THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
1603. The plague was again threatening the City, and James I. issued a
proclamation, dated from Hampton Court, 8th August, ordaining that for
the “desire of preventing an universal contagion among our people,” that
(_inter alia_) Bartholomew Fair should not be holden, “nor anything
appertaining unto them, at the times accustomed, _nor any time till they
shall be licensed by us_.” These last words might have been held to imply
more than was directly understood.
_Proclamation by City of London._—1604. The arrangement of 1596 prepared
the way for the Corporation taking the active control of the fair. Hence
among the Orders of my Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and the Sheriffs for
their meetings and wearing of their apparel through this year, was the
following:—
“ON SAINT BARTHOLOMEW’S EVEN FOR THE FAIR IN SMITHFIELD.—The Aldermen
meet my Lord and the Sheriffs at the Guildhall Chapel, at two of the
Clock after dinner, in their violet gowns lined, and their horses,
without cloaks, and there hear Evening Prayer; which being done, they
take their horses and ride to Newgate, and so forth to the gate entering
in at the Cloth Fair, and there make a Proclamation,” which was as
follows:—
PROCLAMATION.—The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of the City of London, and
his right worshipful Bretheren the Aldermen of the said City, streightly
charge and command, on the behalf of our Sovereign Lord the King, that
all manner of persons, of whatsoever estate, degree, or condition they
be, having recourse to this fair, keep the Peace of our said Sovereign
Lord the King.
That no manner of persons make any congregation, conventicle, or affrays,
by the which the same peace may be broken or disturbed, upon pain of
imprisonment and fine, to be made after the discretion of the Lord Mayor
and Aldermen.
Also, that all manner of sellers of wine, ale, or beer, sell by measures
ensealed, as by gallon, pottle, quart and pint, upon pain that will fall
thereof.
And that no person sell any bread, but if it keep the assize, and that it
be good and wholesome for man’s body, upon pain that will fall thereof.
And that no manner of person buy nor sell but with true weights and
measures, sealed according to the Statute in that behalf made, upon pain
that will fall thereof.
And that no manner of person, or persons take upon him, or them,
within this Fair to make any manner of arrest, attachment, summons, or
execution, but if it be done by the officer of this City, thereunto
assigned, upon pain that will fall thereof.
And that no person or persons whatsoever, within the limits and bounds
of this fair, presume to break the Lord’s Day in selling, showing, or
offering for sale, or in buying or offering to buy, any commodities
whatsoever, or in sitting, tippling, or drinking in any tavern, inn,
alehouse, or cook’s-house, or in doing any other thing that may lead to
any breach thereof, upon the pain and penalties contained in the several
acts of parliament, which will be severely inflicted upon the breakers
hereof.
And finally, that whatever person soever find themselves aggrieved,
injured or wronged by any manner of person in this Fair, that they come
with their plaints before the Stewards of this Fair, assigned to hear and
determine pleas, and they will minister to all parties justice, according
to the laws of the Land and the Customs of this City. God save the King!
Then, the mayor, sheriffs and aldermen, sitting on horseback, robed
in their violet gowns, having again made this proclamation at a point
between the City Fair and that owned by the Warwick or Holland family (as
successors of Sir Richard Rich?), ride through the Cloth Fair, and so
return back again, through the Churchyard of Great St. Bartholomew’s to
Aldersgate, and thence home again to the Lord Mayor’s house.
Tradition declares that the mayor, when he had read the Proclamation,
drank ale from a silver flagon, and that thereupon the bustle and
business of the fair began. I believe as a matter of fact the
proclamation was usually read by the Lord Mayor’s attorney, and repeated
after him by the sheriff’s officer, in the presence of the Lord Mayor,
Aldermen, and sheriffs. The officers of the Lord Mayor’s household
afterwards dined at the Sword-bearer’s table. This may have become the
custom at a later date. See 1688.
_Merchant Taylors’ right of search._—1609. An incident occurred this
year which raised the question of jurisdiction concerning an important
function which had heretofore been deemed of much consequence.
Immediately before the fair of this year the Drapers questioned the
right of search, for cloth pieces of insufficient length or quality, as
exercised by the Merchant Taylors. What followed is shown by the records
of the last-named company. Its clerk was ordered thereupon to attend
Drapers’ Hall on the next court day with a message to the following
purport, viz., That the Merchant Taylors’ Company had right to search,
and that they had quietly enjoyed the same since the 27th of Henry
VI., being above 150 years past, and still earlier, as by the Merchant
Taylors’ records appeared, wherein is mentioned a lengthened lawsuit
between them and the Drapers about the same question of right of search,
when a sentence was passed for the Merchant Taylors. There is in 1612
a note of a dinner at Merchant Taylors’ Hall “for the search on St.
