At Holborn, Gray's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court, and its Elizabethan Hall holds a singular place in the history of letters: it was here that, in 1594, the first known performance of a Shakespeare comedy was given. The Inn then knew its golden age, under the queen's patronage and the influence of one of its most famous members, Francis Bacon.
The Elizabethan golden age of the Inn
In Elizabethan times, Gray's Inn shone as the most prestigious of the Inns of Court, with Elizabeth I as its 'Patron Lady'. At its heart, the Hall hosted meals, debates and above all the lavish Christmas festivities. Francis Bacon — lawyer, philosopher and future Lord Chancellor — was a central figure here: admitted in 1576, a bencher in 1586, he even laid out the Inn's gardens, 'the Walks', in 1608. These gardens, attributed to one of the greatest minds of his time, still exist.
The Night of Errors (1594)
On 28 December 1594, during the famous Christmas revels, the company of the Lord Chamberlain's Men — that of William Shakespeare — gave in the Hall The Comedy of Errors. The evening turned to such confusion, an overflowing crowd and general disorder, that it went down in the record under the name 'Night of Errors', related in the contemporary account of the Gesta Grayorum. It is one of the few precisely dated places where a Shakespeare play is known to have been performed in his lifetime. To see: the Elizabethan Hall and its screen, and the 'Walks' gardens attributed to Bacon.
Did you know?
The title of the comedy played that evening — The Comedy of Errors — proved prophetic: the performance of 28 December 1594 sank into such chaos that the whole evening was nicknamed the 'Night of Errors'. Shakespeare at Gray's Inn thus stayed famous as much for the pandemonium in the hall as for the play.
Notes
Gray's Inn Hall lies at Holborn; a working Inn of Court — access restricted, the gardens ('the Walks') are sometimes open to the public. Enquire.
Quiz
- Which Shakespeare play was first performed here on 28 December 1594?
- The Comedy of Errors
- Hamlet
- Macbeth
- Which philosopher and lawyer was a central figure of Gray's Inn?
- Francis Bacon
- Thomas More
- John Knox
- How did the evening of 1594 become known?
- The 'Night of Errors'
- The 'Ball of Kings'
- The 'White Night'