Alessandro Magno, an Italian merchant sailor, visits London in 1562, and describes his experience at the Bear Garden. The arena houses some two hundred dogs, maintained separately in small boxes made of boards; another pen houses bears and wild…
Horace, a character in Dekker's 'Satiromastix,' claims to have played 'Zulziman' at Paris Garden. The playhouse in question here is almost certainly the Swan, and not the Bear Garden.
In his satirical 'Strange News,' Thomas Nash refers to 'the interpreter of the Puppits' at Paris Garden. It is unclear whether 'puppets' here refers to actual puppets, actors, or to the animals generally on exhibit at the popular bear-baiting venue.
Parts of the audience scaffolding at Paris Garden collapsed during a Sunday bearbaiting on 13 January 1583. Five days later John Field wrote a pamphlet, soon printed, that interpreted the deaths of seven spectators and injuries of many others as a…
William Fennor stands up John Taylor for an extempore versifying contest at the Hope, and Taylor lashes back in a 'A Cast over the Water.' In his rant, Taylor revives the spector of Fennor's 'England's Joy,' a notorious flop staged at the Swan in…