“We ordered the coachman to set us down at the Hospital-gate, near which
we went into a convenient house to smoke a pipe, and overlook the
follies of the innumerable throng, whose impatient desires of seeing
Merry Andrew’s grimaces, had led them ancle deep into filth and
nastiness.--The first objects, when we were seated at the window that
lay within our observation, were the quality of the Fair, strutting
round their balconies in their tinsey robes, and golden leather
buckskins, expressing such pride in their buffoonery stateliness, that I
could but reasonably believe they were as much elevated with the thought
of their fortnight’s pageantry, as ever Alexander was with the thought
of a new conquest looking with great contempt from their slit deal
thrones, upon the admiring mobility gazing in the dirt at our
ostentatious heroes, and their most supercilious doxies, who looked as
aukward and ungainly in their gorgeous accoutrements, as an alderman’s
lady in her stiffen-bodied gown upon a lord mayor’s festival.”[289]
* * * * *
At the Fair of 1701, there was exhibited a tiger which had been taught
to pluck a fowl’s feathers from its body.
In the reign of queen Anne the following curious bill relates part of
the entertainment at one of the shows:--
“By her majesty’s permission, at Heatly’s booth, over against the Cross
Daggers, next to Mr. Miller’s booth, during the time of Bartholomew
Fair, will be presented a little opera, called The Old Creation of the
World new Revived, with the addition of the glorious battle obtained
over the French and Spaniards by his grace the duke of Marlborough. The
contents are these, 1. The creation of Adam and Eve. 2. The intrigues of
Lucifer in the garden of Eden. 3. Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise.
4. Cain going to plow; Abel driving sheep. 5. Cain killeth his brother
Abel. 6. Abraham offereth up his son Isaac. 7. Three wise men of the
east, guided by a star, come and worship Christ. 8. Joseph and Mary flee
away by night upon an ass. 9. King Herod’s cruelty; his men’s spears
laden with children. 10. Rich Dives invites his friends, and orders his
porter to keep the beggars from his gate. 11. Poor Lazarus comes a
begging at rich Dives’ gate, the dogs lick his sores. 12. The good angel
and Death contend for Lazarus’s life. 13. Rich Dives is taken sick, and
dieth; he is buried in great solemnity. 14. Rich Dives in hell, and
Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, seen in a most glorious object, all in
machines descending in a throne, guarded with multitudes of angels; with
the breaking of the clouds, discovering the palace of the sun, in double
and treble prospects, to the admiration of all the spectators. Likewise
several rich and large figures, which dance jiggs, sarabands, anticks,
and country dances, between every act; compleated with the merry humours
of Sir Jno. Spendall and Punchinello, with several other things never
exposed. Performed by Matt. Heatly. _Vivat Regina._”
A writer in the “Secret Mercury,” of September 9, 1702, says,
“Wednesday, September 3, having padlocked my pockets, and trimmed myself
with Hudibras from head to foot, I set out about six for Bartholomew
Fair; and having thrown away substantial silver for visionary theatrical
entertainment, I made myself ready for the farce; but I had scarce
composed myself, when bolts me into the pit a bully beau, &c. The
curtain drew, and discovered a nation of beauish machines; their motions
were so starched, that I began to question whether I had mistaken
myself, and Dogget’s booth for a puppet-show. As I was debating the
matter, they advanced towards the front of the stage, and making a halt,
began a singing so miserably, that I was forced to tune my own whistle
in romance ere my brains were set straight again. All the secret I
could for my life discover in the whole grotesque, was the consistency
of drift of the piece, which I could never demonstrate to this hour. At
last, all the childish parade shrunk off the stage by matter and motion,
and enter a hobletehoy of a dance, and Dogget, in old woman’s petticoats
and red waistcoat, as like Progue Cock as ever man saw; it would have
made a stoic split his lungs, if he had seen the temporary harlot sing
and weep both at once; a true emblem of a woman’s tears. When these
Christmas carols were over, enter a wooden horse; now I concluded we
should have the ballad of Troy-town, but I was disappointed in the
scene, for a dancing-master comes in, begins complimenting the horse,
and fetching me three or four run-bars with his arm, (as if he would
have mortified the ox at one blow,) takes a frolic upon the back of it,
and translates himself into cavalry at one bound; all I could clap was
the patience of the beast. However, having played upon him about half a
quarter, the conqueror was pursued with such a clangor from the crusted
clutches of the mob in the sixpenny place, that for five minutes
together I was tossed on this dilemma, that either a man had not five
senses, or I was no man. The stage was now overrun with nothing but
merry-andrews and pickle-herrings. This mountebank scene was removed at
last, and I was full of expectations that the successor would be pills,
pots of balsam, and orvietan; but, alas, they were half empirics, and
therefore exeunt omnes.”
