subsequent period this prohibition was dispensed with by paying a fee to
the Master of the Revels.

It was called the Globe from its sign, which was a figure of Hercules, or
Atlas, supporting a globe, under which was written, _Totus mundus agit
histrionem_, (All the world acts a play):--and not as many have
conjectured, that the Globe though hexagonal at the outside, was a rotunda
within, and that it might have derived its name from its circular form.

This theatre was burnt down June 29, 1613, but it was rebuilt with greater
splendour in the following year. The Cut represents the original theatre.
The account of this accident is given by Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter
dated July 2, 1613.[3] "Now to let matters of state sleepe, I will
entertain you at the present with what happened this week at the Banks
side. The King's players had a new play called All is True, representing
some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth, which set forth
with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty even to the
matting of the stage; the knights of the order with their Georges and
Garter, the guards with their embroidered coats, and the like: sufficient
in truth within awhile to make greatness very familiar, if not ridiculous.
Now King Henry making a Masque at the Cardinal Wolsey's house, and certain
cannons being shot off at his entry, some of the paper or other stuff,
wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where being
thought at first but idle smoak, and their eyes more attentive to the show,
it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming within less
than an hour the whole house to the very ground. This was the fatal period
of that virtuous fabrick, wherein yet nothing did perish but _wood_ and
_straw_, and a few forsaken cloaks; only one man had his breeches set on
fire, that would perhaps have broyled him, if he had not by the benefit of
a provident wit, put it out with a bottle of ale."