Bartholomew’s Eve.”
The Drapers were incorporated as a Guild in 1364. In their charter was a
special exemption made against any prohibitions to be exercised by the
Company regarding the sale of cloth by any who were not free drapers,
in favour of the King’s beloved in God, the Prior of St. Bartholomew’s,
in West Smithfield, and other lords who had fairs in the suburbs of
London. A draper meant originally one who made the cloth he sold. It was
the London designation for clothier, a very few members of the Drapers’
Company being resident beyond the limits of the City. Therefore, say the
old writers, that Bartholomew Fair was frequented by “the clothiers of
England and the drapers of London.” Mercers especially frequented fairs
and markets, where their standings were gay with haberdashery, toys,
and even drugs and spices, the small articles of traffic on which they
throve. Mercers attending the French fairs towards the close of the
thirteenth century paid only half-toll when they were not stall keepers,
but exposed their wares on the ground. They, and the class of pedlers to
which they were allied, may have enjoyed a like privilege in England.
But while many of the mercers were thus of the brotherhood of Autolycus,
others dealt largely in silk and velvet, and abandoned to the haberdasher
traffic in small articles of dress. Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of
London, was a mercer.—_Vide Morley_, p. 95.
_Paving the Streets._—1614. This was an important year in the annals of
Smithfield. It passed from its old and normal condition of mud, into a
clean and paved enclosure, such as was familiar to many of us before the
new market buildings were erected in 1866. Other changes had preceded.
It was not until 1608 that the City had obtained a grant of the ground
of the late Priory of St. Bartholomew, which had been constituted into a
parish after the dissolution. Again, while it had ceased some time before
to be the scene of the morning performances of the common hangman—Tyburn
(itself afterwards absorbed in May Fair) having succeeded to the
distinction; it had still remained the _locus_ of a far more savage form
of persecution. The ashes of the last martyr fire had burned out in
1611—the victim being Bartholomew Leggatt, a pious Unitarian, burnt for
distrust of the Athanasian and Nicene creeds, by the order of James I. at
the sentence of John King, newly-made Bishop of London!
_The Drama._—As if more prominently to mark the transition state last
indicated, and perchance also as a memento, that in the very place had
been enacted (under the patronage of and for the purposes of the Church)
the first drama that England had ever seen; and which had step by step
progressed from mysteries to miracle plays, thence on to moralities,
and was now advancing to the state of taking an independent stand
as a National Drama—as if, I say, to commemorate this circumstance
with emphasis, “rare Ben Jonson” produced his celebrated comedy of
“Bartholomew Fair,” one of the chief features in which is the vivid
painting of the characters through whom the satirist portrays the
follies of the fair. They are many and various; each one planned to bring
into prominence one of the characteristics of the motley gathering.
Competent authorities have declared this to be equal to any of the best
works of the author. I confess not to have discovered many points for
admiration. There are a few good points in it which may be reproduced! A
stranger appears in the fair, a Puritan, designated Zealot-of-the-land
Busy. He is ordered to be put in the stocks, and says “I do obey thee,
the Lion may roar but he cannot bite. I am glad to be thus separated
from the _Heathen_ of the Land, and put apart in the Stocks for the holy
cause.” Humphrey Wasp inquires who he is. He replies “One that rejoiceth
in his affliction, and sitteth here to prophecy the Destruction of
_Fairs_, and May-games, Wakes, and Whitson-ales, and doth sigh and groan
for the reformation of these abuses.” Lanthorn Leatherhead recounts
some of the “motions” (plays) in which he had taken part at this fair.
“‘Jerusalem’ was a stately thing, and so was ‘Nineveh,’ and the ‘City
of Norwich’ and ‘Sodom and Gomorrah;’ with the rising o’ the Prentices
...; but the ‘Gunpowder-plot,’ there was a get-penny! I have presented
that to an eighteen or twenty-pence audience nine times in an afternoon.
