The exhibitions appear to have been calculated for the lower class of
people, and to have been more frequent than those at the Blackfriars, till
1604 or 5, when it became less fashionable and frequented. Being
contiguous to the Bear Garden, it is probable that those who resorted
there went to the theatre, when the bear-baiting sports were over, and
such persons were not likely to form a very refined audience.

We have no description of the interior of the Globe, but that it was
somewhat similar to our modern theatres, with an open space in the roof:
or perhaps it more resembled an inn-yard, where, in the beginning of Queen
Elizabeth's reign, many of our ancient dramatic pieces were performed. The
galleries in both were arranged on three sides of the building; the small
rooms under the lowest, answered to our present boxes and were called
rooms; the yard bears a sufficient resemblance to the pit, as at present
in use, and where the common people stood to see the exhibition; from
which circumstance they are called by Shakspeare "the _groundlings_," and
by Ben Jonson, "the _understanding_ gentlemen of the _ground_." The stage
was erected in the area, with its back to the gateway where the admission
money was taken. The price of admission into the best _rooms_, or boxes,
was in Shakspeare's time, a shilling, though afterwards it appears to have
risen to two shillings and half-a-crown. The galleries, or scaffolds, as
they were sometimes called, and that part of the house which in private
theatres was named the pit, seem to have been the same price, which was
sixpence, while in some meaner playhouses it was only a penny, and in
others two-pence.

We learn from Sir Henry Hebert, that 20_l_. was the greatest receipt for
one day's performance; by that we may calculate upon the house having
contained about 700 persons, at the prices before stated; that is to say,
100 for the boxes, and the rest in the other parts of the house.