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: