Construction The structure originally belonged to the Monastery of
Bermondsey. After the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, it became royal property and passed through several hands before being sold to Francis Langley for £850. The Mayor of London opposed Langley's permit to open a theatre, but his protests held no ground as the property had formerly belonged to the crown and the Mayor had no jurisdiction. Langley had the theatre built almost certainly in 1595–96.
Johannes De Witt, a Dutchman who visited London around 1596, left a description of the Swan in a manuscript titled
Observationes Londiniensis, now lost. Translated from the Latin, his description identifies the Swan as the "finest and biggest of the London amphitheatres", with a capacity for 3000 spectators. This conflicts with a reconstruction done in the 1990s, based on a copy of de Witt's sketches, which only accounted for 1000 spectators and additional space for 500 groundlings in the pit. The copies of his sketches, created by
Aernout van Buchel, are the only sketches of an Elizabethan playhouse known to exist.
Pembroke's Men In 1597, the Swan housed the acting company
Pembroke's Men, with actors Richard Jones, Thomas Downtown, and William Bird. They joined the Pembroke troupe after leaving their positions in Lord
Admiral's Men at the rival playhouse
The Rose. In the same year, Pembroke's Men staged the infamous play
The Isle of Dogs, by
Thomas Nashe and
Ben Jonson, the content of which gave offence, most likely for its "satirical" Historical sources do not mention the Swan after that date. == See also ==