Your home-born projects ever prove the best, they are so easy and
familiar; they put too much learning in their things now o’ days.” In
this spirit John Littlewit had been adapting a too classical play to the
comprehension of the frequenters of the fair, “as for the _Hellespont_, I
imagine our Thames here; and their _Leander_ I make a Dyer’s son about
Puddle Wharf; and _Hero_ a wench of the Bankside, who going over one
morning to Old Fish Street, _Leander_ spies her land at Trig-stairs, and
falls in love with her; now do I introduce _Cupid_, having metamorphoz’d
himself to a drawer [pot-boy] and he strikes _Hero_ in love with a pint
of sherry....”
_The Plague._—1625. The Plague again appeared in the Kingdom, and Charles
I. issued a Proclamation from his Court at Woodstock, wherein he recites
that there is usually extraordinary resort _out of all parts of the
Kingdom_ of persons to attend this and Stourbridge Fair; hence there is
prohibition against attending these fairs or any others held within fifty
miles of the City of London.
1630. Another like proclamation in consequence of Plague—this time being
in Cambridge. The King remembering that there were at hand “three great
Fairs of special note, unto which there is extraordinary resort from all
parts of the Kingdom,” attendance at Bartholomew, Stourbridge and Our
Lady Fair (Southwark) was prohibited.
1637. Again the Plague, and there was issued: By the King. A Proclamation
for putting off this next Bartholomew Faire in Smithfield, and our Lady
Faire in Southwarke. Giuen at our Court at Oatelands, the three and
twentieth day of Iuly in the thirteenth yeare of our Reigne. God save the
King. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the King’s most
excellent Maiestie: And by the Assigns of Iohn Bill. 1637. A sheet in
Black Letter. Copy in Mr. Huth’s Library.
_New Grant to the City._—1638. Charles I. this year granted a Charter to
London which contained the following:
We will also, and by these presents for us our heirs and successors
declare and grant that the said Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens and
their successors for ever may have hold and enjoy all those fields called
or known by the name of — and also all that field called West-Smithfield
in the Parish of St. Sepulchre’s, St. Bartholomew the Great, St.
Bartholomew the Less in the suburbs of London, or in some of them, to
the uses, intents and purposes after expressed; and that the same Mayor
and Commonalty and Citizens, and their successors may be able to hold in
the said field called Smithfield, _Fairs_ and _Markets_ there to be and
used to be held, and to take receive and have pickage, stallage, tolls
and profits appertaining, happening, belonging or arising out of the
fairs and markets there, to such uses as the same mayor and commonalty
and citizens, or their predecessors had, held or enjoyed, and now have,
hold and enjoy, or ought to have, hold or enjoy the said premises last
mentioned, and to no other uses, intents and purposes whatsoever.
_Wrestling Matches._—It had been the time-honoured custom of this fair to
have contests in wrestling. And during the reign of James I. (apparently)
the Corporation of the City laid down the following regulation to be
observed on the attendance of the Mayor and members of the Corporation
to witness the sport:
“ON BARTHOLOMEW DAY FOR WRESTLING.—So many Aldermen as dine with my Lord
Mayor and the Sheriffs, be apparelled in their scarlet gowns, lined,
and after dinner their horses be brought to them where they dine, and
those aldermen which dine with the sheriffs, ride with them to my lord’s
house to accompany him to wrestling. Then when the wrestling is done,
they take their horses, and ride back again thro’ the Fair, and so in at
Aldersgate, and so home again to the said Lord Mayor’s house.”
Then there was a regulation for attending the “Shooting” there, as
follows: “The next day, if it be not Sunday, for the Shooting as upon
Bartholomews day, but if it be Sunday, the Monday following.”
_Description of the Fair._—1641. There was published a Tract (a small
quarto of four leaves): “Bartholomew Faire, or Variety of fancies, where
you may find, a faire of wares and all to please your mind. With the
severall Enormityes and misdemeanours, which are there seene and acted.
London, printed for Richard Harper at the Bible and Harp in Smithfield,”
wherein the author, after giving a graphic account of the art of picking
pockets there, proceeds:
It is remarkable and worth your observation, to behold and hear the
strange sights and confused noises in the fair. Here a knave in a Fool’s
coat, with a trumpet sounding, or on a drum beating, invites you and
would fain persuade you to see his puppets; there a Rogue like a Wild
Woodman, or in an antick shape like an incubus, desires your company to
view his motion; on the other side Hocus Pocus with three yards of tape
or ribbon in ’s hand, showing the art of Legerdemain to the admiration
and astonishment of a company of cockoloaches. Amongst these you shall
see a gray Goose-cap (as wise as the rest) with a What de ye lack? in his
mouth, standing on his booth shaking a rattle, or scraping on a fiddle,
with which children are so taken, that they presently cry out for these
fopperies; And all these together make such a distracted noise, that
you would think Babel were not comparable to it. Here there are also
your gamesters in action; some turning of a whimsey, others throwing for
pewter, who can quickly dissolve a round shilling into a three halfpenny
saucer.
