Shakespearean Playhouses Part 11

Although we are not directly concerned with the history of the Bear Garden,[189] a few descriptions of "the royal game of bears, bulls, and dogs" drawn from contemporary sources will be of interest and of specific value for the discussion of the Hope Playhouse--itself both a bear garden and a theatre.

[Footnote 189: For such a history the reader is referred to Ordish, _Early London Theatres_; Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_, II, and _Henslowe Papers_; Young, _The History of Dulwich College_; Rendle, _The Bankside_, and _The Playhouses at Bankside_.]

Robert Laneham, in his _Description of the Entertainment at Kenilworth_ (1575), writes thus of a baiting of bears before the Queen:

Well, syr, the Bearz wear brought foorth intoo the Coourt, the dogs set too them.... It was a Sport very pleazaunt of theez beastz; to see the bear with his pink nyez leering after hiz enemiez approoch, the nimbleness & wayt of ye dog to take his auauntage, and the fors & experiens of the bear agayn to auoyd the a.s.sauts: if he war bitten in one place, how he woold pynch in an oother to get free: that if he wear taken onez, then what shyft, with byting, with clawing, with rooring, tossing, & tumbling he woold woork to wynd hym self from them: and when he waz lose, to shake his earz tywse or thryse, wyth the blud and the slauer aboout his fiznomy, waz a matter of a goodly releef.

John Houghton, in his _Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade_,[190] gives a vivid account of the baiting of the bull. He says:

The bull takes great care to watch his enemy, which is a mastiff dog (commonly used to the sport) with a short nose that his teeth may take the better hold; this dog, if right, will creep upon his belly that he may, if possible, get the bull by the nose; which the bull as carefully strives to defend by laying it close to the ground, where his horns are also ready to do what in them lies to toss the dog; and this is the true sport. But if more dogs than one come at once, or they are cowardly and come under his legs, he will, if he can, stamp their guts out. I believe I have seen a dog tossed by a bull thirty, if not forty foot high; and when they are tossed, either higher or lower, the men above strive to catch them on their shoulders, lest the fall might mischief the dogs. They commonly lay sand about that if they fall upon the ground it may be the easier. Notwithstanding this care a great many dogs are killed, more have their limbs broke, and some hold so fast that, by the bull's swinging them, their teeth are often broken out.... The true courage and art is to hold the bull by the nose 'till he roars, which a courageous bull scorns to do.... This is a sport the English much delight in; and not only the baser sort, but the greatest lords and ladies.

[Footnote 190: No. 108, August, 1694. Quoted by J.P. Malcolm, _Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London from the Roman Invasion to the Year 1700_ (London, 1811), p. 433.]

An attendant upon the Duke of Nexara, who visited England in 1544, wrote the following account of a bear-baiting witnessed in London:

In another part of the city we saw seven bears, some of them of great size. They were led out every day to an enclosure, where being tied with a long rope, large and intrepid dogs are thrown to them, in order that they may bite and make them furious. It is no bad sport to see them fight, and the a.s.saults they give each other. To each of the large bears are matched three or four dogs, which sometimes get the better and sometimes are worsted, for besides the fierceness and great strength of the bears to defend themselves with their teeth, they hug the dogs with their paws so tightly, that, unless the masters came to a.s.sist them, they would be strangled by such soft embraces. Into the same place they brought a pony with an ape fastened on its back, and to see the animal kicking amongst the dogs, with the screams of the ape, beholding the curs hanging from the ears and neck of the pony, is very laughable.[191]

[Footnote 191: The original ma.n.u.script of this narrative, in Spanish, is preserved in the British Museum. I quote the translation by Frederick Madden, in _Archaeologia_, XIII, 354-55.]

Orazio Busino, the chaplain of the Venetian Emba.s.sy in London, writes in his _Anglipotrida_ (1618):

The dogs are detached from the bear by inserting between the teeth ... certain iron spattles with a wooden handle; whilst they take them off the bull (keeping at a greater distance) with certain flat iron hooks which they apply to the thighs or even to the neck of the dog, whose tail is simultaneously dexterously seized by another of these rufflers. The bull can hardly get at anybody, as he wears a collar round his neck with only fifteen feet of rope, which is fastened to a stake deeply planted in the middle of the theatre. Other rufflers are at hand with long poles to put under the dog so as to break his fall after he has been tossed by the bull; the tips of these [poles] are covered with thick leather to prevent them from disembowelling the dogs. The most spirited stroke is considered to be that of the dog who seizes the bull's lip, clinging to it and pinning the animal for some time; the second best hit is to seize the eyebrows; the third, but far inferior, consists in seizing the bull's ear.[192]

[Footnote 192: _The Calendar of State Papers_, Venetian, XV, 258.]

