Especially, and above all the rest, she was most taken with the report of three famous amphitheatres, which stood so near situated that her eye might take view of them from the lowest turret. One was the _Continent of the World_ [i.e., the Globe], because half the year a world of beauties and brave spirits resorted unto it; the other was a building of excellent _Hope_, and though wild beasts and gladiators did most possess it, yet the gallants that came to behold those combats, though they were of a mixt society, yet were many noble worthies amongst them; the last which stood, and, as it were, shak'd hands with this fortress, being in times past as famous as any of the other, was now fallen to decay, and like a dying _Swanne_, hanging down her head, seemed to sing her own dirge. [Footnote 276: What seems to be a picture of this famous house may be seen in Merian's _View of London_, 1638 (see opposite page 256), with a turret, and standing just to the right of the Swan.] This is the last that we hear of the playhouse, that was "in times past as famous as any of the other." What finally became of the building we do not know. It is not shown in Hollar's _View of London_, in 1647, and probably it had ceased to exist before the outbreak of the Civil War. CHAPTER XI THE SECOND BLACKFRIARS In 1596 Burbage's lease of the plot of ground on which he had erected the Theatre was drawing to a close, and all his efforts at a renewal had failed. The owner of the land, Gyles Alleyn, having, in spite of the terms of the original contract, refused to extend the lease until 1606, was craftily plotting for a substantial increase in the rental; moreover, having become puritanical in his attitude towards the drama, he was insisting that if the lease were renewed, the Theatre should be used as a playhouse for five years only, and then should either be torn down, or be converted into tenements. Burbage tentatively agreed to pay the increased rental, but, of course, he could not possibly agree to the second demand; and when all negotiations on this point proved futile, he realized that he must do something at once to meet the awkward situation.