On November 6, 1602, the building was the scene of the famous hoax known as _England's Joy_, perpetrated upon the patriotic citizens of London by one Richard Vennar.[269] Vennar scattered hand-bills over the city announcing that at the Swan Playhouse, on Saturday, November 6, a company of "gentlemen and gentlewomen of account" would present with unusual magnificence a play entitled _England's Joy_, celebrating Queen Elizabeth. It was proposed to show the coronation of Elizabeth, the victory of the Armada, and various other events in the life of "England's Joy," with the following conclusion: "And so with music, both with voice and instruments, she is taken up into heaven; when presently appears a throne of blessed souls; and beneath, under the stage, set forth with strange fire-works, diverse black and damned souls, wonderfully described in their several torments."[270] The price of admission to the performance was to be "two shillings, or eighteen pence at least." In spite of this unusually high price, an enormous audience, including a "great store of good company and many noblemen," passed into the building. Whereupon Vennar seized the money paid for admission, and showed his victims "a fair pair of heels." The members of the audience, when they found themselves thus duped, "revenged themselves upon the hangings, curtains, chairs, stools, walls, and whatsoever came in their way, very outrageously, and made great spoil."[271] [Footnote 269: Many writers, including Mr. Wallace, have confused this Richard Vennar with William Fennor, who later challenged Kendall to a contest of wit at the Fortune. For a correct account, see T.S. Graves, "Tricks of Elizabethan Showmen" (in _The South Atlantic Quarterly_, April, 1915, XIV) and "A Note on the Swan Theatre" (in _Modern Philology_, January, 1912, IX, 431).] [Footnote 270: From the broadside printed in _The Harleian Miscellany_, X, 198. For a photographic facsimile, see Lawrence, _The Elizabethan Playhouse_ (Second Series), p. 68.] [Footnote 271: _Letters Written by John Chamberlain_, Camden Society (1861), p. 163; _The Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1601-1603_, p. 264. See also Manningham's _Diary_, pp. 82, 93.] On February 8, 1603, John Manningham recorded in his _Diary_: "Turner and Dun, two famous fencers, playd their prizes this day at the Bankside, but Turner at last run Dun so far in the brain at the eye, that he fell down presently stone dead; a goodly sport in a Christian state, to see one man kill another!" The place where the contest was held is not specifically mentioned, but in all probability it was the Swan.[272] [Footnote 272: This seems to be the source of the statement by Mr. Wallace (_Englische Studien_, XLIII, 388), quoting Rendle (_The Antiquarian Magazine_, VII, 210): "In 1604, a man named Turner, in a contest for a prize at the Swan, was killed by a thrust in the eye." Rendle cites no authority for his statement.]