Long Lane at this time looks very fair, and puts out her best clothes
with the wrong side outwards, so turned for their better turning off; and
Cloth Fair is now in great request: well fare the alehouses therein; yet
better may a man fare (but at a dearer rate) in the Pig market, alias
Pasty nook or Pie Corner, where pigs are all hours of the day on the
stalls piping hot, and would cry (if they could speak) Come eat me; but
they are ... dear and the reckonings for them are ... saucy, &c. &c.
It is clear that the glory of the fair is departing—Royal Proclamations
notwithstanding.
_Political Pamphlets._—1647. It seems to have become the fashion
to designate some of the many political pamphlets of this period
“Bartholomew Fairings.” One such work appeared this year entitled:
“General Massey’s Bartholomew Fayrings to Colonel Poyntz.” This was
ascribed to the famous John Lilburne. It was answered in another
pamphlet: “Reformados Righted, being an Answer to a paltry piece of
Poetry entitled, &c.” There is nothing in either of these throwing any
light upon the fair. The same was not quite the case with a quarto
pamphlet of the following year: “An Agitator Anatomised.” Here was
reference to “a large and beautiful Camel from Grand Cairo in Egypt.” Mr.
Morley thinks this may have been the beginning of “wild-beast shows” in
the fair.
This year the Act was passed against “Stage plays.” It seemed destined to
have an influence on the fair.
1648. Evelyn in his “Diary,” under date 28th August this year, notices
his coming to London from Say’s Court and seeing the “the celebrated
follies of Bartholomew Fair.” The date here seems to indicate some change
in the date of the fair.
_The Commonwealth and the Fair._—1649. This was a year of political
commotion. The troubles with the King had terminated on the block. There
was issued in the form of a tract, a book-play entitled: “A Bartholomew
Fairing, New, New, New; Sent from the raised siege before Dublin, as a
preparatory Present to the Great Thanksgiving Day. To be communicated
onely to Independents.” It was published without any printer’s name. Its
contents throw some light upon the political events of the period; but
these have no bearing upon the fair, present or future.
It seems indeed to have been anticipated that the advent of the Puritans
into power in this the first year of the Commonwealth might have led
to the suppression of the fair. The speech of Zealot-of-the-land Busy,
while sitting in the stocks at the fair in 1614 (“Bartholomew Fair,” by
Ben Jonson) seemed prophetically to hint at this. Mr. Morley gives the
following instructive picture of the period:
The Puritans did not suppress Bartholomew Fair. There were indeed
no dramas performed in it by living actors, but the state did not
condescend, like Rabbi Busy, to engage in controversy with the puppets.
It was for the Corporation of London, if it pleased, to exercise control,
and there was a Lord Mayor, who, as we shall see, did make himself
eminent for an attack upon the wooden Dagons of the Show. Against the
fool in his motley none made war; Cromwell himself had in his private
service four buffoons, and had he visited the fair, true hero as he was,
might have been well disposed to mount a hobby-horse. Therefore the
clown still jested, and the toyman thrust his baubles in the face of the
Roundhead, while the Cavalier’s lady, with a constellation of black stars
about her nose, a moon of ink on her chin, and a coach and horses—a very
fashionable patch—on her forehead, laughed at the short hair under the
broad-brimmed hat of the offended gentleman. Well might she laugh at the
miserable scarecrow in plain cloak and jerkin, and in boots that fitted
him: for he had no love locks and no peaked beard like the gallant at
her side; he wore only a little pecked band instead of a laced collar,
and as for his breeches—not only did they want ornament and width; but
they even showed no elegant bit of shirt protruding over them! Across the
Smithfield pavement, Cavaliers in boots two inches too long, and with
laced tops wide enough to contain each of them a goose, straddled about;
compelled to straddle in order that the long and jingling spur of one
boot, hooked into the ruffle of the other, might not bring down the whole
man into the gutter. Women I say might note such things, but the men were
in earnest. The dainty Cavalier in the historical shirt, embroidered with
the deeds of profane heroes, might glance from the speckled face of his
companion towards the clean cheeks of the Puritan maid in the religious
petticoat worked over with texts and scripture scenes; all had their
vanities, their froth of weakness floating loose above the storm; all had
an eye for the jest of the fair, but under it lay in a heaving mass the
solemn earnest of the time. The fair brought together from almost all
parts of England, men who had urgent thoughts to exchange, harmonies and
conflicts now of principle and now of passion to express. The destiny of
fatherland was hidden from all in a future black with doubt. Men brave
and honest had their souls pledged in allegiance to an earthly king, over
whom and against whom others as brave and as honest set up rights given
to them by the King of kings.