We learn something of the excesses at the Fair from “The Observator,” of
August 21, 1703:--“Does this market of lewdness tend to any thing else
but the ruin of the bodies, souls, and estates of the young men and
women of the city of London, who here meet with all the temptations to
destruction? The lotteries, to ruin their estates; the drolls, comedies,
interludes, and farces, to poison their minds, &c. and in the cloisters
what strange medley of lewdness has that place not long since afforded!
Lords and ladies, aldermen and their wives, ’squires and fiddlers,
citizens and rope-dancers, jack-puddings and lawyers, mistresses and
maids, masters and ’prentices! This is not an ark, like Noah’s which
received the clean and unclean; only the unclean beasts enter this ark,
and such as have the devil’s livery on their backs.”
An advertisement in “The Postman,” of August 19, 1703, by “Barnes and
Finley,” invites the reader to “see my lady Mary perform such curious
steps on the dancing-rope,” &c. &c. Lady Mary is noticed in “Heraclitus
Ridens,” No. 7. “Look upon the old gentleman; his eyes are fixed upon my
lady Mary: Cupid has shot him as dead as a robin. Poor Heraclitus! he
has cried away all his moisture, and is such a dotard to entertain
himself with a prospect of what is meat for his betters; wake him out of
his lethargy, and tell him the young noblemen and senators will take it
amiss if a man of his years makes pretensions to what is more than a
match for their youth. Those roguish eyes have brought her more admirers
than ever Jenny Bolton had.”
Lady Mary was the daughter of noble parents, inhabitants of Florence,
who immured her in a nunnery; but she accidentally saw a merry-andrew,
with whom she formed a clandestine intercourse; an elopement followed,
and finally, he taught her his infamous tricks, which she exhibited for
his profit, till vice had made her his own, as Heraclitus proves. The
catastrophe of “the lady Mary” was dreadful: her husband, impatient of
delays or impediments to profit, either permitted or commanded her to
exhibit on the rope, when her situation required compassionate
consideration; she fell never to rise again, nor to open her eyes on her
untimely infant, which perished in a few minutes after her.
In 1715, Dawks’s “News Letter,” says, “on Wednesday, Bartholomew Fair
began, to which we hear, the greatest number of black cattle was
brought, that was ever known.--There is one great playhouse erected in
the middle of Smithfield for the king’s players.--The booth is the
largest that was ever built.” Actors of celebrity performed in the Fair
at that time, and in many succeeding years.
A recent writer, evidently well acquainted with the manners of the
period, introduces us to a character mentioned in a former sheet. “In
the midst of all, the public attention was attracted to a tall,
well-made, and handsome-looking man, who was dressed in a very
fashionable suit of white, trimmed with gold lace, a laced ruffled
shirt, rolled white silk stockings, a white apron, and a large cocked
hat, formed of gingerbread, fringed and garnished with Dutch gold. He
carried on his arm a basket filled with gingerbread cakes, one of which
he held up in the air; while the other hand was stuck with an easy and
fashionable manner into his bosom. For this singular vendor of
confectionary every one made way, and numbers followed in his train,
shouting after him, ‘there goes Tiddy Doll!’ the name by which that
remarkable character was known. He himself did not pass silently through
the crowd, but as he went along, he poured forth a multiplicity of
praises of his ware, occasionally enlivened by that song which first
procured him his name.” This was at the Fair of the year 1740 concerning
which the same illustrator thus continues: “The multitude behind was
impelled violently forwards, a broad blaze of red light, issuing from a
score of flambeaux, streamed into the air; several voices were loudly
shouting, ‘room there for prince George! make way for the prince!’ and
there was that long sweep heard to pass over the ground, which indicates
the approach of a grand and ceremonious train. Presently the pressure
became much greater, the voices louder, the light stronger, and as the
train came onward, it might be seen that it consisted, firstly, of a
party of yeomen of the guards clearing the way; then several more of
them bearing flambeaux, and flanking the procession; while in the midst
of all appeared a tall, fair, and handsome young man, having something
of a plump foreign visage, seemingly about four and thirty years of age,
dressed in a ruby-coloured frock coat, very richly guarded with gold
lace, and having his long flowing hair curiously curled over his
forehead and at the sides, and finished with a very large bag and
courtly queue behind. The air of dignity with which he walked, the blue
ribbon, and star and garter with which he was decorated, the small
three-cornered silk court hat which he wore, whilst all around him were
uncovered; the numerous suite, as well of gentlemen as of guards, which
marshalled him along, the obsequious attention of a short stout person,
who by his flourishing manner seemed to be a player,--all these
particulars indicated that the amiable Frederick, prince of Wales was
visiting Bartholomew Fair by torchlight, and that manager Rich was
introducing his royal guest to all the entertainments of the place.
