evidently lasted into James's reign, but the notices are briefer. Lewis Frederick of Württemberg, saw on 26 April 1610 the baiting both of bears and bulls 'and monkeys that ride on horseback';[1] and Justus Zingerling of Thuringia, who was in London about the same year, mentions the 'theatra comoedorum, in which bears and bulls fight with dogs'.[2] Even more summary is the reference in an itinerary of Prince Otto von Hesse-Cassel in 1611.[3] But the extracts given sufficiently describe the nature of the sport, and show that bulls continued to be baited up to a late date, as well as bears, and that the serious business of the spectacle was diversified by regular humorous episodes, such as the monkey on horseback and the whipping of the blind bear. He, by the way, was called Harry Hunks, and is named by Sir John Davies in his Epigrams[4] of c. 1594, in company with the Sackerson who gave rise to a boast on the part of Master Slender,[5] and at a later date by Dekker[6] and Henry Peacham.[7] Two other famous bears were Ned Whiting and George Stone. Both are alluded to in Ben Jonson's Epicoene (1609),[8] and the latter also in The Puritan (1607).[9] The death of the 'goodlye
- ↑ Rye, 61.
- ↑ Rye, 133.
- ↑ Englische Studien, xiv. 440.
- ↑ Epigram xliii:
Publius, student at the common law,
Oft leaves his books, and for his recreation,
To Paris Garden doth himself withdraw,
Where he is ravished with such delectation,
As down among the bears and dogs he goes;
Where, whilst he skipping cries, 'To head! to head!'
His satin doublet and his velvet hose
Are all with spittle from above bespread:
When he is like his father's country hall,
Stinking with dogs and muted all with hawks;
And rightly on him too this filth doth fall,
Which for such filthy sports his books forsakes,
Leaving old Ployden, Dyer, Brooke alone,
To see old Harry Hunks, and Sacarson. - ↑ Merry Wives, I. i. 306.
- ↑ Dekker, Work for Armourers (1609, Works, iv. 98), 'At length a blind bear was tied to the stake, and instead of baiting him with dogs, a company of creatures that had the shapes of men and faces of Christians (being either colliers, carters, or watermen) took the office of beadles upon them, and whipped Monsieur Hunkes till the blood ran down his old shoulders'.
- ↑ Coryats Crudities (1611), i. 114, 'Hunks of the Beare-garden to be feared if he be nigh on'.
- ↑ Cf. p. 453. Nashe, Strange News (1592, Works, i. 281, also names 'great Ned' and adds 'Harry of Tame'. In 1590 Burnaby had at the Bear Garden 'Tom Hunckes', 'Whitinge', 'Harry of Tame', three other bears, three bulls, a horse, an ape. A 'great' bear was worth £8 or £10, a bull £4 or £5 (Kingsford, 175).
- ↑ Puritan, iii. 5, 'How many dogs do you think I had upon me? . . . almost as many as George Stone, the bear; three at once'.
