THE HOPE
On August 29, 1611, Henslowe became manager of the Lady Elizabeth's
Men. Having agreed among other things to furnish them with a
playhouse,[540] and no longer being in possession of the Rose, he
rented the old Swan and maintained them there throughout the year
1612.
[Footnote 540: The agreement has been lost, but for a probably similar
agreement, made with the actor Nathaniel Field, see Greg, _Henslowe
Papers_, p. 23.]
In March of the following year, 1613, he entered into a partnership
with Philip Rosseter (the manager of the private playhouse of
Whitefriars), and "joined" the Lady Elizabeth's Men with Rosseter's
excellent troupe of the Queen's Revels. Apparently the intention of
Henslowe and Rosseter was to form a company strong enough to compete
on equal terms with the King's Men. In imitation of the King's Men,
who used the Globe as a summer and the Blackfriars as a winter home,
the newly amalgamated company was to use the Swan and the
Whitefriars.[541] And the chief actor of the troupe, corresponding to
Richard Burbage of the King's Men, was to be Nathaniel Field, then at
the height of his powers:
_Cokes._ Which is your Burbage now?
_Leatherhead._ What mean you by that, sir?
_Cokes._ Your best actor, your Field.
_Littlewit._ Good, i' faith! you are even with me, sir.[542]
[Footnote 541: Daborne writes to Henslowe on June 5, 1613: "The
company told me you were expected there yesterday to conclude about
their coming over ... my own play which shall be ready before they
come over." This, I suspect, refers to the moving of the company to
the Swan for the summer. (See Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 72.) That
Henslowe was manager of a "private" house in 1613 is revealed by
another letter from Daborne, dated December 9, 1613. (See Greg,
_ibid._, p. 79.)]
[Footnote 542: _Bartholomew Fair_, V, iii. The part of Littlewit was
presumably taken by Field himself.]
Among their playwrights were Ben Jonson, Philip Massinger, John
Fletcher, and Robert Daborne, not to mention Field, who in addition to
acting wrote excellent plays.
If it was the purpose of Henslowe and Rosseter to compete with the
Globe Company in a winter as well as in a summer house, that purpose
was endangered by the fact that Rosseter's lease of his private
theatre expired within a year and a half, and could not be renewed.
Rosseter and Henslowe, as pointed out in the preceding chapter, seem
to have attempted to erect in Whitefriars a winter home for their
troupe; so, at least, I have interpreted the curious entry in Sir
George Buc's Office Book: "July 13, 1613, for a license to erect a new
playhouse in the Whitefriars, &c. L20."[543] The attempt, however, was
foiled, probably by the strong opposition of the inhabitants of the
district.
[Footnote 543: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 52.]
Shortly after this, Henslowe made plans to provide the company with a
new and better public playhouse on the Bankside, more conveniently
situated than the Swan. The old Bear Garden was beginning to show
signs of decay, and, doubtless, would soon have to be rebuilt. This
suggested to Henslowe the idea of tearing down that ancient structure
and erecting in its place a larger and handsomer building to serve
both for the performance of plays and for the baiting of animals. To
this plan Jacob Meade, Henslowe's partner in the ownership of the Bear
Garden, agreed.
[Illustration: THE HOPE PLAYHOUSE, OR SECOND BEAR GARDEN
From Hollar's _View of London_ (1647).]
Accordingly, on August 29, 1613, Henslowe and Meade signed a contract
with a carpenter named Katherens to pull down the Bear Garden and
erect in its place a new structure. The original contract, preserved
among the Henslowe Papers, is one of the most valuable documents we
have relating to the early theatres. It is too long and verbose for
insertion here, but I give below a summary of its contents.[544]
Katherens agreed:
1. To "pull down" the Bear Garden and "the stable wherein
the bulls and horses" had been kept; and "near or upon the
said place where the said game-place did heretofore stand,"
to "newly erect, build, and set up" a "playhouse, fit and
convenient in all things both for players to play in, and
for the game of bears and bulls to be baited in."
