The actors travelled in two covered wagons or coaches, and when they
arrived at the inn they were drawn into the inn yard, while two members
of the party went out into the town or village vigorously beating a drum
to announce the arrival of the actors, almost the entire resident
population, men, women, and children, following them to the inn yard to
listen to the play, which custom, he said, was referred to by
Shakespeare in one of his plays in the passage:
The Actors have come and the rout are following!
The covers were then taken off the top of the wagons and placed round
the sides of the wheels, to act as screens while the actors changed
their dresses, which had to be done underneath the coaches. Meanwhile
boards, kept at the inns specially for that purpose, were fastened over
the tops of the wagons, and on these the actors performed their plays.
The squire, or lord of the manor, had the right to see the plays free of
charge, and when he came, a bar of wood was placed across the entrance
to one of the horse-boxes to keep off the spectators who thronged the
inn yard. From these people the actors collected what money they could,
while those who were better able to pay were accommodated on the
platform above the stables, which commanded a better view of the play.
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