The former had the better all along, till by-and-by the latter dropped his sword out of his hand, and the butcher, whether or not seeing his sword dropped I know not, but did give him a cut over the wrist, so as he was disabled to fight any longer.
But Lord! It was pleasant to see; but that I stood in the pit and feared that in the tumult I might get some hurt. At last the battle broke up, and so I away. Again he writes, under date September 9th of the same year: "To the Bear Garden, where now the yard was full of people, and those most of them seamen, striving by force to get in. I got into the common pit, and there, with my cloak about my face, I stood and saw the prize fought, till one of them, a shoemaker, was so cut in both his wrists, that he could not fight any longer; and then they broke off.
His enemy was a butcher. The sport very good; and various humours to be seen among the rabble that is there. The inimitable secretary would seem to have been rather partial to this rough kind of sport, for we again find him here on the 12th of April, , as shown by the following entry, under that date in his "Diary:"—"By water to the Bear Garden, and there happened to sit by Sir Fretchville Hollis, who is still full of his vain-glorious and prophane talk.
Here we saw a prize fought between a soldier and a country fellow, one Warrel, who promised the least in his looks, and performed the most of valour in his boldness and evenness of mind, and smiles in all he did, that ever I saw; and we were all both deceived and infinitely taken with him. He did soundly beat the soldier, and cut him over the head. Thence back to White Hall, mightily pleased all of us with the sight, and particularly this fellow, as a most extraordinary man for his temper and evenness in fighting.
John Evelyn went on one occasion to witness the "sports" at Bankside, but apparently he was too disgusted to go there again. Here is the record of his visit, as told in his "Diary" under date of 16th of June, —"I went with some friends to the Bear Garden, where was cock-fighting, dogfighting, beare and bull baiting, it being a famous day for all these butcherly sports, or rather barbarous cruelties. The bulls did exceeding well, but the Irish wolfe-dog exceeded, which was a tall greyhound, a stately creature indeede, who beate a cruell mastiff.
One of the bulls toss'd a dog full into a lady's lap , as she sat in one of the boxes at a considerable height from the arena. Two poore dogs were kill'd, and so all ended with the ape on horseback, and I most heartily weary of the rude and dirty pastime. Laneham quaintly writes, comparing the baiting to a scene in Westminster Hall:—"The bears were brought forth into the court, the dogs set to them, to argue the points, even face to face. They had learned counsel also of both parts i.
If the dog in pleading would pluck the bear by the throat, the bear, with traverse, would claw him again by the scalp; confess an he list but avoid he could not that was bound to the bar: and his counsel told him that it could do him no policy in pleading. Therefore, thus with fending and fearing, with plucking and tugging, scratching and biting, by plain tooth and nail to the one side and tother, such expense of blood and of leather was there between them as a month's licking, I ween, will not recover; and yet they remain as far out as ever they were.
It was a sport very pleasant of these beasts to see the bear with his pink eyes leering after his enemy's approach, the nimbleness and weight of the dog to take his advantage, and the force and experience of the bear again to avoid the assault: if he were bitten in one place, he would pinch in another to get free: if he were taken once, then what shift with biting, with clawing, with roaring, tossing, and tumbling, he would work to wind himself from them, and when he was loose, to shake his ears twice or thrice, with the blood and the slaver about his phisnomy sic was a matter of goodly relief.
Ben Jonson is reproached by Dekker with having been so degraded as to have performed at Paris Garden. These places seem always to have been in bad repute even when they flourished most.
And yet every Sunday they will surely spend One penny or two, the bearward's living to mend. Well, at the last day their consciences will declare That the poor ought to have all that they may spare.
If you, therefore, go to witness a bear-fight, Be sure God His curse will upon you light. Pennant, who quotes these verses, seems to consider the last two lines as a prophecy of the calamity that happened at the Garden in the year An accident, "heaven-directed," as he says, befell the spectators; the scaffolding, crowded with people, suddenly fell, and more than a hundred persons were killed or severely wounded. The Bear Garden, it may be added, in spite of its name, would appear to have been chiefly used, during the latter period of its existence, for bull-baiting.
Randolph, in his "Muse's Looking-glass," makes the following reference to this particular species of amusement:— "——Lastly, he wished The bull might cross the Thames to the Bear Garden, And there be sorely baited. It was to the Globe Theatre and the Bear Garden probably that Hentzner alludes in his "Travels in England," published in the reign of Elizabeth, when he writes:—"Without the city are some theatres, where actors do represent almost every day some tragedy or comedy to numerous audiences: these are concluded with excellent music, a variety of dances, amid the excessive applause of those that are present.
There is also another place, built in the form of a theatre, which serves for the baiting of bulls and of bears; they are fastened behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs, but not without great risque to the dogs, from the horns of the one, and the teeth of the other; and it sometimes happens they are killed on the spot; fresh ones are immediately supplied in the places of those that are wounded or tired. To this entertainment there often follows that of whipping a blinded bear, which is performed by five or six men, standing circularly with whips, which they exercise upon him without any mercy, as he cannot escape from them because of his chain; he defends himself with all his force and skill, throwing down all who come within his reach, and are not active enough to get out of it; on which occasions he frequently tears the whips out of their hands, and breaks them.
At these spectacles, and everywhere else, the English are constantly smoking tobacco. In the theatres, fruits, such as apples, pears, and nuts, according to the season, are carried about to be sold, as well as ale and wine. The theatres and gardens at Bankside, however, in spite of their bad reputation, were occasionally patronised by royalty; for we read that Queen Elizabeth, on the 26th of May, , went by water with the French ambassadors to Paris Gardens, where they saw a baiting of bulls and bears.
It may here be added, as a scrap of antiquarian information, that the first exhibition of bear-baiting in England of which we read, was in the reign of King John, at Ashby-de-laZouch, where "thyss straynge passtyme was introduced by some Italyans for his highness' amusement, wherewith he and his court were highly delighted.
It is clear that the "sport" to be witnessed in the Bear Garden was still under the patronage and countenance of royalty some century or so later than the reign of Elizabeth, for in we read of a warrant signed by Lord Arlington, ordering ten pounds to be paid to Mr. James Davies, the "master of his Majesty's bears, bulls, and dogs," for "making ready the rooms at the Bear Garden, and baiting the bears before the Spanish ambassadors.
The celebrated actor, Alleyn—the founder of Dulwich College, of whom we shall have more to say anon—enjoyed this lucrative post as "keeper of the king's wild beasts, or master of the Royal Bear Garden, situated on the Bankside in Southwark. A little before his death, he sold his share and patent to his wife's father, a Mr. We find that, in spite of his Puritan education, King James I. It is well known that he published the "Book of Sports," but it is not equally well known that in he issued his royal licence to Clement Cottrell, the groom-porter of his household, to license certain houses for bowling-alleys and tennis-courts, and even for cards and dice.
Twenty-four bowling-alleys were licensed under this authority in London and Westminster, four more in Southwark, one in St. Catherine's, one in Shoreditch, and two in Lambeth. Within these same limits, fourteen tennis-courts were allowed, and also forty "taverns or ordinaries for playing at cards and dice.
The Puritans' aversion to the sport, however, as Macaulay remarks, arose not so much from pity for the bull or the bear, as from envy at the pleasure felt by the spectators.
Verily, an amiable and saint-like trait! Keep scrolling for more. Learn More About bankside. Time Traveler for bankside The first known use of bankside was in the 15th century See more words from the same century. Statistics for bankside Look-up Popularity. Style: MLA. More from Merriam-Webster on bankside Britannica.
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