The drunkards they are wading, Ursula, " vocation : : you and your friends. The best pig and bottle ale i' the Fair, sir, old Urs'la is cook; there, you may read; the pig's head speaks it." Knockhum adds, that she roasted her pigs "with fire o' juniper, and rosemary branches." Littlewit, the proctor, and his wife, Win-the-fight, with her mother, dame Purecroft, and Zeal-of-theland enter. Busy Knockhum suggests to Ursula that they are customers of the right sort, "In, and set a couple o' pigs o' the board, and half a dozen of the bygist bottles afore 'em-two to a pig, away!" In another scene Leatherhead cries, "Fine purses, pouches, pincases, pipes; what is't you lack a pair o' smiths to wake you i' the morning? or a fine whistling bird?" Bartholomew Cokes, a silly "esquire of Harrow," stops at Leatherhead's to purchase: "Those six horses, friend, I'll have; and the three Jews trumps; and a half a dozen o' birds; and that drum; and your smiths (I like that device o' your smiths,)—and four halberts; and, let me see, that fine painted great lady, and her three women for state, I'll have. A set of those violins I would buy too, for a delicate young noise I have i' the country, that are every one a size less than another, just like your fiddles." Trash invites him to buy her gingerbread, and he turns to her basket, whereupon Leatherhead says, "Is this well, Goody Joan, to interrupt my market in the midst, and call away my customers? Can you answer this at the Pie-pouldres" whereto Trash replies, "Why, if his master-ship have a mind to buy, I hope my ware lies as open as anothers; I may shew my ware as well as you yours." Nightingale begins to sing, a pig-woman," laments her Who would wear out their youth and prime thus, in roasting of pigs, that had any cooler occupation? I am all fire and fat; I shall e'en melt away-a poor vex'd thing I am; I feel myself dropping already as fast as I can: two stone of sewet a-day is my proportion I can but hold life and soul together." Then she soliloquizes concerning Mooncalf, her tapster, and her other vocations: "How can I hope that ever he'll discharge his place of trust, tapster, a man of reckoning under me, that remembers nothing I say to him? but look to't, sirrah, you were best; threepence a pipefull I will ha' made of all my whole half pound of tobacco, and a quarter of a pound of colts-foot, mixt with it too, to eech it out. Then six-and-twenty shillings a barrel I will advance o' my beer, and fifty shillings a hundred o' my bottle ale; I ha' told you the ways how to raise it. (a knock.) Look who's there, sirrah five shillings a pig is my price at least; if it be a sow-pig sixpence more." Jordan Knockhum, "a horse-courser and a ranger of Turnbull," calls for "a fresh bottle of ale, and a pipe of tobacco." Passengers enter, and Leatherhead says, "What do you lack, gentlemen? Maid, see a fine hobby-horse for your young master." A corn-cutter cries, "Ha' you any corns i' your feet and toes?" Then "a tinder-box man" calls, "Buy a mousetrap, a mouse-trap, or a tormentor for a flea!" Trash cries, "Buy some gingerbread!" Nightingale bawls, "Ballads, ballads, fine new ballads!" Leatherhead repeats, "What do you lack, gentlemen, Cokes hears this, and says, "Balwhat is't you lack? a fine horse? a lion? lads! hark, hark! pray thee, fellow, stay a bull? a bear? a dog? or a cat? an ex- a little! What ballads hast thou? let me cellent fine Bartholmew bird? or an in- see, let me see myself-How dost thou strument? what is't you lack ?" The call it? A Caveat against Cut-purses !" pig-woman quarrels with her guests and -a good jest, i' faith; I would fain see falls foul on her tapster: "In, you rogue, that demon, your cut-purse, you talk of.” and wipe the pigs, and mend the fire, that He then shows his purse boastingly, and they fall not; or I'll both baste and wast inquires, "Ballad-man, do any cut-purses you till your eyes drop out, like 'em." haunt hereabout? pray thee raise me one Knockhum says to the female passengers, or two: begin and shew me one." "Gentlewomen, the weather's hot! whi- Nightingale answers, "Sir, this is a spell ther walk you? Have a care o' your fine against 'em, spick and span new: and velvet caps, the Fair is dusty. Take a 'tis made as 'twere in mine own person, sweet delicate booth, with boughs, here, and I sing it in mine own defence. But i' the way, and cool yourselves i' the shade; twill cost a penny alone if you buy it," "My masters and friends, and good A Caveat against Cut-purses. My masters, and friends, and good people draw near, Both the young and the old, And bidden beware of the cut-purse so bold: Youth, youth, thou hadst better been starved by thy nurse, It hath been upbraided to men of my trade, Of some that were seen In Westminster-hall, yea, the pleaders between ; Youth, youth, thou hadst better been starved by thy nurse, At Worc'ter 'tis known well, and even i' the jail, Of judgment so great, A judge there did lose a fair pouch of velvet; Youth, youth, thou hadst better been starved by thy nurse, At plays, and at sermons, and at