However strange this circumstance may appear to the present generation,
yet it is nevertheless strictly true; for about 1740, when the drolls in
Smithfield were extended to three weeks and a month, it was not
considered as derogatory to persons of the first rank and fashion, to
partake in the broad humour and theatrical amusements of the place. It
should also be remembered, that many an eminent performer of the last
century, unfolded his abilities in a booth; and that it was once
considered, as an important and excellent preparative to their treading
the boards of a theatre-royal.” One of the players is thus represented
as informing a spectator concerning the occupation of an itinerant
actor:--“I will, as we say, take you behind the scenes. First then, a
valuable actor must sleep in the pit, and wake early to sweep the
theatre, and throw fresh sawdust into the boxes; he must shake out the
dresses, and wind up and dust the motion-jacks; he must teach the dull
ones how to act, rout up the idlers from the straw, and redeem those
that happen to get into the watch-house. Then, sir, when the Fair
begins, he should sometimes walk about the stage grandly, and show his
dress: sometimes he should dance with his fellows; sometimes he should
sing; sometimes he should blow the trumpet; sometimes he should laugh
and joke with the crowd, and give them a kind of a touch-and-go speech,
which keep them merry, and makes them come in. Then, sir, he should
sometimes cover his state robe with a great coat, and go into the crowd,
and shout opposite his own booth, like a stranger who is struck with its
magnificence: by the way, sir, that’s a good trick, I never knew it fail
to make an audience; and then he has only to steal away, mount his
stage, and strut, and dance, and sing, and trumpet, and roar over
again.”[290]
* * * * *
An advertisement in the “London Gazette” of April the 13th, 1682, shows
under what authority showmen and similar persons “labour in their
vocation:”--
“Whereas Mr. John Clarke, of London, bookseller, did rent of Charles
Killigrew, Esq. the licensing of all ballad-singers for five years;
which time is expired at Lady-day next. These are, therefore, to give
notice to all ballad-singers, that they take out licences at the office
of the revels, at Whitehall, for singing and selling of ballads, and
small books, according to an ancient custom. And all persons concerned
are hereby desired to take notice of, and to suppress all mountebanks,
rope-dancers, prize-players, ballad-singers, and such as make show of
motions and strange sights, that have not a licence in red and black
letters, under the hand and seal of the said Charles Killigrew, Esq.
master of the revels to his majesty;” and in particular it requires them
to suppress two, one of them being “Thomas Teats mountebank,” who have
no licence “that they may be proceeded against according to law.”
The late John Charles Crowle, Esq. who bequeathed his illustrated copy
of “Pennant’s London” to the British Museum, which he valued at 5000_l._
was master of the revels. In that quality he claimed a seat in any part
of the theatres, and being opposed by the manager of the little theatre
in the Haymarket, maintained his right. He was also trumpet-major of
England, to whom every one who blows a trumpet publicly (excepting those
of the theatres-royal) must pay a certain sum, and therefore the office
has jurisdiction of all the merry-andrews and jack-puddings of every
Fair throughout England. The office of master of the revels was created
under Henry VIII. in 1546. The identical seal of the office used under
five sovereigns, was engraved on wood, and is in the possession of
Francis Douce, Esq. F.S.A., who permitted impressions of it to be
inserted first by Mr. Chalmers in his “Apology for the believers in the
Shakspeare MSS.,” and next by Mr. J. T. Smith, of the British Museum, in
his “Ancient Topography of London:” the legend on it is “Sigill: Offic:
Jocor: Mascar: et Revell: Dnis. Reg.” Mr. Chalmers’s work also contains
the “arms of the revels.”[291]
* * * * *
Mr. J. T. Smith was informed by Mr. Thomas Batrich, an ancient barber of
Drury-lane, that Mr. Garrick shortly after his marriage conducted Mrs.
Garrick to Yates and Shuter’s booth; Garrick being rudely pushed called
upon his bill-sticker, old Palmer, who had been engaged to receive the
money at the entrance of the booth, for protection. Palmer, though a
very strong man, professed himself sorry he could not serve him in
Smithfield; alleging that few people there knew Garrick off the stage.
