• THIS MONTH IN… 1613
ANNIVERSARIES THAT HAVE MADE HISTORY
The Globe theatre burns to the ground
Words: Emma Slattery Williams
In the summer of 1613, William Shakespeare was at the height of his fame. He had written most of his best-loved plays and audiences still flocked to see his work being performed. However, on 29 June that year, one of his performances took the popular phrase ‘burning down the house’ a little too literally.
On that warm summer’s day, Henry VIII, or All is True was being watched by eager theatregoers at the Globe in Southwark, London. As per the script, the actor (or ‘player’, as they were known) in the role of King Henry VIII made a surprise entrance on the stage at the end of the first act, accompanied by cannon fire. However, during this performance, a stray piece of flaming rag or paper from one of theatre’s cannons landed on the Globe’s thatched roof. At first, everyone was so engrossed in the play in front of them that no one noticed that flames were engulfing the theatre, assuming the smoke was all part of the show’s special effects. Within an hour, however, the entire structure was ablaze.
The Globe was a polygonal (many-sided) building, with an open-air yard and tiered galleries around the sides. Due to the nature of its design, most of the assembled crowd only had two narrow doors to make their escape as the timber burned around them. Soon, the theatre had been reduced to ashes, with the hot weather hastening its demise.
“Soon, the theatre had been reduced to ashes, with the hot weather hastening its demise”
Burning breeches
Fortunately, everyone was able to evacuate the premises swiftly, with politician Sir Henry Wotton giving an eyewitness account of the disaster in a letter a few days later. In it, he described how the audience were clearly enjoying themselves too much to notice the fire at first “as their eyes [were] more attentive to the show”. He then wrote how the fire “kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house to the very grounds…nothing did perish but wood and straw and a few forsaken cloaks”.
There were no reports of serious injuries, although Wotton explained how one theatregoer made a lucky escape: “Only one man had his breeches set on fire that would perhaps have broiled him if he had not by the benefit of a provident wit put it out with bottle ale.” The theatre’s destruction was likely the talk of London for the next few weeks, and an anonymous street ballad was even printed about the incident the following day, each of its eight verses ending with “Oh sorrow, pitiful sorrow, and yet all this is true” – a reference to the alternative title of the play that had been performed. Although it was clearly an upsetting ordeal for those who witnessed the blaze, one advantage of the event is that it gives us the exact date on which one of Shakespeare’s works was originally performed – something that historians often struggle to pinpoint.
The play’s the thing
The fire, which also destroyed a taphouse attached to the venue, would have been a major blow to Londoners. Watching a show at the theatre was one of the most popular leisure pursuits in Elizabethan England, and by the turn of the 17th century, the city had been blessed with no fewer than four public theatres. These put on a vast range of productions, from moral and religious plays to comedies and tragedies.
But perhaps the biggest disappointment would have been experienced by William Shakespeare himself. The Globe was likely a source of great personal pride, and the result of years of hard work. During the 1590s, the Warwickshire-born playwright had made a name for himself as one of London’s most popular dramatic talents, becoming a writer, actor and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Not only did the group have the influential Lord Chamberlain Henry Carey as its patron (hence its name), but its members included two of the most acclaimed acting talents of the era, William Kempe and Richard Burbage.
After performing at a venue in Shoreditch simply known as ‘The Theatre’, the company became successful enough to fund a new home in Southwark, and thus the Globe was born. According to one story, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men secretly dismantled The Theatre (which was part of an ownership dispute) in the dead of night and put the timber in storage, allowing it to be resurrected in its new guise across the Thames in 1599. Being outside the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor of London meant that the Globe could operate virtually unhindered – much like the wild taverns, brothels and animal-baiting venues that were also sited along the South Bank.
The show must go on
A year after the fateful blaze of 1613, a second version of the Globe was built on the same foundations as the original theatre, and so as not to tempt fate, was built with a tiled roof. As the company (now known as the King’s Men, after James VI and I) had grown in wealth and popularity, it could afford for this theatre to be more extravagantly decorated – though the size and overall shape would remain the same.
By the time of the rebuild, Shakespeare had mostly retired from playwriting and had sold his shares in the King’s Men – possibly a decision hastened by the heartbreak caused by the fire.
Indeed, in the prologue of his final play, The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote alongside John Fletcher, there is a poignant reference to “our losses”, which appears to be an allusion to the incident.
But the second incarnation of the Globe would also prove relatively shortlived. On 6 September 1642, the Globe – along with every other theatre in London – was closed by the Long Parliament, which had first met two years earlier. It described theatre as being of “lascivious mirth and levity”, and incompatible with the civil war raging between Parliament and King Charles I.
However, the decision would have certainly pleased one group of people: the Puritans. The strict Protestants saw theatregoing as both immoral and a distraction from religious worship, and decried the crime and excessive drinking that the venues attracted (not to mention the bawdy content of the plays themselves). As the Globe was no longer in use, it was demolished a few years later and the land was sold. The ban on theatres wouldn’t be lifted again until the Restoration and the accession of King Charles II to the throne in 1660.
In 1997, a faithful reconstruction of the first Globe theatre was built around 200 metres from the original site, which today stages Shakespeare’s plays, as well as many other productions. It is the only building in the UK capital that is permitted to have a thatched roof – ever since the Great Fire of London of 1666, such roofs have been banned in every corner of the city.
BBC 100
Every month throughout 2022, we’ll be commemorating the BBC’s 100th birthday with a trip down memory lane...
21 June 1937
Wimbledon is televised
After Britain’s Fred Perry wins three consecutive Wimbledon singles titles between 1934 and 1936, the BBC is keen to capitalise on the public’s growing appetite for tennis. So, in 1937, the broadcaster begins showing TV highlights from the present tournament, with a match between Bunny Austin and George Lyttleton Rogers the first to be transmitted. Don Budge (pictured) and Dorothy Round later go on to clinch the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively.
OTHER ANNIVERSARIES
A look back at other events that have taken place in June throughout history
7 June 1329
Robert the Bruce dies
Little more than a year after leading his countrymen to victory against the English during the First Scottish War of Independence, Robert the Bruce dies of an unknown illness and is buried in Dunfermline Abbey.
In accordance with his wishes, his heart is removed from his body and taken on crusade, before being returned to Scotland, where it is interred in Melrose Abbey.
19–24 June 1667
The Dutch raid the Medway
Two years into the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Dutch naval forces make their way up the Medway in southeast England. They attack Sheerness Fort before advancing on Chatham Docks, where they capture HMS Royal Charles – King Charles II’s flagship. It is towed back to the Dutch port of Hellevoetsluis, where it is showed off as a tourist attraction.