Paul Hentzner, the German traveler who visited London in 1598, wrote thus of the Bear Garden:

There is still another place, built in the form of a theatre, which serves for the baiting of bulls and bears; they are fastened behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs, but not without great risk to the dogs, from the horns of the one, and the teeth of the other; and it sometimes happens they are killed upon the spot; fresh ones are immediately supplied in the places of those that are wounded or tired. To this entertainment there often follows that of whipping a blinded bear, which is performed by five or six men standing circularly with whips, which they exercise upon him without any mercy, as he cannot escape from them because of his chain; he defends himself with all his force and skill, throwing down all who come within his reach, and are not active enough to get out of it, and tearing the whips out of their hands and breaking them.

The following pa.s.sage is taken from the diary of the Duke of Wirtemberg (who visited London in 1592), "noted down daily in the most concise manner possible, at his Highness's gracious command, by his private secretary":[193]

On the 1st of September his Highness was shown in London the English dogs, of which there were about 120, all kept in the same enclosure, but each in separate kennel. In order to gratify his Highness, and at his desire, two bears and a bull were baited; at such times you can perceive the breed and mettle of the dogs, for although they receive serious injuries from the bears, and are caught by the horns of the bull and tossed into the air so as frequently to fall down again upon the horns, they do not give in, [but fasten on the bull so firmly] that one is obliged to pull them back by the tails and force open their jaws. Four dogs at once were set on the bull; they however could not gain any advantage over him, for he so artfully contrived to ward off their attacks that they could not well get at him; on the contrary, the bull served them very scurvily by striking and beating at them.

[Footnote 193: The secretary was named Jacob Rathgeb, and the diary was published at Tubingen in 1602 with a long t.i.tle beginning: _A True and Faithful Narrative of the Bathing Excursion which His Serene Highness_, etc. A translation will be found in Rye, _England as Seen by Foreigners_, pp. 3-53.]

The following is a letter from one William Faunte to Edward Alleyn, then proprietor of the Bear Garden, regarding the sale of some game bulls:

I understood by a man which came with two bears from the garden, that you have a desire to buy one of my bulls. I have three western bulls at this time, but I have had very ill luck with them, for one of them hath lost his horn to the quick, that I think he will never be able to fight again; that is my old Star of the West: he was a very easy bull. And my bull Bevis, he hath lost one of his eyes, but I think if you had him he would do you more hurt than good, for I protest I think he would either throw up your dogs into the lofts, or else ding out their brains against the grates.[194]

[Footnote 194: Collier, _The Alleyn Papers_, p. 31.]

Finally, among the Alleyn papers of Dulwich College is an interesting bill, or advertis.e.m.e.nt, of an afternoon's performance at the Bear Garden:

To-morrow being Thursday shall be seen at the Bear Garden on the Bankside a great match played by the gamesters of Ess.e.x, who hath challenged all comers whatsoever to play five dogs at the single bear for five pounds, and also to weary a bull dead at the stake; and for your better content [you] shall have pleasant sport with the horse and ape and whipping of the blind bear. _Vivat Rex!_

In 1613 the Bear Garden was torn down, and a new and handsomer structure erected in its place. For the history of this building the reader is referred to the chapter on "The Hope."

CHAPTER VIII

NEWINGTON b.u.t.tS

The Bankside, as the preceding chapter indicates, offered unusual attractions to the actors. It had, indeed, long been a.s.sociated with the drama: in 1545 King Henry VIII, in a proclamation against vagabonds, players,[195] etc., noted their "fashions commonly used at the Bank, and such like naughty places, where they much haunt"; and in 1547 the Bishop of Winchester made complaint that at a time when he intended to have a dirge and ma.s.s for the late King, the actors in Southwark planned to exhibit "a solemn play, to try who shall have the most resort, they in game or I in earnest."[196] The players, therefore, were no strangers to "the Bank." And when later in the century the hostility of the Common Council drove them to seek homes in localities not under the jurisdiction of the city, the suburb across the river offered them a suitable refuge. For, although a large portion of Southwark was under the jurisdiction of London, certain parts were not, notably the Liberty of the Clink and the Manor of Paris Garden, two sections bordering the river's edge, and the district of Newington lying farther back to the southwest. In these places the actors could erect their houses and entertain the public without fear of the ordinances of the Corporation, and without danger of interruption by puritanical Lord Mayors.

[Footnote 195: It is just possible--but, I think, improbable--that the term "common players" as used in this proclamation referred to gamblers. The term is regularly used in law to designate actors.]

[Footnote 196: _The Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547_, February 5, p. 1; cf. Tytler's _Edward VI and Mary_, I, 20.]

