But this result was not obtained without considerable expense.
Though we are not so fortunate as to possess a drawing of the outside or
inside of The Theatre, about the shape of which, therefore, we must
partly draw our conclusions from analogy with other playhouses, we are
comparatively well informed as to its outward history till it was pulled
down, in 1598-1599.
Thus we know that the enterprise cost James Burbage six hundred
sixty-six pounds thirteen shillings fourpence, a considerable sum in
those days, which would be equal to about eightfold that amount in our
own time.
This money Burbage borrowed of his father-in-law, John Braynes, to whom
he had to pay high interest, and it represented only the cost of the
building itself, for he did not buy the ground on which it stood. This
ground belonged to one Giles Allen, and in the contract between him and
Burbage it was settled, among other points, that if, in the course of
the first ten years after the drawing up of the lease, Burbage spent a
sum of two hundred pounds or more on the building, he should have a
right to remove it after the expiration of the lease.
The lease was drawn up in the year 1576, for a period of twenty-one
years. In spite of many pecuniary difficulties, which the heavy rent and
high interest naturally entailed on Burbage--who for some time even
seems to have been obliged to mortgage his entire property--and
innumerable annoyances from the Puritans, Burbage succeeded in keeping
his theatre above water till the expiration of the lease and till his
own death, which occurred in 1597.
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