South London . , and the place was the pleasureresort of the people, and the haunt of sporting men, and theschool of the citizens, in history at least: and the pride andglory of London for its dramatists, if the people knew:and the sink and shame of London for the iniquities andvillanies practised there : the debauchery and the shamelcss-ness of those who lived upon the Bank. The Plague, not only of 1603 and of 1625, but those THE SHOW FOLK 221 milder attacks which threatened from timetotime wereadeadlyenemy to the players, for then the theatre must be closedand the Bear Garden too, for in cro
South London . , and the place was the pleasureresort of the people, and the haunt of sporting men, and theschool of the citizens, in history at least: and the pride andglory of London for its dramatists, if the people knew:and the sink and shame of London for the iniquities andvillanies practised there : the debauchery and the shamelcss-ness of those who lived upon the Bank. The Plague, not only of 1603 and of 1625, but those THE SHOW FOLK 221 milder attacks which threatened from timetotime wereadeadlyenemy to the players, for then the theatre must be closedand the Bear Garden too, for in crowds there was what it meant to close these places of resort. TheElizabethan theatres maintained almost as many persons asour own : there were the players proper—the Company :there were the servants in the front and the servantsbehind, the supers, the money takers, the boys who wentround selling nuts and cakes, wine and ale, new books andtobacco: there were the watermen required to carry the»3. audience to and fro. Why, the shutting- of the Theatresmust have thrown out of employ many hundreds of men,and, if we consider their wives and families, many thousandsof people. Can we wonder if the players, one and all, wereCavaliers, and were ready to fight for the side which allowedthem their daily bread ? But Fortune was against them. The Puritanic spiritprevnilcd. When the Parliament conquered, the theatreswere doomed. And in 1655, by command of ThomasPride, High Sheriff of Surrey, the seven bears of Paris 222 SOUTH LONDON Gardens were shot by a company of soldiers. In the sameyear it is mentioned that the Hope Theatre had beendestroyed to make room for tenements. The profession of actor in a time when the Puritanicspirit was rapidly growing stronger could not possibly beheld in good repute. There was dancing in it: music:mockery : merriment: satire : low comedy : all these things themisguided flock enjoyed and the shepherd deplored. The]\Iayor, long before the The
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbesantwa, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1912
