From several circumstances it appears that, notwithstanding the proclamation and feeble exertions of the Corporation of London, these interludes were openly performed in Smithfield: and that the Governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital actually permitted prostitutes to walk the Cloisters. One of the "Secret Mercuries" has this expression: "Well, I shall catch you _in the Cloysters_;" but the Observator of August 21, 1703, sets the matter beyond doubt: "Does this Market of lewdness tend to any thing else but the ruin of the bodies, souls, and estates, of the young men and women of the City of London, who here meet with all the temptations to destruction? The lotteries to ruin their estates; the drolls, comedies, interludes, and farces, to poison their minds with motions of lust; _and in the Cloisters_ (those conscious scenes of polluted amours) in the evening they strike the bargain to finish their ruin. What strange medley of lewdness has that place not long since afforded! Lords and ladies, aldermen and their wives, squires and fidlers, citizens and rope-dancers, jack-puddings and lawyers, mistresses and maids, masters and prentices! This is not an ark, like Noah's, which received the clean and unclean; only the _unclean_ beasts enter this ark, and such as have the Devil's livery on their backs." And in another paper he says, "they'll raffle with the punks in the Cloysters." The reader will pardon the introduction of the substance of an advertisement inserted in the Postman, August 19, 1703, by Barnes and Finley, who, after the usual exordium of _their_ superior excellence, mention that the spectator will "see my _Lady Mary_ perform such curious steps on the _dancing rope_, &c. &c." This lady Mary is subsequently noticed in Heraclitus Ridens, No. 7, by Earnest, who says, "Look upon the old gentleman; his eyes are fixed upon my lady Mary: Cupid has shot him as dead as a Robin. Poor Heraclitus! he has cried away all his moisture, and is such a dotard to entertain himself with a prospect of what is meat for his betters; wake him out of his lethargy, and tell him the young noblemen and senators will take it amiss, if a man of his years makes pretensions to what is more than a match for their youth. Those, &c. &c. and roguish eyes have brought her more admirers than ever Jenny Bolton had; it is a pity, say I, she has no more manners, and less ill-nature." Chetwood, in his History of the Stage, mentions a Lady _Isabella_, which name, writing from memory, he has evidently mistaken for Mary, who was the daughter of noble parents inhabitants of Florence, where they immured her in a Nunnery; but, most fruitlessly careful of their beautiful offspring, she accidentally saw a Merry Andrew, who unfortunately saw her; in consequence of which a clandestine intercourse took place, an elopement followed, and finally this villain taught her his infamous tricks, which she exhibited for his profit till vice had made her his own; as Heraclitus proves. The