Haunting History of ~Bear-Baiting~U.K
Bear-baiting was popular in England, until the 19th century. From the sixteenth century, many bears were maintained for baiting. In its best-known form, arenas for this purpose were called bear-gardens, consisting of a circular high fenced area, the pit, and raised seating for spectators. A post would be set in the ground towards the edge of the pit and the bear chained to it, either by the leg or neck. A number of well-trained fighting or baiting dogs, usually Old English Bulldogs, would then be set on it, being replaced as they got tired or were wounded or killed. In some cases the bear was let loose, allowing it to chase after animals or people. For a long time, the main bear-garden in London was the Paris Garden, that section of the Bankside lying to the west of The Clink, at Southwark.
(The sites of three bear-baiting pits have been protected. Bankside in Southwark was the place for animal baiting in Elizabethan and Jacobean times read all HERE
Henry VIII was a fan and had a pit constructed at Whitehall. Elizabeth I was also fond of the entertainment; it featured regularly in her tours. When an attempt was made to ban bear-baiting on Sundays, she overruled Parliament. Robert Laneham's letter describes the spectacle presented by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth Castle in 1575:
Thursday, the fourteenth of July, and the sixth day of her Majesty’s coming, a great sort of bandogs [mastiff] were then tied in the outer court and thirteen bears in the inner . . .
Well, the bears were brought forth into the court, the dogs set to them, to argue the points even face to face. They had learned counsel also on both parts, what may they be counted partial that are retained but to one side? I know not. Very fierce, both one and the other, and eager in argument. If the dog in pleading would pluck the bear by the throat, the bear with traverse would claw him again by the scalp, confess and a list, but avoid it could not that was bound to the bar, and his counsel told him that it could be to him no policy in pleading.
Therefore, with fending & proving, with plucking and tugging, scratching and biting, by plain tooth and nail on one side and the other, such expense of blood and leather [skin] was there between them, as a months licking (I think) will not recover, and yet remain as far out as ever they were.
It was a very pleasant sport, of these beasts, to see the bear with his pink eyes leering after his enemies approach, the nimbleness and wayt [wait] of the dog to take his advantage, and the force and experience of the bear again to avoid the assaults. If he were bitten in one place, how he would pinch in another to get free, that if he were taken once, then what shift, with biting, with clawing, with roaring, tossing and tumbling, he would work to wind himself free from them. And when he was loose, to shake his ears twice or thrice with the blood and the slather about his physiognomy, was a matter of goodly relief.
Variations involved other animals being baited, especially bulls. Bull-baiting was a contest which was similar to bear baiting in which the bull was chained to a stake by one hind leg or by the neck and worried by dogs. The whipping of a blinded bear was another variation of bear-baiting. Also, on one curious occasion, a pony with an ape tied to its back was baited; a spectator described that ... with the screaming of the ape, beholding the curs hanging from the ears and neck of the pony, is very laughable.????
Attempts to end the entertainment were first made in England by the Puritans, with little effect. The deaths of a number of spectators, when a stand collapsed at the Paris Gardens on 12 January 1583, was viewed by early Puritans as a sign of God's anger, though not primarily because of the cruelty but because the bear-baiting was taking place on a Sunday.
Believe it or not, London used to play host to a number of bear baiting matches. Bear Alley in Holborn was home to a bear-baiting ring and apparitions of ghostly bears have been sighted here and throughout London, mainly, of course, in areas where there used to be bear-baiting.
One bear named Sackerson was written into in a Shakespearean comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. By the late 17th century the conscience of cultivated people seems to have been touched, but it was not until 1835 that baiting was prohibited by Parliament by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835. The ban was soon extended across the Empire.
The Bald Prima Donna Showreel
Tom Purchase-Rathbone as Mr Martin in The Bear Pit Theatre's production of The Bald Prima Donna by Eugene Ionesco.
The show ran at The Bear Pit in Stratford-Upon-Avon from 13th - 17th February 2018.
Bridge Street dashcam
dashcam on Bridge Street
MACBETH-DakotahComedy featuring LIL Renaissance and G-Money
LYRICS
DakotahComedy: verse 1
Evil Demons. Macbeth, Elizabethan.