One of the merry-andrews who attended on the quack doctors was so much
superior to the rest of his profession for wit and gesture, that he was
noticed by all ranks of people. Between the seasons he sold gingerbread
nuts about Covent-garden, and was the most polite and quiet vendor of
the article in London; for to keep up his value at fairs, where he had a
guinea a day for his performance besides presents from the multitude, he
would never laugh or notice a joke when a dealer in nuts.
* * * * *
Mr. Edward Oram, who died at Hampstead in his seventy-third year, and
was buried at Hendon, was intimate with Hogarth in his youth, and
introduced him, soon after he left his master, to the proprietors of
Drury-lane theatre, where he and Oram painted scenes conjointly, for
several years, and were employed by a famous woman, who kept a droll in
Bartholomew Fair to paint a splendid set of scenes. The agreement
particularly specified that the scenes were to be gilt; but instead of
leaf gold being used, they were covered in the usual way with Dutch
metal: the mistress of the drolls declared the contract to be broken,
and refused to pay for the scenes.[292]
* * * * *
Without going into a history of Bartholomew Fair, it may be remarked
that in 1778 it was attended by a foreigner, who exhibited serpents that
danced on silk ropes to the sound of music. In 1782, the late Mrs.
Baker, proprietor of the Rochester theatre, brought here her company of
comedians as “show-folk.” In four successive years, from 1779 to 1780,
Mr. Hall of the City-road, eminent for his skill in the preservation of
deceased animals, exhibited at the Fair his fine collection of stuffed
birds and beasts, which he exhibited for many years before and
afterwards at his own house. To obtain notice to it in Smithfield, he
engaged sir Jeffery Dunstan to give his imitations in crying “old wigs;”
but the mob were no admirers of “still life:” at Hall’s last visit they
drew his fine zebra round the Fair; from thenceforth sir Jeffery’s
imitations ceased to draw, and Hall came no more.
The exhibitions of living animals at this Fair have been always
attractive. Hither came the “illustrious” Pidcock, with his wild
beasts, and to him succeeded the “not less illustrious” Polito.
Hither also came the formerly famous, and still well-remembered Astley,
with his “equestrian troop,” and his learned horse. These feats were the
admiration of never-ceasing audiences, and to him succeeded Saunders
with like success.
_Puppet Shows._
Flockton was the last eminent “motion-master” at Bartholomew Fair. He
was himself a good performer, and about 1790 his wooden puppets were in
high vogue. He brought them every year till his death, which happened at
Peckham, where he resided in a respectable way, upon a handsome
competence realized by their exhibition at this and the principal fairs
in the country. Flockton’s “Punch” was a very superior one to the
present street show. He had trained a Newfoundland dog to fight his
puppet, representing the devil, whom he always conquered in due time,
and then ran away with him.
A puppet-show, or play performed by puppets, was anciently called a
“_motion_;” and sometimes, in common talk, a single puppet was called “a
motion.” These were very favourite spectacles. In the times of the
papacy, the priests at Witney, in Oxfordshire, annually exhibited a show
of _The Resurrection_, &c. by garnishing out certain small puppets
representing the persons of Christ, Mary, and others. Amongst them, one
in the character of a waking watchman, espying Christ to arise, made a
continual noise, like the sound caused by the meeting of two sticks, and
was therefore commonly called _Jack Snacker of Wytney_. Lambarde, when a
child, saw a like puppet in St. Paul’s cathedral, London, at the feast
of Whitsuntide; where the descent of the Holy Ghost was performed by a
white pigeon being let fly out of a hole in the midst of the roof of the
great aisle, with a long censer, which descending from the same place
almost to the ground, was swung up and down at such a length, that it
reached with one sweep almost to the west-gate of the church, and with
the other to the choir stairs, breathing out over the whole church and
the assembled multitude a most pleasant perfume, from the sweet things
that burnt within it. Lambarde says, that they everywhere used the like
_dumb-shows_, to furnish sundry parts of the church service with
spectacles of the nativity, passion, and ascension.
There may be added to the particulars of a former exhibition, a
puppet-showman’s bill at the British Museum, which announces scriptural
subjects in the reign of Anne, as follows: “At Crawley’s booth, over
against the Crown Tavern, in Smithfield, during the time of _Bartholomew
Fair_, will be presented a little opera, called _the Old Creation of the
World_, yet newly revived; with the addition of _Noah’s Flood_; also
several fountains playing water during the time of the play. The last
scene does present Noah and his family coming out of the ark, with all
the beasts two by two, and all the fowls of the air seen in a prospect
sitting upon trees; likewise over the ark is seen the sun rising in a
glorious manner: moreover a multitude of angels will be seen in a double
rank which presents a double prospect, one for the sun, the other for a
palace, where will be seen _six angels ringing of bells_. Likewise
machines descend from above, double and treble, with _Dives rising out
of hell, and Lazarus seen in Abraham’s bosom_, besides several figures
dancing jigs, sarabands, and country dances, to the admiration of the
spectators; with the merry conceits of _Squire Punch, and Sir John
Spendall_.”
