The Old Showmen and the Old London FairsFrost, Thomas
History
The Old Showmen and the Old London Fairs
Frost, Thomas
Fairs -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
"Particularly, a new Dialogue to be sung by Mr. Excell and Mrs.
Fitzgerald. Written by the Author of _Bacchus one day gaily striding_,
&c. and a hornpipe by Mr. Taylor. To which will be added a new
Entertainment (never perform'd before) called
The INTRIGUING HARLEQUIN
OR
Any Wife better than None.
With Scenes, Machines, and other Decorations
proper to the Entertainment."
Pinchbeck and Fawkes had a booth this year on the Bowling Green, where the
entertainments of the preceding year were repeated, the little posturer
being again announced as only nine years of age. Pinchbeck had a shop in
Fleet Street at this time, (mentioned in the thirty-fifth number of the
'Adventurer'), and, perhaps, an interest in the wax figures exhibited by
Fawkes at the Old Tennis Court, as "the so much famed piece of machinery,
consisting of large artificial wax figures five foot high, which have all
the just motions and gestures of human life, and have been for several
years shewn at Bath and Tunbridge Wells, and no where else, except this
time two years at the Opera Room in the Haymarket; and by them will be
presented the comical tragedy of _Tom Thumb_. With several scenes out of
_The Tragedy of Tragedies_, and dancing between the acts. To which will be
added, an entertainment of dancing called _The Necromancer: or, Harlequin
Dr. Faustus_, with the fairy song and dance. The clothes, scenes, and
decorations are entirely new. The doors to be opened at four, and to begin
at six o'clock. Pit 2s. 6d. Gallery 1s. Tickets to be had at Mr.
Chenevix's toy-shop, over against Suffolk Street, Charing Cross; at the
Tennis Court Coffee House; at Mr. Edward Pinchbeck's, at the Musical Clock
in Fleet Street; at Mr. Smith's, a perfumer, at the Civet Cat in New Bond
Street near Hanover Square; at the little man's fan-shop in St. James's
Street."
Fawkes and Pinchbeck seem to have speculated in exhibitions and
entertainments of various descriptions, for besides this marionette
performance and the conjuring show, there seems to have been another show,
which appeared at Bartholomew Fair this year, as their joint enterprise,
and for which Fielding wrote a dramatic trifle called _The Humours of
Covent Garden_. It was probably a performance of puppets, like that at
the Old Tennis Court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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