Certainly the inns offered advantages to the actors; they were
meeting-places for the public, frequented by lords and other persons of
distinction; probably the companies paid next to nothing for the use of
them. In themselves they afforded good room for the audience, with a
natural pit for ordinary people in the yard, and with more comfortable
"boxes" for the more distinguished part of the audience on the
surrounding balconies and at the windows facing the yard.
On the other hand, these inn-theatres had their drawbacks. In the first
place, the actors were not on their own ground, and so, after all, they
were only tolerated. Secondly, it must have been very difficult for them
to keep to regular prices, and especially to secure the payment of the
entrance fee, as they had probably to collect the money during or after
the performance, thus depending on the liberality of the public for
their remuneration. And finally, worst of all, they were led into
quarrels with the lord mayor and with the citizens.
Indeed, it is not unlikely that these performances in the inns caused a
good deal of noise and disturbance in the quarters where they took
place, and that the joyous, but by no means refined or quiet, "pit,"
when going home, excited by one of Tarlton's jigs and by the strong ale
of the inn, was not animated by very respectful feelings toward their
sour Puritan fellow-citizens, who were scandalized as they watched
"merry London" crowding past their windows.
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