ABSTRACT
Whether playing was an ornament to behold or a confection to savor, that theater welcomed strangers is Thomas Heywood’s point. A critic or cynic might counter that theatergoers had to pay for entry, that when inside they had to pay for apples, nuts, and ale, that true hospitality in the theater was necessarily lacking.3 Perhaps playgoing entailed a kind of “paying hospitality.” It costs money for the privilege of being a theatergoer, as if the price of admission at the theater was akin to an ideal hospitable exchange-a guest’s initial gift at the threshold. But upon entering the theater, there were no gifts, no dinner, no bed, no refuge (cue cutpurses), hardly manageable lighting, damp drafts, and, at least at the Globe, poor shelter.4 The only way for theater companies to offer hospitality was to help theatergoers to pass the time.