1650. There was published a broadside and cut, with a “Description of
Bartholomew Fair:”—
“Whether this be wit or nonsence, who need care,
’Tis like the subject, which is Bartholomew Fair:
A mess of altogether, well enough,
To get good money, which will make us huff,
And swagger bravely, drink a glass or so,
With some kind she-acquaintance which you know,
Are pretty tempting things, so much for that,
I must now come and tell you plain and flat:
That in this song the whole Fair you may view,
You may believe me when I tell you true.”
Set to the tune of “Digby’s Farewell.” Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J.
Wright, and J. Clarke. Containing twelve stanzas of eight lines.
1656. During the Commonwealth several attempts were made by the lord
mayors to put some check on the freedom of this fair.[8] One of them,
Sir John Deltrich, was knighted by Cromwell soon after the fair-time
(viz. 5th Sept.) in 1656; and it has been rightly assumed that he was the
mayor who pressed hard against those puppet showmen and others who had
commenced the business of the fair, as he conceived, twelve hours too
soon, and were already at work when he arrived to proclaim the opening.
This event appears to have led to a burlesque opening by a company of
tailors who met at the “Hand and Shears” already noticed on the night
before the official opening, elected a chairman, and as the clock struck
twelve, went out into the Cloth Fair, each with a pair of shears in his
hand. The chairman then proclaimed the fair to the expectant mob; and
then all formed a procession to proceed in tumultuous array to announce
the fair to the sleepers in Smithfield, by the ringing of bells and other
discordant manifestations. The following is the form of proclamation
used, and contains nothing objectionable.
_An unauthorised Proclamation._—O yez! O yez! O yez! All manner of
persons may take notice that in the Close of St. Bartholomew the Great
and West Smithfield, London, and the streets, lanes and places adjoining,
is now to be held a Fair for this day and the two days following, to
which all people may freely resort and buy and sell according to the
Liberties and Privileges of the said Fair, and may depart without
disturbance, paying their duties. And all persons are strictly charged
and commanded in His Majesty’s name, to help the peace, and to do nothing
in the disturbance of the said Fair, as they will answer the contrary
at their peril; and that there be no manner of arrest or arrests but by
such officers as are appointed. And if any person be aggrieved, let them
repair to the Court of Pie-Powder, where they will have speedy relief
according to Justice and Equity. God save the King.
This irregular proclamation seems to have been accepted as a legal act
by the Lord Kensington who had become owner of one-half of the tolls of
the fair, and it continued down to 1839. It was but a repetition of the
double jurisdiction claimed in Sturbridge Fair.
There is in the library of the British Museum a doggrel ballad, printed
as a broad-sheet, called “The Dagonizing of Bartholomew Fair,” which
describes, with coarse humour—the grossness of which may be attributed
in part to the mingled resentment and contempt which underlies it—the
measures taken by the civil authorities for the removal from the fair
of the showmen who had pitched there in spite of the determination of
the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen to suppress with the utmost
rigour everything which could move to laughter or minister to wonder.
Among these are mentioned a fire-eating conjuror, a “Jack Pudding,” and
“wonders made of wax,” being the earliest notice of a waxwork exhibition
which I have been able to discover.—FROST’S _Old Showman_, &c., p. 31.
In “A Caveat for Cut-purses,” a ballad of the time of Charles I., there
is the following:—
“The Players do tell you, in Bartholomew Faire,
What secret consumptions and rascals you are;
For one of their Actors, it seems, had the fate
By some of your trade to be fleeced of late.”
In another ballad, “Ragged and Torn and True,” there is this:—
“The pick-pockets in a throng
At a market or a faire,
Will try whose purse is strong,
That they may the money share.”
