Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: I turned back and to Southwarke-Fair, very dirty, and there saw the puppet-show of Whittington, which was pretty to see; and how that idle thing do work upon people that see it, and even myself too! And thence to Jacob Hall's dancing on the ropes, where I saw such action as I never saw before, and mightily worth seeing; and here took acquaintance with a fellow that carried me to a tavern, whither come the musick of this booth, and by and by Jacob Hall himself, with whom I had a mind to speak, to hear whether he had ever any mischief by falls in his time. He tells me, "Yes, many; but never to the breaking of a limb:" he seems a mighty strong man

Event Comment: A playbill [PRO, State Papers 29, Vol. 317, No. 187): At the Booth at Charing-Cross, every day in the Week will be presented variety of Farces Drolls, and Comical Entertainments by Mr Anthony Devo, His Majesties Servant. And this present Monday being the Eleventh of November, will be presented the Dutch cruelties at Amboyna, with the humours of the Valiant Welch-Man. Acted by Men and Women. Beginning exactly at Two of the Clock in the Afternoon, and at Four. Vivat Rex. [This playbill is reproduced in Theatre Notebook, VI (1952), opposite page 36.] L. C. 5@140, p. 129 (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 250): That Antonio diVoto Doe sett forth Exercise & Play all Drolls and Interludes, He not receiuing into his Company any person belonging to his Mates or Royal Highnesse Theatres Nor Act any Play usually acted at any of ye said Theatres Nor takes peeces or Sceenes out of ye Playes Acted at ye said Theatres

Event Comment: A poem, Bartholomew-Fayr, is in A Choice Compendium; or, An Exact Collection of the Newest, and most Delightful Songs (entered in the Term Catalogues, February 1680@1); it refers to some of the activities at the Fair: @Here's that will Challenge all the Fayr,@Come buy my Nuts, Damzens, my Burgamy Pears;@Here's the Whore of Babylon, the Devil and the Pope,@The Girl is just a going on the Rope:@Here's Dives and Lazarus, and the Worlds Creation,@Here's the Tall Dutch Woman, the like's not i'th Nation.@Here is the Booth where the High-Dutch Maid is,@Here are Bares that Dance like any Ladies.@Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, says the little Penny Trumpet.@Here's Jacob Hall that does Jump it, Jump it.@Sound Trumpets, sound, for Silver Spoon and Fork,@Come here's your Dainty Pigg and Pork.

Event Comment: John Perin paid #1 10s. for a booth at the Fair in 1680. See Rosenfeld, Theatre of the London Fairs, p. 6

Event Comment: Domestick Intelligence, 11-14 Sept. 1682: Southwark 12--This day the Scaffold of a Booth fell down, with several Actors, Men and Women on it, and falling upon a Child that stood underneath, crushed it to death

Event Comment: According to Anthony Aston, A Brief Supplement to Colley Cibber (in Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, II, 314-15) Joseph Haynes had a booth at Bartholomew Fair and presented this droll in the first year of James II's reign

Event Comment: London Gazette, No 2581, 4-7 Aug. 1690: These are to give Notice, That by Order of the Lord-Mayor and Court of Alderman of the City of London, the Fair, commonly called Lady-Fair, in the Borough of Southwark, will from henceforth be held on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of September only in every Year (according to the Grant thereof of the City) and that the Booths or Shedds will be permitted to stand in the streets there any longer than the said three days

Event Comment: Newdigate newsletters, 2 Sept. 1693: On Thursday a person acting ye Jack pudding on a stage in Bartholomew fair Bantering upon ye Straits Expedition & return of the ffleet was taken into Custody (Folger Shakespeare Library, transcribed by Professor John Harold Wilson). Luttrell, A Brief Relation, III, 176, 2 Sept. 1693: A merry andrew in Bartholomew fair is committed for telling the mobb news that our fleet was come into Torbay, being forced in by some French privateers, and other words reflecting on the conduct of great ministers of state. Newdigate newsletters, 12 Sept. 1693: On Sunday [10 Sept.] Mr Percivall who kept a Booth during St Barthollomew fair was siezed near Charing cross upon ye acct of clipping being discovered by a young man (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 82). [See also Luttrell, A Brief Relation, III, 183, 205, 207, 212.

Event Comment: Newsletter, 1 Sept. 1694: Indictments are found against severall of the Masters of Booths in Bartholomew fair for presuming to keep the same without the Lord Mayor's permission (Huntington Library, EL 9986, Vol. 142)

Event Comment: May Fair. At Miller's Loyal Association Booth at the upper end of the market near Hyde Park Corner. [See Rosenfeld, The Theatre of the London Fairs, p. 108.