2. "To build the same of such large compass, form, wideness,
and height as the playhouse called the Swan."
3. To provide for the building "a good sure, and sufficient
foundation of bricks ... thirteen inches at the least above
the ground."
4. To make three galleries: "the inner principal posts of
the first story to be twelve feet in height, and ten inches
square; in the middle story ... eight inches square; in the
upper story ... seven inches square."[545]
5. To "make two boxes in the lowermost story, fit and decent
for gentlemen to sit in," and in the rest of the galleries
"partitions between the rooms as they are in the said
playhouse called the Swan."
6. To construct "a stage, to be carried and taken away, and
to stand upon tressels, good, substantial, and sufficient
for the carrying and bearing of such a stage."
7. To "build the heavens all over the said stage, to be
borne or carried without any posts or supporters to be fixed
or set upon the said stage."
8. To equip the stage with "a fit and convenient
tyre-house."
9. To "build two staircases without and adjoining to the
said playhouse ... of such largeness and height as the
staircases of the said playhouse called the Swan."
10. "To new build, erect, and set up the said bull-house and
stable ... of that largeness and fitness as shall be
sufficient to keep and hold six bulls and three horses."
11. "To new tyle with English tyles all the upper roof of
the said playhouse ... and stable."
12. To have the playhouse finished "upon or before the last
day of November," 1613.
[Footnote 544: The contract is printed in full in Greg, _Henslowe
Papers_, p. 19.]
[Footnote 545: The height is given for the first story only. We may
assume that the middle and uppermost stories were of diminishing
heights, as in the case of the Fortune Playhouse, in which the
galleries were respectively twelve, eleven, and nine feet in height.]
For all this Katherens was to receive the sum of L360; but since
Henslowe and Meade supplied a large share of the lumber and other
materials, the total cost of the building may be estimated as not less
than L600.
When completed, the new playhouse was appropriately christened "The
Hope."
It has been generally assumed that a picture of the Hope is given in
Visscher's _View of London_, published in 1616; but this, I think, is
exceedingly doubtful. In drawing the Bankside, Visscher rather
slavishly copied the Agas map of 1560, inserting a few new
buildings,--notably the playhouses,--and it is virtually certain that
he represented the "Bear Garden" (so he distinctly calls it) and the
Globe as they were before their reconstruction.[546] The first
representation of the Hope is to be found in Hollar's splendid _View
of London_ published in 1647 (see page 326). At this time the
building, which had for many years been devoted wholly to the royal
sports of bull- and bear-baiting, was still standing. It is hard to
believe that an artist who so carefully represented the famous
edifices of the city should have greatly erred in drawing the "Bear
Baiting House,"--a structure more curious than they, and quite as
famous.
[Footnote 546: The Merian _View of London_, published in 1638 at
Frankfort-am-Main, is merely a copy of the Visscher view with the
addition of certain details from another and earlier view not yet
identified. It has no independent value. The _View of London_ printed
in Howell's _Londinopolis_ (1657), is merely a slavish copy of the
Merian view. Visscher's representation of the Bear Garden does not
differ in any essential way from the representation in Hondius's
_View_ of 1610. For a fuller discussion see pages 126, 146, 248.]
Hollar represents the Hope as circular. According to the contract
Katherens was "to build the same of such large compass, form,
wideness, and height as the playhouse called the Swan." Whether the
word "form" was intended to apply to the exterior of the building we
do not know. The Swan was decahedral; Visscher represents the "Bear
Garden" as octagonal (which is correct for the Bear Garden that
preceded the Hope). But since the exterior was of lime and plaster,
and a decahedral form had no advantage, Katherens may well have
constructed a circular building as Hollar indicates. Perhaps it is
significant in this connection that John Taylor, the Water-Poet, in
his _Bull, Bear, and Horse_, refers to the Hope as a "sweet,
_rotuntious_ college." Significant also, perhaps, is the clause in
the contract by which Katherens was required to "build the heavens all
over the stage," for this exactly describes the heavens as drawn by
Hollar. I see no reason to doubt that in the _View_ of 1647 we have a
reasonably faithful representation of the Hope.