_The Restoration._—1661. The Restoration led to a considerable reaction
from the severities of the Commonwealth, and the incidents of the fair
were affected thereby, as will be seen. The first noticeable feature is
that the period of the fair becomes permanently prolonged from three to
fourteen days; with occasional extensions it is said to six weeks’ riot
and amusement. Another that the pamphleteering continued to be associated
with the fair. There was one “Strange News from Bartholomew Fair” &c.
by Peter Aretine, printed for “Theodosus Microcosmus.” The contents of
this publication are altogether too gross for detailed mention. There
was another tract “News from Bartholomew Fair. Or the World’s Mad: being
a Description of the Varieties and Fooleries of this present Age,” with
Allowance (_i.e._ Licensed) “Printed for the general use of the Buyer,
and perticular Benefit of the Seller.” It had for motto “Risum teneatis
amici?” and a frontispiece representing a modified Puritan, in presence
of Jacob Hall the fashionable rope-dancer, exhibiting the varieties of
dress!
1663. “Pepys’s Diary,” that never-failing source of reference, throws
some light upon the doings of the fair at this period. On the 25th Aug.
morrow of St. Bartholomew’s Day (new style), Mr. Pepys going at noon to
the Exchange, met a fine fellow with trumpets before him in Leadenhall
Street, and upon inquiry found that he was “Clerk of the City Market:”
three or four men attended him each carrying an arrow of a pound weight
in his hand. This was a revival by the Lord Mayor of the old City custom
of challenging any to shoot at the fair. The previous day his lordship
had attended to witness the wrestling. On the following there was to
be the civic hunting! But the feeling had so far changed (perhaps in
consequence of the event of 1656) that the Lord Mayor’s presence was not
desired at this. “The people of the fair cry out upon it, as a great
hindrance to them.”
1664. From the correspondence of the philosopher John Locke, at this date
it is clear he had elbowed his way with the rest of the world through
the crowd and made a study of this fair. Thus describing the sights of
the city of Cleves (from whence he writes) to John Strachy at Bristol,
he says “In the principal church at Cleves was a little altar for the
service of Christmas Day. The scene was a stable, wherein was an ox,
an ass, a cradle, the Virgin, the Babe, Joseph, shepherds, and angels,
dramatis personæ. Had they but given them motion it had been a perfect
Puppet play, and might have deserved pence a piece; for they were of the
same size and make that our English puppets are; and I am confident these
shepherds and this Joseph are kin to that Judith and Holophernes which I
had seen at Bartholomew Fair.”
_Plague._—1665-6. There was no fair in these years in consequence of the
Plague visitation. In the former of the two years at the usual fair-time
bale fires were burning in the streets night and day to purify the air,
and they continued until quenched by heavy rain. In the following year
there occurred during the fair-time (as now extended) the Great Fire
of London, flames two miles in extent and a mile in breadth, with
smoke extending fifty miles. There would have been a scene of intense
confusion if the fair had been gathered; no real danger, perhaps, as the
conflagration ended at Pye Corner, on the verge of the site of the fair.
The houses then spared here were in existence down to Oct. 1809.
In the following year the fair was resumed, and probably was of some
service to the City in bringing people and money to it again. Pepys “the
immortal” records under date 28th Aug. “went twice round Bartholomew
Fair, which I was glad to see again, after two years missing of it by the
plague.” It seems patent that Court people and ladies of all qualities
were at home in the fair at this period. Pepys records how he took his
wife in 1668 “and there did see a ridiculous obscene little stage play
called ‘Marry Audrey,’ a foolish thing, but seen by everybody; and so
to Jacob Hall’s dancing of the ropes—a thing worth seeing and mightily
followed.”
_Tolls._—1671. The Corporation of London was dissatisfied with the
profits of the fair accruing from the arrangement then subsisting, and
referred it to the Comptroller to let the ground for the City and report
the tolls to the first court after the fair. This was done, and appears
to have been satisfactory, as the Corporation continued to receive
the direct proceeds down to 1685, when the tolls were leased to the
Sword-bearer for three years at a clear rental of £100 per annum. At the
expiration of two years it was reported that the tolls had not amounted
to more than £68; they were leased to the Sword-bearer at this rental
for twenty-one years.
