrees for the musique’ which had been constructed in 1625–6 was probably built against the northern wall of the room, over the entrance door from the stairs, and it would have provided an acting space ‘above’, similar to the gallery of a hall screen, when plays began to be staged there. The ‘musique lofte’ had thirty turned balusters, some of which may have been employed on the stair which would have been needed to gain access to the gallery, ‘twoe long piller’ which probably were its main supports, and ‘one short piller for the same place’ (PRO E/351 3259). It is more likely to have been built across the 20v′ width of the room than along the sides, interrupted as they are by a fireplace on the west and by two windows on the east, and probable that it would be positioned opposite the point of royal entry, from the Presence Chamber on the south.

28. The figures on the 1729 survey give 19v′ 5″ × 39v′ 7″ for the King's Guard Room (Armoury) and 20v′ × 42v′ for the Prince's Guard Room (Guard). The dimensions of the Guard Room in its present state are 19v′ 9″ × 41v′ 6¾″.

29. In 1662–3 Humphrey Irens, carpenter, was paid for ‘makeing a doore way at y^e end of y^e Guard Chamber’ (PRO E/351 3276). Two doors are shown on the 1729 survey. The original entry was undoubtedly the eastern one, in line with both the head of the stairs and the opposite doorway into the Presence Chamber.

30. The Works Office was evidently capable of constructing access passageways to run through and under banks of seating. At Denmark (Somerset) House in January 1634 the dancers in The Faithful Shepherdess moved from the presence chamber, where the performance was given, into the Privy Chamber, to perform a second time, presumably, to an audience seated there. Since the Presence had ‘degrees round aboute the same roome’ there must have been some means of passing beneath them into the adjoining chamber (See MSC X, p. 47).Google Scholar

31. The Proxy or Love's Aftergame, an anonymous play first presented at Salisbury Court by the King's Revels company in 1634, then at St James's in February 1636, is not extant. The Governor, a King's Men play by the mysterious Sir Cornelius Formido, known only through its recorded performance at St James's on the 16 or 17 February 1637, may survive in a manuscript dated 1656: BL Add. Mss. 10419 (See Bentley, G. E., The Jacobean and Caroline Stage [7 vols, Oxford, 1941–1968], V, p. 1399Google Scholar; III, pp. 465–8; hereafter cited as JCS). For the purposes of this study I have included the evidence of this text in my analysis of staging requirements; although it bears certain marks of closet drama, the conventions within which it is conceived are unmistakably those of the Caroline theatre.

32. See note 27. It would also be used for the performance of music before and during the play, in the fashion of the private theatres; Cioli heard music with the comedy he witnessed in 1612 (see above).

33. Adams, , Herbert, p. 53.Google Scholar

34. The ‘above’ scenes in The Maid in the Mill, acted at St James's in November 1623, probably in the Council Chamber, seem similarly integral; they include a typically Fletcherian situational variant on Romeo and Juliet. Since there was probably no permanent gallery within the Council Chamber which might be employed during the performance of plays, the temporary tiring house there would have to have been built with a roof, gallery, and ladder in order to stage such scenes. It is possible that ‘a musicke and attyring house for plaies’, like that built at Whitehall in 1618–19 (MSC X, p. 29Google Scholar), was regularly a two-storey structure.

35. Vigetto and Ardelio ‘goe into a vault on ye one side of ye stage’ (BL Add. Mss. 10419, F.27r); four scenes later they enter, presumably from the tiring house, then once more ‘descend on th'one side of the stage’ (F.28v). Sabina is cast ‘into a vault on ye other side of the stage to Wigotto's worke’ (F.32r) and imprisoned there, subsequently being brought up to the stage again (F.42v). It must be said that such fussy and imprecise staging does not bear a convincing stamp of the playhouse.

36. The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon, ed. Bowers, F. (Cambridge, 1966–), vol. II (1970)Google Scholar; The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, ed. Glover, A. and Waller, A. R. (10 vols, Cambridge, 1905–1912), vol. V, 2.1, pp. 25–6.Google Scholar

37. Bowers, , ed. cit., vol. IV (1979), 5.1.68.Google Scholar

38. F.8r.

39. The staging of masques within plays was perhaps regarded by the actors as a calculated extra vagance, for which trained dancers were hired. The masques in The Tempest and The Maid's Tragedy might serve as examples.

40. Journals of the House of Commons, IV, p. 210aGoogle Scholar; JCS, VI, p. 288.Google Scholar

41. See JCS VI, pp. 284–8.Google Scholar Professor John Orrell has recently discussed the cost of building the Masquing House, and has pointed out that Hollar depicts it in the Long View of London: ‘Public and Court Theatres: Some Comparative Costs’, an unpublished paper presented at the meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, Minneapolis, April, 1982.

