’Tis you have kept the Theatres so long,
Painted in play-bills upon every post.
That I am scorned of the multitude.
Wither, Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613), ii. 2:
But, by the way, a Bill he doth espy,
Which showes theres acted some new Comedy.
In Bartholomew Fair, v. iii. 6, Cokes ‘reads the Bill’ of the motion; cf. Lawrence (ii. 55), The Origin of the Theatre Programme.
[1730] Devil an Ass, I. iv. 43, ‘Hee giues him the Play-bill’.
[1731] Arber, ii. 477; iii. 575.
[1732] Henslowe Papers, 106.