1674. In “Poor Robin’s Almanack” for this year, in a catalogue of jests
upon the purposes or features of fairs, is the following “Aug. 24
Smithfield for Jack puddings, pigs heads, and Bartholomew Babies.”
1678. The “Irregularities and Disorders” of this fair were brought under
the notice of the civil authorities; and the question was referred to a
Committee “to consider how the same might be prevented, and what damages
would occur to the City by laying down the same.” This is the first hint
of suppression by the City; “and its arising,” says Mr. Morley, “is
_almost simultaneous with the decay of the great annual gathering as a
necessary seat of trade_.” He adds, “There is no year in which it can
be distinctly said that then the Cloth Fair died. Even at this hour,
when the fair itself is extinct, there are in the street called Cloth
Fair, on the site of the old mart, one or two considerable shops of
Cloth-merchants, who seem there to have buried themselves out of sight,
and to be feeding upon the traditions of the fair.”
_Cloth Trade._—It is in connection with the woollen cloth trade that
Bartholomew Fair most linked itself with commerce. It was not simply the
great metropolitan cloth fair, but it was the greatest fair for woollen
cloths held in England. For centuries wool had been the great staple of
this country. Kings had taken its regulation under their own particular
charge. The highest official in the land took his seat amongst the peers
of the realm literally on a sack of wool. Cloth ranked first amongst the
products of the nation’s industry. Among the fairs of the world English
woollen cloth was an important article of commerce. The centre of this
trade for several centuries was located in this particular fair. Other
fairs had other specialities. But St. Bartholomew’s was the annual trade
gathering of English clothiers and London drapers. The arms of the
Merchant Tailors were engraved upon a silver yard—thirty-six inches in
length and thirty-six ounces in weight,—with which century after century
members of their body were deputed to attend at West Smithfield during
the fair, and test the measures of the clothiers and drapers (See 1609).
The “Hand and Shears” was a famous hostelry within the Close, where the
cloth-merchants and the tailors fraternized. And here, too, the Court of
Piepowder was long held when removed from the Abbey.
It remains to be stated in connection with the events of this year that
there was a very grave question involved as to whether the City had
any legal right to suppress the fair. The Cattle Fair was still very
considerable (see 1715).
1682. There was published a new edition of “Wit and Drollery: Jovial
Poems” (1682); there is contained the following epitome of the features
of the fair (not contained in the edition of 1656):—
“Here’s that will challenge all the fair,
Come buy my nuts and damsons and Burgamy pears!
Here’s the Woman of Babylon, the Devil and the Pope,
And here’s the little Girl just going on the Rope!
Here’s _Dives and Lazarus_ and the _World’s Creation_,
Here’s the _Tall Dutch Woman_, the like’s not in the nation.
Here is the Booths where the high Dutch maid is,
Here are the Bears that dance like any Ladies;
Tat, tat, tat, tat, says little penny Trumpet;
Here’s Jacob Hall, that does so jump it, jump it;
Sound Trumpet, sound, for silver spoon and fork,
Come, here’s your dainty Pig and Pork.”
It had in fact come to this—as Sir Robert Southwell truly said in a
letter to his son in 1685: “The main importance of this fair is not so
much for merchandise, and the supplying what people really want; but as
a sort of Bacchanalia, to gratify the multitude in their wandering and
irregular thoughts.”
1688. It had become a custom for the Lord Mayor after proclaiming the
fair to call upon the keeper of Newgate, whose services were usually
involved during the fair, and partake of “a cool tankard of wine, nutmeg,
and sugar.” This year Sir John Shorter—natural grandfather of Horace
Walpole, and of his cousins the Conway Seymours—followed the usual
course, but let the lid of the tankard flop down with so much force that
his horse started; he was thrown to the ground, and died the next day.
The practice was discontinued during the second mayoralty of Sir Matthew
Wood.
In “The Lady’s New Year’s Gift; or, Advice to a Daughter,” published
this year, it is observed: “Some women are for merry-meetings, as Bessus
was for Duels; they are ingaged in a Circle of Idleness, where they run
round for the whole year, without the interruption of a serious hour;
they know all the Players names & are Intimately acquainted with all the
Booths in Bartholomew Fair.”