[Illustration: THE HOPE PLAYHOUSE, OR SECOND BEAR GARDEN
The upper view is from Hollar's Post-conflagration map in the Crace
Collection of the British Museum; the lower view is from Faithorne's
Map of London (1658).]
The Hope was probably opened shortly after November 30, 1613, the date
at which Katherens had bound himself to have the building "fully
finished," and it was occupied, of course, by the Henslowe and
Rosseter troupe of actors. The arrangement of the movable stage
enabled Henslowe and Meade to use the building also for
animal-baiting. According to the contract with the actors, the latter
were to "lie still one day in fourteen" for the baiting.[547] This may
not have been a serious interruption for the players; but the presence
of the stable, the bear dens, and the kennels for the dogs must have
rendered the playhouse far from pleasant to the audiences. Ben Jonson,
in the Induction to his _Bartholomew Fair_, acted at the Hope in
October, 1614, remarks: "And though the Fair be not kept in the same
region that some here perhaps would have it, yet think that therein
the author hath observed a special decorum, the place being as dirty
as Smithfield, and as stinking every whit."[548]
[Footnote 547: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 88; cf. p. 125, where
animal-baiting is said to be used "one day of every four days"--a
possible error for "fourteen days." In the manuscript notes to the
Phillipps copy of Stow's _Survey_ (1631), we are told that baiting was
used at the Hope on Tuesdays and Thursdays; but the anonymous
commentator is very inaccurate.]
[Footnote 548: The Rose Playhouse was likewise affected. Dekker, in
_Satiromastix_, III, iv, says: "Th'ast a breath as sweet as the Rose
that grows by the Bear Garden."]
In March, 1614,--that is, at the completion of one full year under the
joint management of Henslowe and Rosseter,--the amalgamated company
was "broken," and Rosseter withdrew, selling his interest in the
company's apparel to Henslowe and Meade for L63. The latter at once
reorganized the actors under the patent of the Lady Elizabeth's Men,
and continued them at the Hope.[549] The general excellence of the
troupe thus formed is referred to by John Taylor, the Water-Poet, in
the lines:
And such a company (I'll boldly say)
That better (nor the like) e'er play'd a play.[550]
[Footnote 549: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 87. The articles of
agreement between Henslowe and Meade and the company, are printed by
Greg on page 23.]
[Footnote 550: _Works_, Folio of 1630; The Spenser Society's reprint,
p. 307.]
But this encomium may have been in large measure due to gratitude, for
the company had just saved the Water-Poet from a very embarrassing
situation. The amusing episode which gave occasion to this deserves to
be chronicled in some detail.
With "a thousand bills posted over the city" Taylor had advertised to
the public that at the Hope Playhouse on October 7, 1614, he would
engage in a contest of wit with one William Fennor, who proudly styled
himself "The King's Majesty's Riming Poet."[551] On the appointed day
the house was "fill'd with a great audience" that had paid extra money
to hear the contest between two such well-known extemporal wits. But
Fennor did not appear. The result may best be told by Taylor himself:
I then stept out, their angers to appease;
But they all raging, like tempestuous seas,
Cry'd out, their expectations were defeated,
And how they all were cony-catch'd and cheated.
Some laught, some swore, some star'd and stamp'd and curst,
And in confused humors all out burst.
I (as I could) did stand the desp'rate shock,
And bid the brunt of many dang'rous knock.
For now the stinkards, in their ireful wraths,
Bepelted me with lome, with stones, with laths.
One madly sits like bottle-ale and hisses;
Another throws a stone, and 'cause he misses,
He yawnes and bawles, ...
Some run to th' door to get again their coin ...
One valiantly stepped upon the stage,
And would tear down the hangings in his rage ...
What I endur'd upon that earthly hell
My tongue or pen cannot describe it well.[552]
[Footnote 551: Fennor is not to be confused (as is commonly done) with
Vennar (see p. 177). Such wit-contests were popular; Fennor had
recently challenged Kendall, on the Fortune Stage.]