the sessions, They stick not the stare-abouts' purses to take. At a better place, At court, and in Christmas, before the king's face. That only belongs to the cunning cut-purse. Youth, youth, thou hadst better been starved by thy nurse, Than live to be hanged for stealing a purse. But O, you vile nation of cut-purses all, Relent, and repent, and amend, and be sound, And know that you ought not by honest men's fall, In silks as you may, It is not the highway to heaven (as they say.) While Nightingale sings this ballad, a fellow tickles Cokes's ear with a straw, to make him withdraw his hand from his pocket, and privately robs him of his purse, which, at the end of the song, he secretly conveys to the ballad-singer; who, notwithstanding his "Caveat against Cut-purses," is their principal confederate, and, in that quality, becomes the unsuspected depository of the plunder. Littlewit tells his wife, Win, of the great hog, and of a bull with five legs, in the Fair. Zeal-of-the-land loudly declaims against the Fair, and against Trash's commodities:-" Hence with thy basket of popery, thy nest of images, and whole legend of ginger-work." He rails against "the prophane pipes, the tinkling timbrels;" and Adam Overdoo, a reforming justice of peace, one of "the court of Pie-powders," who wears a disguise for the better observation of disorder, gets into the stocks himself. Then "a western man, that's come to wrestle before my lord mayor anon," gets drunk, and is cried by "the clerk o' the market all the Fair over here, for my lord's service." Zeal-of-the-land Busy, too, is put with others into the stocks, and being asked, "what are you, sir?" he answers, "One that rejoiceth in his affliction, and sitteth here to prophesy the destruction of fairs and may-games, wakes and whitsun-ales, and doth sigh and groan for the reformation of these abuses." During a scuffle, the keepers of the stocks leave them open, and those who are confined withdraw their legs and walk away. From a speech by Leatherhead, preparatory to exhibiting his "motion," or puppet-show, we become acquainted with the subjects, and the manner of the performance. He says, "Out with the sign of our invention, in the name of wit; all the fowl i' the Fair, I mean all the dirt in Smithfield, will be thrown at our banner to-day, if the matter does not please the people. O! the motions that I, Lanthorn Leatherhead, have given light to, i' my time, since my master, Pod, died! Jeru salem was a stately thing; and so was Nineveh and The City of Norwich, and Sodom and Gomorrah; with the Rising o' the Prentices, and pulling down the houses there upon Shrove-Tuesday; 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. Look to your gathering there, good master Filcher-and when there come any gentlefolks take twopence a-piece." He has a bill of his motion which reads thus: "The Ancient Modern History of Hero and Leander, otherwise called, the Touchstone of True Love, with as true a Trial of Friendship between Damon and Pythias, two faithful Friends o' the Bank-side." This was the motion written by Littlewit. Cokes arrives, and inquires, "What do we pay for coming in, fellow?" Filcher answers, "Twopence, sir." "Cokes. What manner of matter is this, Mr. Littlewit? What kind of actors ha' you? are they good actors? "Littlewit. Pretty youths, sir, all children both old and young, here's the master of 'em-Master Lantern, that gives light to the business. "Cokes. In good time, sir, I would fain see 'em; I would be glad to drink with the young company; which is the tiring-house? "Leatherhead. Troth, sir, our tiringhouse is somewhat little; we are but beginners yet, pray pardon us; you cannot go upright in't. "Cokes. No? not now my hat is off! what would you have done with me, if you had had me, feather and all, as I was once to-day? Ha' you none of your pretty impudent boys now, to bring stools, fill tobacco, fetch ale, and beg money, as they have at other houses! let me see some o' your actors. "Littlewit. Shew him 'em, shew him 'em. Master Lantern; this is a gentle man that is a favourer of the quality. [Leatherhead brings the puppets out in a basket.] "Cokes. What! do they live in baskets? "Leatherhead. They do lie in a basket, sir: they are o' the small players. "Cokes. These be players minor indeed. Do you call these play;rs? "Leatherhead. They are actors, sir, and as good as any, none dispraised, for dumb shows: Indeed I am the mouth of 'em all. This is he that acts young Leander, sir; and this is lovely Hero; this, with the beard, Damon; and this, pretty Pythias: this is the ghost of king Dionysius, in the habit of a scrivener: as you shall see anon, at large. "Cokes. But do you play it according to the printed book? I have read that. "Leatherhead. By no means, sir. "Cokes. No? How then? "Leatherhead. A better way, sir; that is too learned and poetical for our audience: what do they know what Hellespont is? guilty of true love's blood? or what Abydos is? or the other Sestos height?