These “motions” or puppet-shows were fashionable at this period in other
places, and among fashionable people.
In the “Tatler” of May 14, 1709, there is an account of a puppet-show in
a letter from Bath, describing the rivalry of Prudentia and Florimel,
two ladies at that watering-place. Florimel bespoke the play of
“Alexander the Great,” to be acted by the company of strollers on
Thursday evening, and the letter-writer accepted the lady’s invitation
to be of her party; but he says, “Prudentia had counterplotted us, and
had bespoke on the same evening, the puppet-show of the _Creation of the
World_. She had engaged every body to be there; and to turn our leader
into ridicule, had secretly let them know that the puppet _Eve_ was made
the most like Florimel that ever was seen. On Thursday morning the
puppet-drummer, with Adam and Eve, and several others that lived before
the flood, passed through the streets on horseback to invite us all to
the pastime; and Mr. Mayor was so wise as to prefer these innocent
people, the puppets, who he said were to represent christians, before
the wicked players who were to show Alexander an heathen philosopher.
When we came to _Noah’s_ flood in the show, _Punch_ and his wife were
introduced dancing in the ark. Old Mrs. Petulant desired both her
daughters to mind the moral; then whispered to Mrs. Mayoress, ’this is
very proper for young people to see,’ Punch at the end of the play made
Madame Prudentia a bow, and was very civil to the whole company, making
bows till his buttons touched the ground.” Sir Richard Steele in the
“Spectator” of March 16, 1711, intimates that Powell, the
puppet-showman, exhibited religious subjects with his puppets, under the
little piazza in Covent-garden; and talks of “his next opera of
_Susannah_, or _Innocence Betrayed_, which will be exhibited next week
with a pair of new _elders_.”
It is observed in a small pamphlet,[293] that “music forms one of the
grand attractions of the Fair, and a number of itinerant musicians meet
with constant employment at this time.” A band at the west-end of the
town, well known for playing on winter evenings before the Spring-garden
coffee-house, and opposite Wigley’s great exhibition-room, consisted of
a double drum, a Dutch organ, the tambourine, violin pipes, and the
Turkish jingle, used in the army. This band was generally hired at one
of the first booths in the Fair; but the universal noise arising from so
many other discordant instruments, with the cry of “show them in! just
going to begin!” prevented their being attended to.
The pamphlet referred to mentions the performances by a family of
tumblers, who went about with a large caravan, and attended all the
Fairs near town; and that at the beginning of the last century, Clarke
and Higgins made themselves famous for their wonderful exertions in this
way. They would extend the body into all deformed shapes, stand upon one
leg, and extend the other in a perpendicular line, half a yard above the
head. The tumblers of the present day do not attempt such wonderful
exploits, but they put their bodies into a variety of singular postures,
and leap with remarkable facility.
Lane was a celebrated performer at this Fair, and had several pupils who
succeeded him in practising the grand and sublime art of legerdemain,
and various tricks with cards and balls. The secrets of fortune were
disclosed; unmarried damsels were told when and to whom they were to be
married; and the widow when she should strip herself of her weeds, and
enter anew into matrimony; knives were run through the hand without
producing blood; knives and forks swallowed as of easy digestion; and
fire and sparks proceeded out of a man’s mouth as from a blacksmith’s
forge.
During Bartholomew Fair there were swings without number, besides
round-abouts and up-and-downs. In the latter, the “young gentleman,”
with his fair partner, were elated by the undulating motion, or rather
vertical rotation of the machine; and while thus in motion, could survey
the busy scene around, and hear its roar. The effect cannot be
described which a stranger experienced upon entering Smithfield, and
beholding the immense number of these vehicles, which appeared as if
soaring into the clouds.
Then too, about the year 1815, a well-known eccentric character might be
seen with plum-pudding on a board, which he sold in slices. He possessed
as much drollery as any mountebank in the Fair, and had as various
characteristic traits of oddity. He always walked without his hat, and
his hair powdered and tied _a la queue_, in a neat dress, with a clean
apron: his voice, strong and forcible, made many a humorous appeal in
behalf of his pudding, large quantities of which he dealt out for “ready
money,” and provoked a deal of mirth by his pleasantry.