Black Death, Duncan dead, no longer breathin.
Go to london, capital of the British regions.
3 witches, riding brooms, doing witchen.
In their cauldrons, cooking kids, in the kitchen.
Ugly hags, walk around, with cute black kittens.
Ghostly Ghostly, whole bunch of superstition.
Lurid meetings, with the devil, call him Satan.
Renaissance, tons and tons of entertainment.
Go to town, sit down, watch bear-baiting.
Stake them to the pit, pack of dogs steady waiting.
Go to drawings, go to whippings, go to hangings.
Macbeth, was a general, swords banging.
Look in the trees, bodies hanging.
DakotahComedy: verse 2
Ghost were recognized in 3 different varieties, one subjective and one dies with no opportunities.
The next one was a false ghost made up by societies.
Shakespeare left his wife to write stories that blew up enormously.
Of the Bordic Academy, the Proceedings. Go to town, witness all of the beatings.
Watch the corpses, cats were really worshiped.
King cat irusan, plough ox, bore Seanchan Torpest.
Honor the goddess, let me chew on some horseflesh.
Toads were poisonous causing swoons and palpation.
Send YOU to salvation.
Witches.
LIL Renaissance: verse 1
Witches and ghost existed.
A time when King duncan failed to resisted.
Ghost were wicked, witches were twisted.
Toads were poisonous, toxic
They were known to be demonic.
tell the future by the stars, cosimic
criminals stole money from your pockets.
Witches were killed during Salem.
Ditches were filled, cant save them.
LIL Renaissance: verse 2
Witches told Macbeth, to go kill king Duncan
because the were old ugly hags with their faces all sunken.
crowded, dirty streets, the seven gates of London.
Macbeth tracked him down, he had no chance of running.
stabbed him with his knife, like a spear, like he was hunting.
many Elizabethans, never seen it coming.
DakotahComedy: verse 3
Evil Demons. Macbeth, Elizabethan.
Black Death, Duncan dead, no longer breathin.
Go to london, capital of the British regions.
3 witches, riding brooms, doing witchen.
In their cauldrons, cooking kids, in the kitchen.
Ugly hags, walk around, with cute black kittens.
G-Money: Verse 1
The significance of the three witches, was the number three.
An important symbol of paganism, that eventually became the holy trinity.
For Christianity. Cant you see?
Like when Macbeth comments on the witches prophecy.
Shoutout to England, in the century.
Of seventeenth.
Shakespeare's Stage by Shmoop
Imagine yourself going to see a show. The cushy red seats. The talented orchestra. The body odor and animal abuse. Not what you pictured? Be thankful that much has changed since Shakespeare's time.
Changing Traditions in Musical Theatre | The Meighen Forum 2019
Using Little Shop of Horrors and Billy Elliot the Musical as examples, New York Times co-chief theatre critic Jesse Green and director and choreographer Donna Feore discuss where musical theatre has been and where it is going.
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The Q Brothers - Hip Hop Shakespeare // 30.4.12
The school was lucky enough to host the Q Brothers, all the way from the United States Of America. They held a workshop with students, combining the works of William Shakespeare with modern day rap music. Check out what they got up to, including some of the raps written and performed by students.
Shakespeare's Romances or The Last Plays
The History of Mr. Polly Audiobook by H. G. Wells | Audiobook with subtitles
A funny and touching account of the imaginative Mr. Polly who, bored and trapped in his conventional life, makes a U-turn –- and changes everything.
H.G. Wells’ early life as the son of a semi-insolvent shopkeeper and as a draper’s apprentice fueled his novels of the lower middle class: The Wheels of Chance (1896), Kipps (1905), and The History of Mr. Polly (1910). These works evoke the desperation of apprentices, clerks, and small traders in their monotonous toil behind shop counters. And, like Mr. Polly, his protagonists make a break from their mundane lives with more or less success.
H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific writer in history, general and science fiction, and politics. He was a lifelong socialist. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)
The History of Mr. Polly
H. G. WELLS
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