theatre in Paris Garden. The license was promptly
opposed by the Lord Mayor of London, who ad-
dressed to the Lord High Treasurer on November
3, 1594, the following letter:

I understand that one Francis Langley . . . in-
tendeth to erect a new stage or theatre (as they call
it) for the exercising of plays upon the Bankside.
And forasmuch as we find by daily experience the
great inconvenience that groweth to this city and
the government thereof by the said plays, I have
emboldened myself to be an humble suitor to your
good Lordship to be a means for us rather to sup-
press all such places built for that kind of exercise,
than to erect any more of the same sort. ¹

The protest of the Lord Mayor, however, went un-
heeded, and Langley proceeded with the erection
of his building. Presumably it was finished and
ready for the actors in the earlier half of 1595.

The name given to the new playhouse was "The
Swan." What caused Langley to adopt this name
we do not know; ² but we may suppose that it was
suggested to him by the large number of swans
which beautified the Thames. Foreigners on their
first visit to London were usually very much im-
pressed by the number and the beauty of these
birds. Hentzner, in 1598, stated that the river
"abounds in swans, swimming in flocks; the sight

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