Yet, as we have seen, the first public playhouses were erected not on the Bankside--a "naughty" place,--but near Finsbury Field to the north of the city; and the reasons which led to the selection of such a quiet and respectable district have been pointed out.[197] It was inevitable, however, that sooner or later a playhouse should make its appearance in the region to the south of the city. And at an early date--how early it is impossible to say, but probably not long after the erection of the Theatre and the Curtain--there appeared in Southwark a building specially devoted to the use of players. Whether it was a new structure modeled after the theatres of Sh.o.r.editch, or merely an old building converted into a playhouse, we cannot say. It seems to have been something more than an inn-yard fitted up for dramatic purposes, and yet something less than the "sumptuous theatre houses" erected "on purpose" for plays to the north of the city.

[Footnote 197: See page 29.]

Whatever the building was, it was situated at Newington b.u.t.ts (a place so called from the b.u.t.ts for archery anciently erected there), and, unfortunately, at a considerable distance from the river. Exactly how far playgoers from London had to walk to reach the theatre after crossing over the river we do not know; but the Privy Council speaks of "the tediousness of the way" thither,[198] and Stow notes that the parish church of Newington was "distant one mile from London Bridge."

Further information about the building--its exact situation, its size, its exterior shape, its interior arrangement, and such-like details--is wholly lacking.

[Footnote 198: The Council again refers to the building in the phrase "in any of these remote places." (Dasent, _Acts of the Privy Council_, XII, 15.)]

Nor are we much better off in regard to its ownership, management, and general history. This seems to be due to the fact that it was not intimately a.s.sociated with any of the more important London troupes; and to the fact that after a few unsuccessful years it ceased to exist. Below I have recorded the few and scattered references which const.i.tute our meagre knowledge of its history.

The first pa.s.sage cited may refer to the playhouse at Newington b.u.t.ts.

It is an order of the Privy Council, May 13, 1580, thus summarized by the clerk:

A letter to the Justices of Peace of the County of Surrey, that whereas their Lordships do understand that notwithstanding their late order given to the Lord Mayor to forbid all plays within and about the city until Michaelmas next for avoiding of infection, nevertheless certain players do play sundry days every week at Newington b.u.t.ts in that part of Surrey without the jurisdiction of the said Lord Mayor, contrary to their Lordship's order; their Lordships require the Justices not only to inquire who they be that disobey their commandment in that behalf, and not only to forbid them expressly for playing in any of these remote places near unto the city until Michaelmas, but to have regard that within the precinct of Surrey none be permitted to play; if any do, to commit them and to advertise them, &c.[199]

[Footnote 199: Dasent, _Acts of the Privy Council_, XII, 15.]

The next pa.s.sage clearly refers to "the theatre" at Newington b.u.t.ts.

On May 11, 1586, the Privy Council dispatched a letter to the Lord Mayor, which the clerk thus summarized:

A letter to the Lord Mayor: his Lordship is desired, according to his request made to their Lordships by his letters of the vii th of this present, to give order for the restraining of plays and interludes within and about the city of London, for the avoiding of infection feared to grow and increase this time of summer by the common a.s.semblies of people at those places; and that their Lordships have taken the like order for the prohibiting of the use of plays at the theatre, and the other places about Newington, out of his charge.[200]

[Footnote 200: _Ibid._, XIV, 102.]

Chalmers[201] thought the word "theatre" was used of the Newington Playhouse, and for this he was taken to task by Collier,[202] who says: "He confounds it with the playhouse emphatically called 'the Theatre' in Sh.o.r.editch; and on consulting the Register, we find that no such playhouse as the Newington Theatre is there spoken of." But Chalmers was right; for if we consult the "Registers" we find the following letter, dispatched to the Justices of Surrey on the very same day that the letter just quoted was sent to the Lord Mayor:

A letter to the Justices of Surrey, that according to such direction as hath been given by their Lordships to the Lord Mayor to restrain and inhibit the use of plays and interludes in public places in and about the City of London, in respect of the heat of the year now drawing on, for the avoiding of the infection like to grow and increase by the ordinary a.s.semblies of the people to those places, they are also required in like sort to take order that the plays and a.s.semblies of the people at the theatre or any other places about Newington be forthwith restrained and forborn as aforesaid, &c.[203]

[Footnote 201: _Apology_, p. 403.]

[Footnote 202: _History of English Dramatic Poetry_ (1879), III, 131.]

[Footnote 203: Dasent, _Acts of the Privy Council_, XIV, 99.]

The phrase, "the theatre or any other places about Newington," when addressed to the "Justices of the Peace of Surrey" could refer only to the Newington b.u.t.ts Playhouse.