The many fighting-scenes in the plays of the time, in Shakespeare's
among the rest, the wrestling-match in _As You Like It_, the duel
between Macduff and Macbeth, the fencing-scene between Hamlet and
Laertes, no doubt afforded opportunities for magnificent displays of
skill in the use of arms and in physical exercises, and we may be sure
that the spectators followed those scenes with an interest which was
perhaps more of a sporting than of a literary nature.
It was according to a well-calculated plan, therefore, that the elder
Burbage erected his playhouse north of the city, in Finsbury Fields,
where from ancient times the people had been accustomed to see and
practise military exercises and other sports, and where the soldiers
were still in the habit of practising archery and musketry.
And it was with equally sound calculation that he gave the theatre its
particular form, which remained essentially the same in all the
playhouses of the Shakespearean period.
Before the establishment of the permanent theatres there had long
existed amphitheatres for the performance of fights between animals, the
so-called "rings." These rings--the auditorium as well as the
arena--were open all round, and the seats, like those of the ancient
Greek theatre, were placed according to the natural formation of the
ground.
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