This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Elizabethan theatre (inactive) This article is within the scope of WikiProject Elizabethan theatre, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.Elizabethan theatreWikipedia:WikiProject Elizabethan theatreTemplate:WikiProject Elizabethan theatreElizabethan theatre Shakespeare High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Shakespeare, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of William Shakespeare on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ShakespeareWikipedia:WikiProject ShakespeareTemplate:WikiProject ShakespeareShakespeare High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. England High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject England, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of England on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EnglandWikipedia:WikiProject EnglandTemplate:WikiProject EnglandEngland-related High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Spain High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Spain, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Spain on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SpainWikipedia:WikiProject SpainTemplate:WikiProject SpainSpain High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Theatre High‑importance This article is part of WikiProject Theatre, a WikiProject dedicated to coverage of theatre on Wikipedia. To participate: Feel free to edit the article attached to this page, join up at the project page, or contribute to the project discussion.TheatreWikipedia:WikiProject TheatreTemplate:WikiProject TheatreTheatre High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

This image of an old commemorative plaque, formerly on the wall of the Barclay Perkins Brewery, has been condemned as actually being of The Rose, of the wrong shape, and mounted in the wrong place.^[1] Later research may have shown this to be too harsh a judgment, but nonetheless I've removed it from the article.

--AntientNestor (talk) 15:37, 22 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The information I could find very strongly favours John of Salisbury as the source of the motto, IF it was indeed the motto. The only verifiable link I could find between "quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem" and Petronius is in fact in Policraticus. Going by the book European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (the relevant part, Metaphorics/Theatrical metaphors is not in the preview, but snippet search is available): the exact quote is "quod fere totus mundus iuxta Petronium exerceat histrionem", which could be taken as him quoting Petronius. BUT from the way it's presented it the book, the starting point of his concept of 'theatrum mundi' appears to have been an actual Petronius quote earlier in the text:

"Grex agit in scaena mimum: pater ille vocatur,
filius hic, nomen divitis ille tenet.
Mox ubi ridendas inclusit pagina partes,
vera redit facies, dissimulata perit"

Which makes it far more likely (and the author himself suggests so) that Salisbury is at that point summarising the original Petronius quote in his own words.

The Petronius text (almost) as quoted above is available here in its original context: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2007.01.0001:text=Satyricon:section=80&highlight=grex+agit%2C. The probable paraphrase by Salisbury isn't. One post in an online discussion quotes Steevens tracing it back to Fragment no. X., but trying to find it in the work linked above lead to no result, whereas there's talk of forged fragments in the introduction of the same: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2007.01.0057, one set of which was printed in 1692.

Of course, if the motto was a later invention altogether, then it might as well be based on a forged Petronius fragment. Valagai (talk) 14:58, 13 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Full text of European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages by Ernst Curtius is available online from Internet Archive here, no charge to logged-in users.--AntientNestor (talk) 17:27, 13 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Added as a reference to the article, with an acknowledgement to Valagai--AntientNestor (talk) 21:32, 13 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Policraticus now given more emphasis, as User:Valagai suggests.--AntientNestor (talk) 11:47, 16 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I need to know for a school project 67kingvon (talk) 15:26, 20 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Good question. We don't do people's homework for them, but here are two pointers:
  • Are you sure your teacher isn't asking you about Shakespeare's Globe, which is a modern reconstruction of the theatre you've asked about? It seems unlikely to me that we would know much about the financing of the original one.
  • The guys at the reference desks are very helpful. You could try Wikipedia:Reference desk/Entertainment.
• Hope that helps, a bit. AndyJones (talk) 13:26, 21 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  The work is on the globe theater but I'll check the reference desk, thank you for responding! 67kingvon (talk) 18:35, 21 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  I just checked my homework again. it says who paid for it. I read it wrong originally but now I understand it. 67kingvon (talk) 18:37, 21 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]