42. PRO E/351 3259.

43. Stowe, John, The Annales of England (London, 1592), p. 805Google Scholar; quoted in Jupp, E. B., A Historical Account of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters (London, 2nd ed., 1887), pp. 38–9.Google Scholar

44. The official celebrations of the wedding took place before the period during which the ‘great mounte’ was built, in June 1625 (JCS VII, p. 59Google Scholar). A second state occasion occurred in February 1626, when Charles was crowned in Westminster Abbey; Henrietta Maria, under the influence of Catholic scruples, did not take part in the ceremony. Is it possible that a less public coronation, with a ritual which met French objections, was subsequently performed at St James's? If so, it must have remained a well-kept secret, since no mention is made of it in contemporary letters or documents.

45. The major court entertainment of 1625–6 was performed at Somerset House on 21 February (Shrove Tuesday) 1626: the Queen and members of her French court acted L'Artenice by Racan (JCS IV, pp. 548–50Google Scholar; VII, p. 60). A stage, with machinery and scenes designed by Inigo Jones, was built at the palace. A contemporary manuscript note in an English edition of L'Artenice informs us that ‘Quand La pastorelle est finist La seine se change en vng mont desus Lequel sont assis les masques qui dessendent pour danser’. (See Parrish, J. and Jackson, W. A., ‘Racan's L'Artenice, an Addition to the English Canon’, Harvard Library Bulletin XIV [1960], 183–90.)Google Scholar A further possibility, therefore, is that the ‘great mounte’ at St James's may have been provided for rehearsals of the dancing while the evidently elaborate theatre at Somerset House was under construction.

46. On 1 December of that year Pepys visited St James's on Navy business: the committee met in the Council Chamber. See The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Warrington, J. (3 vols, London, 1952), vol. 1, p. 323.Google Scholar Four years later James had the room converted to a nursery (HKW V, p. 235Google Scholar); when Pepys visited the palace on similar business in July 1667 the meeting took place in ‘the Duke of York's chamber’ (Diary, vol. 3, p. 21 ).Google Scholar

47. Cf. the stage for the masques in the Banqueting House at Whitehall in 1634 which was enclosed and covered over ‘w ^th ffirpoles & dealebourds’; MSC X p. 46.Google Scholar

48. Music houses of various kinds were constructed for court performances between 1601–2 and the Civil War. The structure could be part of what was provided for the actors, as at Whitehall in 1618–19, when ‘a musicke and attyring house for plaies’ was built (MSC X, p. 29Google Scholar). In 1610–11 the Revels Office provided ‘Painted clothes for the musicke house and Stage at the Courte’ (PRO E/351 2805).

49. See the plans for The Shepherd's Paradise and Florimène, and also the descriptions by Campion of music for The Lord Hay's Masque and The Lords' Masque, as discussed by R. Leacroft, op. cit., pp. 61–3.

50. ‘Ptions’ are frequently mentioned in preparing rooms for plays: see, e.g., Whitehall, , 1566–1567Google Scholar; Greenwich, , 1572–1573Google Scholar; Court, Hampton, 1573–1574Google Scholar; Whitehall, , 1596–1597, 1601–1602Google Scholar; Nonsuch, , 1631–1632Google Scholar (MSC X, pp. 4, 6, 16, 18, 43).Google Scholar

51. Brief Discourse concerning the Three Chief Principles of Magnificent Building (London, 1662), p. 42Google Scholar; quoted in Orrell, John, ‘Buckingham's Patronage of the Dramatic Arts: the Crowe Accounts’, Records of Early English Drama Newsletter, 1980: 2, 8–17.Google Scholar

52. John Webb's design for the proscenium and scenes for the play would fit the Council Chamber almost without alteration: the proscenium, at 22v′ 4″, is slightly wider than the room, but its height (14v′) and the depth of the stage (15v′ at Rutland House, 18v′ at the Cockpit in Drury Lane) are of a scale to suit such a space. The drawing (at Chatsworth) is reproduced in Strong, R., Festival Designs by Inigo Jones (1967), plate 107.Google Scholar The plan and elevation of the stage (BL Lansdowne 1171), it has been suggested by Professor Orrell, must be for the second performance of The Siege of Rhodes at the Cockpit in Drury Lane, since the stage is shown as being three feet deeper than that at Rutland House (unpublished paper presented at the meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, Toronto, 1978). A masque house requires a space in front of the scenic stage for the dancers, but an area proportioned to the dimensions of the room could be made available while retaining seating for an audience similar in capacity to that already suggested for plays. A scenic stage fifteen feet in depth, to take the dimensions of Davenant's temporary theatre in Rutland House, could be accompanied by a dancing floor of the same depth, leaving roughly twelve feet at the end of the room opposite the stage to accommodate degrees and state; the width of the dancing area would be determined by the dimensions of the degrees, and possibly of the ‘twoe roomes for the Musick’, which may have flanked it along the side walls.