[Footnote 552: John Taylor's _Works_, Folio of 1630, p. 142; The
Spenser Society's reprint, p. 304.]
At this point the actors came to his rescue and presented a play that
mollified the audience. Taylor had to content himself with a printed
justification. The bitter invective of Taylor against Fennor,
Fennor's reply, and Taylor's several answers are to be found in the
folio edition of the Water-Poet's works. The episode doubtless
furnished much amusement to the city.
Some three weeks after this event, on October 31, 1614, the Lady
Elizabeth's Men produced with great success Jonson's _Bartholomew
Fair_; and on November 1 they were called upon to give the play at
Court. But the career of the company was in the main unhappy. Henslowe
managed their affairs on the theory that "should these fellows come
out of my debt, I should have no rule with them."[553] Accordingly in
three years he "broke" and again reorganized them no fewer than five
times.
[Footnote 553: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 89.]
At last, in February, 1615, he not only "broke" the company, but
severed his connection with them for ever. He turned the hired men
over to other troupes, and sold the stock of apparel "to strangers"
for L400. The indignant actors, in June, 1615, drew up "Articles of
Grievance" in which they charged Henslowe with having extorted from
the company by unjust means the sum of L567; and also "Articles of
Oppression" in which they accused him of various dishonorable
practices in his dealings with them.[554]
[Footnote 554: _Ibid._, pp. 86, 89.]
Shortly after severing his connection with the Lady Elizabeth's Men,
Henslowe, in March, 1615, seems to have taken over Prince Charles's
Men, who, it appears, had been acting at the Swan. To this new
company--the "strangers" referred to, I think--he had already
transferred some of the hirelings, and had sold the Hope stock of
apparel for L400.
Henslowe died early in January of the following year, 1616, and his
interest in the theatre passed to Edward Alleyn. On March 20, 1616,
Alleyn and Meade engaged Prince Charles's Men to continue at the Hope
"according to the former articles of agreement had and made with the
said Philip [Henslowe] and Jacob [Meade]."[555] The actors
acknowledged themselves indebted to Henslowe "for a stock of apparel
used for playing apparel, to the value of L400, heretofore delivered
unto them by the said Philip,"[556]--the stock formerly used by the
Lady Elizabeth's Men; and Alleyn and Meade agreed to accept L200 in
full discharge of that debt.[557]
[Footnote 555: Collier, _Memoirs of Edward Alleyn_, p. 127; Greg,
_Henslowe Papers_, p. 91.]
[Footnote 556: Collier, _Memoirs of Edward Alleyn_, p. 127.]
[Footnote 557: My interpretation of the relation of Henslowe to Prince
Charles's Men differs from the interpretation given by Fleay and
adopted by Greg and others. For the evidence bearing on the case see
Fleay, _Stage_, pp. 188, 262; Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_, II, 138; Greg,
_Henslowe Papers_, p. 90, note; Chambers, _Modern Language Review_,
IV, 165; Cunningham, _Revels_, p. xliv; Wallace, _Englische Studien_,
XLIII, 390; Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_.]
In the winter of 1616-17, Prince Charles's Men quarreled with Meade,
who had appropriated an extra day for his bear-baiting. Rosseter had
just completed a new private theatre in Porter's Hall, Blackfriars,
and that stood invitingly open. So about February they abandoned the
Hope, and wrote a letter of explanation to Edward Alleyn: "I hope you
mistake not our removal from the Bankside. We stood the intemperate
weather, 'till more intemperate Mr. Meade thrust us over, taking the
day from us which by course was ours."[558]
[Footnote 558: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 93. Cf. also the chapter on
"Rosseter's Blackfriars."]