-No; I have entreated master Littlewit to take a little pains to reduce it to a more familiar strain for our people. "Littlewit. I have only made it a little easy and modern for the times, sir, that's all: as for the Hellespont, I imagine our Thames here; and then Leander, I make a dyer's son about Puddlewharf; and Hero, a wench o' the Bankside, who going over one morning to Old Fish-street, Leander spies her land at Trig's-stairs, and falls in love with her: now do I introduce Cupid, having metamorphosed himself into a drawer, and he strikes Hero in love with a pint of sherry." While "Cokes is handling the puppets" the doorkeepers call out "Twopence apiece, gentlemen; an excellent motion." Other visitors enter and take their seats, and Cokes, while waiting with some of his acquaintance, employs the time at the every man to oppose the last man that spoke, whether it concerned him or no." The audience become impatient, and one calls out, "Do you hear puppet-master, these are tedious vapours; when begin you?" Filcher, Leatherhead's man, with the other doorkeepers, continue to bawl, "Twopence a-piece, sir; the best motion in the Fair." Meanwhile the company talk, and one relates that he has already seen in the Fair, the eagle; the black wolf; the bull with five legs, which "was a calf at Uxbridge Fair two years agone;" the dogs that dance the morrice; and "the hare o' the taber." For an idea of Leatherhead's motion game of vapours, which is nonsense; take as follows: it commences thus: No. 39. Leatherhead. Gentiles, that no longer your expectations may wander, With a great deal of cloth, lapp'd about him like a scarf, Puppet Leander. Cole, Cole, old Cole. Leatherhead. That is the sculler's name without controul. Pup. Leander. Cole, Cole, I say, Cole. Leatherhead. We do hear you. Pup. Leander. Old Cole. Leatherhead. Old Cole? is the dyer turn'd collier ?— Pup. Leander. Why Cole, I say, Cole. Leatherhead. It's the sculler you need. Old Cole, you must go hang with master Leander. Puppet Cole. Where is he? Puppet Leander. Here Cole. What fairest of fairs Was that fare that thou landest but now at Trig's-stairs? Puppet Cole. It is lovely Hero... Puppet Leander. Nero? Puppet Cole. No, Hero. Leatherhead. It is Hero Of the Bank-side, he saith, to tell you truth, without erring, Is come over into Fish-street to eat some fresh herring. Leander says no more but as fast as he can, Gets on all his best clothes, and will after to the swan. In this way Leatherhead proceeds with his motion; he relates part of the story himself, in a ribald manner, and making the puppets quarrel, "the puppet Cole strikes him over the pate." He performs Damon and Pythias in the same way, and renders the "gallimaufry" more ridiculous, by a battle between the puppets in Hero and Leander, and those of Damon and Pythias. Zeal-of-the-land Busy interferes with the puppet Dionysius, who had been raised up by Leatherhead "Not like a monarch but the master of a school, In a scrivener's furr'd gown which shows he is no fool; For, therein he hath wit enough to keep himself warm: O Damon! he cries, and Pythias what harm Hath poor Dionysius done you in his grave, That after his death, you should fall out thus and rave," &c. Zeal-of-the-land contends that Dionysius hath not a "lawful calling." That puppet retorts by saying he hath; and inquires-"What say you to the feather makers i' the Fryers, with their peruques and their puffs, their fans and their huffs? what say you? Is a bugle-maker a lawful calling? or the confect-makers? such as you have there? or your French fashioner? Is a puppet worse than these?" Whereto Zeal-of-the-land answers-"Yes, and my main argument against you is, that you are an abomination; for the male among you putteth on the apparel of the female, and the female of the male." The puppet Dionysius triumphantly replies, "You lie, you lie, you lie abominably. It's your old stale argument against the players; but it will not hold against the puppets: for we have neither male nor fernale amongst us." Upon this point, which persons versed in dramatic history are familiar with, Zeal-of-the-land says, "I am confuted, the cause hath failed me-I am changed, and will become a beholder." . These selections which are here carefully brought together may, so far as they extend, be regarded as a picture of Bartholomew Fair in 1614, when Jonson wrote his comedy for representation before king James I. We learn too from this play that there was a tooth-drawer, and "a jugler with a well educated ape, to come over the chain for the king of England, and back again for the prince, and to sit still on his hind quarters for the pope and the king of Spain;" that there was a whipping-post in the Fair, and that Smithfield was dirty and stinking. Beside particulars, which a mere historiographer of the scene would have recorded, there are some that are essentially illustrative of popular manners, which no other than an imaginative mind would have seized, and only a poet penned. A little digression may be requisite in explanation of the term arsedine, used by Trash to Leatherhead in Jonson's play; the denomination costermonger; |