1690. Literature still continued to be associated with the fair.
Thus there was published this year: “The City Revels, or the Humours
of Bartholomew Fair,” by J. G. Gent. Sold by Randal Taylor, near
Stationers-Hall, and by most Booksellers. Price stitcht 6_d._—not a
single copy of which is now known to exist. There was also published
about this date “Roger in Amaze: Or the Countrymans Ramble through
Bartholomew Fair. To the tune of: The Dutch Womans Jigg. Printed by and
for A. M. and sold by J. Walter,” &c. A sheet containing eight six-line
stanzas. (Library of H. Huth, Esq.)
1691. There was a strong feeling setting in at this period against the
fair. The Corporation ordered a return to the original term of three
days, not only as a check to vice, but in order that the pleasures of the
fair might not choke up the avenues of traffic. It is clear that this was
not effective, for the order was repeated three years later. See 1711.
1697. The Lord Mayor issued an Ordinance “for the suppression of vicious
practices in Bartholomew fair, as obscene, lascivious and scandalous
plays, comedies, and farces, unlawful games and interludes, drunkenness,
&c., strictly charging all constables and other officers to use the
utmost diligence in prosecuting the same.” _Vide_ “Postman” of this date.
Political allusions were very freely made in the amusements of the Fair;
and sometimes these brought speedy retaliation. Thus, in the present
year William Philips, a Zany or Jack Pudding, was arrested and publicly
whipped for perpetrating in the fair a jest on the repressive tendencies
of the Government, which the poet Prior has condensed and preserved for
us. The said clown made his appearance on the exterior stage of the
show with a tongue in his left hand, and a black pudding in his right.
Professing to have learned an important secret, by which he hoped to
profit, he communicated it to the mountebank, in words recorded by Prior
thus:—
Be of your patron’s mind whate’er he says;
Sleep very much, think little, and talk less:
Mind neither good nor bad, nor right nor wrong;
But eat your pudding, slave, and hold your tongue.
This same W. Philips is suspected to have an important history of his
own—indeed, to have been something besides a clown. He is believed to
have been the author of the “Revengeful Queen,” published in 1698; also
of “Alcamenes and Menelippa,” and of a farce called “Britons, Strike
Home,” which was acted in a booth in Bartholomew Fair. Relating to him is
also supposed to have been a book published in 1688, of which nothing but
the title-page is now known to exist. This is preserved in the Harleian
collection, viz., “The Comical History of the famous Merry Andrew, W.
Phill., Giving an account of his Pleasant Humours, Various Adventures,
Cheats, Frolicks, and Cunning Designs, both in City and Country.” A copy
of this would now command a large price.
Another of the great show characters of this period was Joseph Clark,
the “Posturer.” He is the “whimsical fellow” mentioned by Addison in the
“Guardian,” No. 102. He was the son of a distiller in Shoe Lane, and
was intended for the medical profession. This did not suit his views,
nor did the trade of a mercer, to which he was next put. He probably
became buffoon in the Court of the Duke of Buckingham. Finally he
appeared in the Fair. His performance chiefly consisted in the imitation
of every kind of human deformity; and he is said to have imposed so
completely upon Molins, the famous surgeon, as to be dismissed by him
as an incurable cripple! There is a notice of him in the “Philosophical
Transactions,” where it is related that he “had such an absolute command
of all his muscles and joints that he could disjoint almost his whole
body.” A portrait in Tempest’s collection represents him in the act of
shouldering his leg, an antic which is imitated by a monkey. Frost’s “Old
showman,” p. 59.
1698. A Frenchman, Monsieur Sorbière, visiting London, says: “I was
at Bartholomew Fair. It consists of most Toy Shops, also Fiance, and
Picture, Ribbon Shops, no Books; many shops of Confectioners, where
any woman may commodiously be treated. Knavery is here in perfection,
dexterous Cut-purses and Pickpockets. I went to see the Dancing on the
Ropes, which was admirable. Coming out, I met a man that would have took
off my hat, but I secured it, and was going to draw my sword, crying
out ‘Begar! Damn’d Rogue! Morbleu,’ &c., when on a sudden I heard a
hundred People about me, crying, ‘Here Monsieur, see “Jephthah’s Rash
Vow.”’ ‘Here, Monsieur, see “The Tall Dutchwoman.”’ ‘See “The Tiger,”’
says another. ‘See “The Horse and No Horse,” whose tail stands where his
head should do.’ ‘See the “German Artist,” Monsieur.’ ‘See the “Siege of
Namur,” Monsieur;’ so that betwixt Rudeness and Civility I was forc’d to
get into a fiacre, and with an air of haste and a full trot, got home to
my lodgings.”
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