Shakespeare's Globe Centre (USA) Centre for Globe Research

Rebuilding Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare and the Globe

The stage of the rebuilt Globe theatre
during the Prologue Season of 1996.

William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, among the finest for the English theatre. They have remained in production for 400 years. His words have moulded our civilisation. His phrases and quotations are the furniture of our minds.

In 1596 William Shakespeare's company converted a large hall, the old Blackfriars monastery which had been used by Parliament, into a theatre. They were, however, prevented from using it by the wealthy local residents. They therefore dismantled their old home, the
Theatre in Shoreditch, reusing the timbers to build the Globe on Bankside.

By the time they had recovered the use of the Blackfriars in 1608, the Globe had become so popular with the actors as well as London's playgoers that the company decided to keep it. From then on they used the indoor Blackfriars in winter and the Globe in summer, leaving one theatre empty while they played in the other.

There were several other companies hoping to get a foothold in London at an approved playhouse, but Shakespeare's company kept both for themselves. The actors liked it so much that, when the Globe burned down on 17 July, 1613, they paid to have it rebuilt more splendidly than ever. But it eventually fell into disuse in favour of Blackfriars across the river, was converted-to tenements and finally closed in 1644.

The Globe was built while Shakespeare was completing Henry V. His next play Julius Caesar was performed at the Globe in 1599. As You Like It was the first play Shakespeare wrote to celebrate the completion of the new theatre. Jaques's famous 'All the world's a stage' speech translates the Latin motto, totus mundis agit histrionem, that gave the Globe its name. Hamlet, which opened there in late 1600, includes jokes about 'this distracted Globe', and picks up the theatre's emblem of Hercules carrying the celestial globe on his shoulders.

Shakespeare's most direct reference to the form of his own theatre was made in the Prologue speech of Henry V: 'Or may we cram/Within this wooden O the very casques/ That did affright the air at Agincourt?'

Questions? Email the Research Archive(globe@deans.umd.edu)
Updated on: 1 March 2002