The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VI. The Drama to 1642, Part Two.
§ 16. Other Playhouses
Three other playhouses belonging to this period must be mentioned. The Red Bull stood at the upper end of St. John street, Clerkenwell, and seems to have been opened about 1599. In 1633, Prynne’s Histrio-Mastix mentions it as recently rebuilt and enlarged. It was occupied early in James I’s reign by the Queen’s company, and remained in use, till 1642, by this and other companies. Between 1642 and 1660, several attempts were made to act there; it was opened at the restoration by Rhodes, formerly prompter at the Blackfriars; Samuel Pepys saw a play wretchedly performed to a poor house there, in 1661; and, by 1663, it was abandoned.
The Cockpit was a “private” playhouse in Drury Lane, and seems to have been erected on the site of a cockpit in or about 1615. It was opened by the lady Elizabeth’s company, which, in 1625, passed to queen Henrietta; and it remained in use till 1642. After 1660, it was occupied by the Duke’s company under Sir William D’Avenant, till they moved to the new theatre in Portugal row, Lincoln’s Inn fields in 1662. Its second name, the Phoenix, probably came into use when it had been restored after the sacking of it by the ’prentices in 1617.
The Salisbury court or Whitefriars playhouse was built in 1629 near the hall of the old Whitefriars monastery, which had previously, at any rate since 1610, been used for plays. It was occupied first by the children of the King’s revels, and then by the Queen’s. It was a “private” playhouse, and was in use for a brief time after the restoration.