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
In the following year, Hussey's booth again stood in George Yard, and
presented _Tamerlane the Great_, with singing and "several curious
equilibres on the slack rope by Mahomet Achmed Vizaro Mussulmo, a Turk
just arrived from Constantinople, who not only balances without a pole,
but also plays a variety of excellent airs on the violin when on the slack
rope, which none can perform in England but himself." Though said to have
just arrived from Constantinople, this Turk was probably the same that had
performed at Bartholomew Fair three years previously.
Warner disconnected himself from Fawkes this year, and joined Yeates and
Mrs. Lee, whose booth stood in the same position as before, presenting the
_Siege of Troy_, and an entertainment of singing and dancing. Adjoining it
stood a new show, owned by Godwin and Reynolds, with "a curious collection
of wax-work figures, being the richest and most beautiful in England;" and
a panoramic view of the world, "particularly an accurate and beautiful
prospect of Bergen-op-Zoom, together with its fortifications and adjacent
forts, and an exact representation of the French besieging it, and the
Dutch defending it from their batteries, etc." The movements of this
exhibition were effected by clock-work. Opposite the Greyhound was another
new venture, Chettle's, in which a pantomimic entertainment called
_Frolicsome Lasses_ was presented, with singing and dancing between the
acts, and a display of fireworks at the end.
The only theatrical booth at Southwark Fair this year seems to have been
Mrs. Lee's, in which the entertainments were the same as at Bartholomew
Fair. In Mermaid Lane was exhibited "the strange and wonderful monstrous
production of Nature, a sea-elephant head, having forty-six teeth, some of
them ten inches long, fluted, and turning up like a ram's horn."
The shows increased in number and variety, though the theatrical booths
could no longer boast of the great names of former years. George Yard was
occupied in 1748 by a new theatre, owned by Bridges, Cross, Barton, and
Vaughan, from the theatres royal, who availed of the interest created by
recent events to present a new historical drama called _The Northern
Heroes_, followed by dancing and a farce called _The Volunteers_, founded
on the 'Adventures of Roderick Random.' Smollett was now running Fielding
hard in the race of fame, and the new managers were keen in turning his
popularity to account for their own interests. This booth was the most
important one in the fair, and the charge for admission ranged from
sixpence to half-a-crown.
Hussey's booth, at which the prices ranged from sixpence to two shillings,
stood opposite the gate of the hospital. The entertainments consisted of
the comedy of _The Constant Quaker_, singing and dancing, including "a new
dance called Punch's Maggot, or Foote's Vagaries," and a pantomime called
_Harlequin's Frolics_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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