From a letter of Mr. John Chamberlaine to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated July 8,
1613, in which this accident is likewise mentioned, we learn that the
theatre had only two doors.[4] "The burning of the Globe or playhouse on
the Bankside on St. Peter's day cannot escape you; which fell out by a
peal of chambers, (that I know not upon what occasion were to be used in
the play,) the tampin or stopple of one of them lighting in the thatch
that covered the house, burn'd it down to the ground in less than two
hours, with a dwelling-house adjoyning; and it was a great marvaile and a
fair grace of God that the people had so little harm, having but _two
narrow doors_ to get out."

In 1613, was entered in the Stationers' books, "A doleful ballad of the
General Conflagration of the famous Theatre called the Globe."

Taylor, the water poet, commemorates the event in the following lines:

"As gold is better that in fire's tried,
So is the Bankside Globe, that late was burn'd;
For where before it had a thatched hide,
Now to a stately theatre 'tis turn'd;
Which is an emblem that great things are won;
By those that dare through greatest dangers run."

It is also alluded to in some verses by Ben Jonson, entitled, "An
Execration upon Vulcan," from which it appears that Ben Jonson was in the
theatre when it was burnt.

This theatre was open in summer and the performances took place by
daylight; the King's company usually began to play in the month of May.