THE HOPE THEATRE

The last theatre set up on the Bankside, and also the last public theatre opened during Shakespeare’s lifetime, was the Hope, built in the year 1614, two years before his death. This reconstructed building had originally served as an amphi-theatre for bull baiting, being marked on the maps of both Aggas and Hofnagel in 1572, also in Norden’s map of 1593.

Twenty years after Aggas’ map appeared, the bull-baiting house had been converted into a bear-baiting establishment; the old bear-baiting house seen in these maps was, in 1599, occupied by the famous Globe Theatre. The playhouse marked in Norden’s map is the Rose, then the sole theatre on the Bankside.

The cause of the Bear-house being turned into a theatre was due to the Globe Theatre being burnt to the ground in the previous year 1613. Cunning old Henslowe, seizing an opportunity of taking advantage of this catastrophe, converted his rival’s misfortune to his own profit. The contract for demolishing the old Bear Garden is still in existence, setting forth that an arena for the exhibition of bear-baiting, likewise a stage suitable for play acting, was to be erected. Under these conditions the stage was a movable one, thereby permitting the performance of either entertainments.

The contract states that it was to be built like the Swan, a theatre erected nearly twenty years previously, a proof that few alterations or improvements were made in theatrical structures during this long period.

Most people interested in theatrical matters are aware that customs appertaining to the theatre are handed down from generation to generation, and innovations in stage tradition are seldom, if ever, introduced, even in such an improving age as our own.

This theatre is without any Shakesperean association, and the only stage play, so far as is known, publicly acted there is Ben Jonson’s “Bartholomew Fair,” in 1614. This play contains several theatrical allusions, one of which is defining the spectators of the pit as “the understanding gentlemen of the ground.” Shakespeare names the same audience as the “groundlings” in Hamlet’s speech to the players. For several days in the week the Hope was given over to bear-baiting and other sports. There is an account of one Fenner, who challenged Taylor, the Water Poet, to a combat of wits. On the day appointed, Fenner failed to put in an appearance, thereby causing the great enmity of Taylor, who wrote some rather poignant and sarcastic verses in memory of the event. Fenner replied by a mock epitaph:

“O! ’twas that foolish scurvie play

At Hope that took his sense away.”

Taylor replied:

“Thou writest a hotch potch of some forty lines

About my play at Hope and my designs.”

On the rebuilding of the Globe, the Hope stood little chance against such a powerful rival; in fact, this building was never seriously regarded as a theatre. When the new Globe was entirely rebuilt the Hope gradually resumed its former occupation as a bear-baiting house, which in reality had never been discarded.

As a bear-baiting garden, a reference is found in Swetnam’s Arraignment of Women, 1617: “If you mean to see the bear-baiting of women then trudge to this bear garden apace, and get in betimes and view every room where thou may best sit for thy pleasure.”

The further history of the Hope after 1616 is quite unconnected with the drama. It flourished for many years. After Shakespeare’s death, Cunningham, in his Handbook of London, says that the best account of its last days is narrated in Howe’s MS., a continuation of Stow’s Survey; this must be by some other hand than Howe’s, as he died in 1631. “The Hope, on the bankside in Southwark, commonly called the Beare Garden, a playhouse for stage players on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and for the baiting of the Beares on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the stage being made to take up and down when they please.”

It was built in the year 1610, and was pulled down to make tenements, by Thomas Walker, petticoat maker, in Cannon Street, on Tuesday, the 25th of March, 1656.

Seven of Mr. Godfrie’s Bears, by command of Thomas Pride, then High Sheriff of Surrey, were then shot to death on Saturday, the 9th of February, 1655, by a company of soldiers. A few years later, after the Restoration, the Bear Garden, was renamed, and continued giving exhibitions until 1691. In an advertisement, dated 1682, the Hope is still styled by its old name. This paragraph, which appeared in the Loyal Protestant, must refer to some new building, or perhaps the old name was still in use.

THE
TWO
NOBLE
KINSMEN:

Presented at the Blackfriers
by the Kings Maiesties servants,
with great applause:

Written by the memorable Worthies
of their time;

{	M^r. John Fletcher, and	} Gent.
	M^r. William Shakspeare.

Printed at London by Tho. Coses, for Iohn Waterson:
and are to be sold at the signe of the Crowne
in Pauls Church-yard. 1634.

(Original Image)

The last we hear of this new Hope is in 1691, when an advertisement states there is now made at the Bear Garden glass house, on the Bankside, crown window glass, and may be had of all glaziers in London. Howe is in error in stating that the Hope was built in 1610; this theatre was built soon after the Globe fire in 1614. In Visscher’s map of London, 1616, is an excellent view of this theatre, named the Bear Garden. Another view is seen in Hollar’s view of London, the last differs slightly from Visscher’s in shape. During an interval of thirty-three years a few alterations may have been introduced.

An interesting souvenir of the bear-baiting house is preserved amongst the Dulwich papers. This relic takes the form of a modern playbill, with the exception that the text is written instead of printed. The advertisement is written in a large round hand, and may have been the original placard placed in front of the building: “To-morrow being Thursdaie, shall be seen at the Bear garden on Bankside a great mach plaid by the gamsters of Essex, who hath chalenged all comers whatsoever to play V dogges at the single beare for V pounds, and also to wearie a bull dead at the stake; and for your better content shall have pleasant sport with the horse and ape and whiping of the blind beare. Vivat Rex.”