'Till that were cancell'd: and when that was gone
We left an air behind us, which alone
Was able to make the two next companies
Right witty; though but downright fools, mere wise."
THE APOLLO CLUB.
The noted tavern, with the sign of St. Dunstan pulling the Devil by the nose, stood between Temple Bar and the Middle Temple gate. It was a house of great resort in the reign of James I., and then kept by Simon Wadloe.
In Ben Jonson's Staple of News, played in 1625, Pennyboy Canter advises, to
"Dine in Apollo, with Pecunia
At brave Duke Wadloe's."