1. Sir J. Falstafe and Hostes represent characters of that name in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.”
2. The figure emerging from behind the curtain is Green, the actor, who took the part of Bubble, the City Gallant, whose answer to every complaint is “Tu quoque,” the play on this account being re-christened “Tu quoque.” The play was published in 1614, and is still extant. There is evidence that the drama was acted at the Red Bull in the year 1611.
3. Clause is one of the chief characters in the “Lame Commonwealth,” taken from “The Beggar’s Bush,” a tragic-comedy, by John Fletcher, circa 1615. The scene is laid somewhere in Flanders, but the play is named after a well-known tree, called “The Beggar’s Bush,” between Huntingdon and Coxton. The play was first printed in 1647. On looking up an old theatrical dictionary, dated 1792, this play is ascribed to Beaumont and Fletcher, and is written “The Beggar’s Bush.”
4. “French Dancing Mr.,” a droll taken from the Duke of Newcastle’s play called “Variety,” printed in 1647. The dictionary adds that this play was acted with very great applause at the Black Fryars.
5. “Simpleton” seems to be an independent farce, in which one, Robert Cox, an actor, made a great hit and caused roars of laughter from the unsophisticated audience by eating a huge slice of bread and butter, and complaining that a man cannot be left undisturbed to eat a little bit for his afternoon luncheon.
6. The “Changling” is a character in Middleton’s tragedy of that name. Antonio, who pretends idiocy in order that he may gain access to the wife of a mad doctor. This play was acted before the Court at Whitehall in 1624.
The history of this theatre still awaits an historian.
Its most enthusiastic supporters were the rougher elements of the population, who then, as now, chiefly delighted in lurid melodrama of a very pronounced type. The Chancery proceedings, in 1617, elicit the fact that certain members of the Red Bull company were sued for money owed; further proceedings state that they were unable to satisfy the claim—certain evidence that their finances were anything but prosperous.
This theatre cannot claim any Shakesperean associations, although enjoying a longer lease of life than any other playhouse of that period, being last named as a theatre as late as the year 1663. Pepys, the celebrated Diarist, visited the Red Bull in 1661. Mr. Barton Baker, in his history of the London stage, suggests that the Red Bull Theatre was originally an inn-yard, theatrical performances taking place there; he also casually mentions an accident caused by the collapse of the auditorium. By the word auditorium I presume he means the galleries that surrounded the yard on three sides. Mr. Baker does not give any references for these statements, or give further details of the event.