After the company quarreled with Meade and deserted the Hope, there is
no evidence that the building was again used for plays. It became
associated almost entirely with animal-baiting, fencing, feats of
activity, and such-like performances; and gradually the very name
"Hope," which was identified with acting, gave way to the earlier
designation "Bear Garden." In 1632 the author of _Holland's Leaguer_
remarks that "wild beasts and gladiators did most possess it"; and
such must have been the chief use of the building down to 1642, when
animal-baiting was prohibited by Parliament.[559]
[Footnote 559: Collier, _The History of English Dramatic Poetry_
(1879), III, 102; Ordish, _Early London Theatres_, p. 237.]
On January 14, 1647, at the disposition of the Church lands, the Hope
was sold for L1783 15_s._[560]
[Footnote 560: Arthur Tiler, _St. Saviour's_, p. 51; Reed's Dodsley,
IX, 175.]
In certain manuscript notes entered in the Phillipps copy of Stow's
_Annals_ (1631), we read:
The Hope, on the Bankside, in Southwarke, commonly called
the Bear Garden, a playhouse for stage-plays on Mondays,
Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and for the baiting of
Bears on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the stage being made to
take up and down when they please. It was built in the year
1610, and now pulled down to make tenements, by Thomas
Walker, a petticoat-maker in Cannon Street, on Tuesday, the
25 day of March, 1656. Seven of Mr. Godfrey's bears, by the
command of Thomas Pride, then high sheriff of Surrey, were
then shot to death on Saturday the 9 day of February, 1655
[i.e. 1656], by a company of soldiers.[561]
[Footnote 561: Printed in _The Academy_, October 28, 1882, p. 314. As
to "Mr. Godfrey" see Collier, _The History of English Dramatic Poetry_
(1879), III, 102.]
The mistakes in the earlier part of this note are obvious, yet the
latter part is so circumstantial that we cannot well doubt its general
accuracy. The building, however, was not pulled down "to the ground,"
though its interior may have been converted into tenements.
At the Restoration, when the royal sport of bear-baiting was revived,
the Hope was again fitted up as an amphitheatre and opened to the
public. The Earl of Manchester, on September 29, 1664, wrote to the
city authorities, requesting that the butchers be required, as of old,
to provide food for the dogs and bears:
He had been informed by the Master of His Majesty's Game of
Bears and Bulls, and others, that the Butchers' Company had
formerly caused all their offal in Eastcheap and Newgate
Market to be conveyed by the beadle of that Company unto
two barrow houses, conveniently placed on the river side,
for the provision and feeding of the King's Game of Bears,
which custom had been interrupted in the late troubles when
the bears were killed. His Majesty's game being now removed
to the usual place on the Bankside, by Order of the Council,
he recommended the Court of Aldermen to direct the Master
and Wardens of the Butchers' Company to have their offal
conveyed as formerly for the feeding of the bears, &c.[562]
[Footnote 562: _The Remembrancia_, p. 478. Quoted by Ordish, _Early
London Theatres_, p. 241.]
For some years the Bear Garden flourished as it had in the days of
Elizabeth and James. It was frequently visited by Samuel Pepys, who
has left vivid accounts of several performances there. In his _Diary_,
August 14, 1666, he writes:
After dinner with my wife and Mercer to the Bear-garden;
where I have not been, I think, of many years, and saw some
good sport of the bull's tossing of the dogs: one into the
very boxes. But it is a very rude and nasty pleasure. We had
a great many hectors in the same box with us (and one, very
fine, went into the pit, and played his dog for a wager,
which was a strange sport for a gentleman), where they drank
wine, and drank Mercer's health first; which I pledged with
my hat off.
John Evelyn, likewise, in his _Diary_, June 16, 1670, records a visit
to the Bear Garden:
I went with some friends to the Bear Garden, where was
cock-fighting, dog-fighting, bear- and bull-baiting, it
being a famous day for all these butcherly sports, or rather
barbarous cruelties. The bulls did exceeding well; but the
Irish wolf-dog exceeded, which was a tall greyhound, a
stately creature indeed, who beat a cruel mastiff. One of
the bulls tossed a dog full into a lady's lap as she sat in
one of the boxes at a considerable height from the arena.
Two poor dogs were killed; and so all ended with the ape on
horseback, and I most heartily weary of the rude and dirty
pastime, which I had not seen, I think, in twenty years
before.
