CHAPTER II.

A THEATRE OF SHAKESPEARE'S DAY.

Rude Carts as Primitive Stages--Followed by Stone Theatres with Pits for Stages--Theatres of the Elizabethan Period-- Sunday Theatres in the "Golden Age"--Description of the Globe in Shakespeare's Time--Plays in the Times of Henry VIII.-- Sign-boards as Scenes--Anecdote of Charles II.--The "Wits," "Clever" Men and the Vulgar Crowd--Pipes, Tankards, and Gossip 28-36