Part 14

This is to give Notice to all Gentlemen, Ladies and Others, that coming into May-Fair, the first Booth on the Left Hand, over against Mr. Pinckeman's Booth; During the usual time of the Fair, is to be seen a great Collection of strange and wonderful Rareties, all A-live from several parts of the World.

The London district of Mayfair includes the site of this fair, and was named after it.

Vivat Regina.

Advertisement in a collection at the British Museum.

1734.

At the Great THEATRICAL BOOTH ON the Bowling-Green behind the Marshalsea, down Mermaid-Court next the Queens Arms Tavern, during the Time of Southwark Fair (which began the 8th instant and ends the 21st), will be presented that diverting droll, call'd

The True and Ancient History of

MAUDLIN, the Merchants Daughter of BRISTOL,

AND

Her constant Lover ANTONIO,

who she followed into Italy, disguising herself in Man's Habit; shewing the Hardships she underwent by being Shipwrecked on the Coast of Algier, where she met her Lover, who was doom'd to be burnt at a Stake by the King of that Country, who fell in Love with her and proffered her his Crown, which she dispised, and chose rather to share the fate of her Antonio than renounce the Christian Religion to embrace that of their Imposter Prophet Mahomet.

With the comical Humours of

ROGER, ANTONIO'S MAN.

And Variety of Singing and Dancing between the Acts, by Mr. Sandham Mrs. Woodward and Miss Sandham.

Particularly, A new Dialogue to be sung by Mr. Excell and Mrs. Fitzgerald. Written by the Author of Bacchus one Day gaily striding, etc., and a Hornpipe by Mr. Taylor. To which will be added a new Entertainment (never performed before) called

The INTRIGUING HARLEQUIN,

Any Wife better than none.

With Scenes, Machines, and other Decorations proper to the Entertainment.

Advertisement in a collection at the British Museum.

GREENWICH FAIR (in 1835-6).

... Imagine yourself in an extremely dense crowd which swings you to and fro and in and out, and every way but the right one; add to this the screams of women, the shouts of boys, the clanging of gongs, the firing of pistols, the ringing of bells, the bellowing of speaking-trumpets, the squeaking of penny dittoes, the noise of a dozen bands with three drums in each, all playing different tunes at the same time, the hallooing of showmen, and an occasional roar from the wild beast shows; and you are in the very centre and heart of the fair.

This immense booth, with the large stage in front, so brightly illuminated with variegated lamps and pots of burning fat, is "Richardson's," where you have a melodrama (with three murders and a ghost), a pantomime, a comic song, an overture, and some incidental music, all done in five-and-twenty minutes. The company are now promenading outside in all the dignity of wigs, spangles, red ochre, and whitening.... The exhibitions next in popularity to these itinerant theatres are the travelling menageries, or, to speak more intelligibly, the "Wild beast shows," where a military band in beef-eater's costume, with leopardskin caps, play incessantly, and where large highly coloured representations of tigers tearing men's heads open, and a lion being burnt with red hot irons to induce him to drop his victim, are hung up outside, by way of attracting visitors.

... The grandest and most numerously frequented booth in the whole fair however is "The Crown and Anchor," a temporary ballroom--we forget how many feet long--the price of admission to which is one shilling.... The dancing itself beggars description--every figure lasts about an hour, and the ladies bounce up and down the middle with a degree of spirit which is quite indescribable. As to the gentlemen they stamp their feet upon the ground every time "hands four round" begins, go down the middle and up again with cigars in their mouths and silk handkerchiefs in their hands, and whirl their partners round, nothing loth, scrambling and falling and knocking up against the other couples, until they are fairly tired out and can move no longer.

Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.