On January 7, 1676, the Spanish Ambassador was entertained at the Bear
Garden, as we learn from a warrant, dated March 28, 1676, for the
payment of L10 "to James Davies, Esq., Master of His Majesty's Bears,
Bulls, and Dogs, for making ready the rooms at the Bear Garden, and
baiting of the bears before the Spanish Ambassador, the 7 January
last, 1675 {6}."[563]
[Footnote 563: British Museum Additional MSS. 5750; quoted by
Cunningham, _Handbook of London_ (1849), I, 67.]
Rendle[564] quotes from _The Loyal Protestant_ an advertisement of an
entertainment to be given so late as 1682 "at the Hope on the
Bankside, being His Majesty's Bear Garden." And Malcolm writes the
following account of the baiting of a horse there in April of the same
year:
Notice was given in the papers that on the twelfth of April
a horse, of uncommon strength, and between 18 and 19 hands
high, would be _baited to death at his Majesty's
Bear-Garden_ at the Hope on the Bankside, for the amusement
of the Morocco ambassador, many of the nobility who knew the
horse, and any others who would pay the price of admission.
It seems this animal originally belonged to the Earl of
Rochester, and being of a ferocious disposition, had killed
several of his brethren; for which misdeed he was sold to
the Earl of Dorchester; in whose service, committing several
similar offenses, he was transferred to the worse than
savages who kept the Bear-Garden. On the day appointed
several dogs were set upon the vindictive steed, which he
destroyed or drove from the arena; at this instant his
owners determined to preserve him for a future day's sport,
and directed a person to lead him away; but before the horse
had reached London Bridge the spectators demanded the
fulfilment of the promise of baiting him to death, and began
to destroy the building: to conclude, the poor beast was
brought back, and other dogs set upon him, without effect,
when he was stabbed to death with a sword.[565]
[Footnote 564: _The Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer_, VIII,
59.]
[Footnote 565: James Peller Malcolm, _Anecdotes of the Manners and
Customs of London from the Roman Invasion to the Year 1700_ (London,
1811), p. 425.]
This is the last reference to the Hope that I have been able to
discover. Soon after this date the "royal sport of bulls, bears, and
dogs" was moved to Hockley-in-the-hole, Clerkenwell, where, as the
advertisements inform us, at "His Majesty's Bear Garden" the baiting
of animals was to be frequently seen.[566] Strype, in his _Survey of
London_, thus describes Bear Garden Alley on the Bankside:
Bear Alley runs into Maiden Lane. Here is a Glass House; and
about the middle is a new-built Court, well inhabited,
called Bear Garden Square, so called as built in the place
where the _Bear Garden_ formerly stood, until removed to the
other side of the water: which is more convenient for the
butchers, and such like who are taken with such rustic
sports as the baiting of bears and bulls.[567]
[Footnote 566: The earliest advertisement of the Bear Garden at
Hockley-in-the-hole that I have come upon is dated 1700. For a
discussion of the sports there see J.P. Malcolm, _Anecdotes of the
Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century_ (1808),
p. 321; Cunningham, _Handbook of London_, under "Hockley"; W.B.
Boulton, _Amusements of Old London_, vol. I, chap. I.]
[Footnote 567: Ordish (_Early London Theatres_, p. 242) is mistaken in
thinking that the old building was converted into a glass house. He
says: "The last reference to the Hope shows that it had declined to
the point of extinction," and he quotes an advertisement from the
_Gazette_, June 18, 1681, as follows: "There is now made at the Bear
Garden glass-house, on the Bankside, crown window-glass, much
exceeding French glass in all its qualifications, which may be squared
into all sizes of sashes for windows, and other uses, and may be had
at most glaziers in London." From Strype's _Survey_ it is evident that
the glass house was in Bear Garden Alley, but not on the site of the
old Bear Garden.]
In the map which he gives of this region (reproduced on page 245) the
position of the Hope is clearly marked by the square near the middle
of Bear Alley.