2'><» S. VII. Jan. 22. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



61 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 22. 1859. 



BARTHOLOMEW FAIR. 



Having purchased Mr. Morley's handsome vo- 

 lume, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, I was dis- 

 appointed at not finding in it some notice of, or 

 extract from, a popular production, published, I 

 think, before the year 1600, in 4to., black-letter, 

 for the purpose of being sold during the festivity, 

 and entitled Ncives from Bartholmew Fayre. I 

 never had an opportunity of seeing more than a 

 fragment of it ; but that fragment consisted of 

 six leaves, and I feel sure, as it was intended to 

 secure many purchasers, and must have been 

 sold at a cheap rate, that it never consisted of 

 more than eight leaves, or one sheet, 4 to. 1 appre- 

 hend, therefore, that I had three-fourths of the 

 performance before me. It was entirely in verse, 

 and had neither title-page nor conclusion, so that 

 in all probability what was wanting were the first 

 leaf and the last. I omitted to look at the signa- 

 tures at the bottom of the pages, if there were any, 

 which would have been some guide to a knowledge 

 of how much had been lost. Such as it is I wish 

 to direct attention to it, because some of your 

 readers, who are most curious on matters relat- 

 ing to our popular literature, may possibly be able 

 to give me farther information. I conclude that 

 it never came under the observation of Mr. Mor- 

 ley, or he could not have failed to mention and re- 

 mark upon so singular a relic* 



It is, as may be imagined, a humorous effusion, 

 and is mainly occupied with the prominent sub- 

 ject of noses, rather coarse and broad (like some 

 people's noses), but hardly more so than Berni's 

 poem In lode del Naso, and Sterne's prose descrip- 

 tion of the visit to the nasal promontory. The verse 

 is very irregular, sometimes consisting ot heroics, 

 sometimes of eight-syllable lines, and sometimes of 

 such as Skelton left behind him, with others which 

 may be termed irregular and intermediate mea- 

 sures. I judge from the type only that it came 

 out about the commencement of the seventeenth 

 century; but it may have been considerably older, 

 or possibly later. It opens thus : — 

 " Newes from Bartholmew Fayre. 

 " Those that will heare any London newes, 

 Where some be merrie, and some do muse, 

 And who hath beene at Bartholmew Faire, 

 And what good stirring hath beene there, 

 Come but to mee, and j'ou shall heare, 

 For among the thickest I have beene there." 



* He does notice a publication called News from Bar- 

 tholomew Fair, or the World's run Mad, but that was of 

 considerably later date, in the time of Jacob Hall (whom 

 I shall mention presently), and in prose. Perhaps the 

 title of News from Bartholomew Fair was used from year 

 to year, because it was attractive to customers. 



Afterwards we meet with a singular enumera- 

 tion of many of the commodities sold in different 

 parts of Smithfield during the fair : — 



"There double beere and bottle-ale 

 In everie corner had good sale ; 

 Many a pig, and many a sow, 

 Many a jade, and many a cow : 

 Candle rushes, cloth and leather. 

 And many things came in together : 

 Many a pound and penny told. 

 Many a bargaine bought and sold ; 

 And tavernes full in every place. 

 And yet they say Avine wilbe scarse." 



The writer at this point breaks off" from the im- 

 mediate subject of the Fair, and comes to the 

 topic of Noses : he must have been something of 

 a scholar from the use he makes here and there 

 of the Latin language, employing the plural pro- 

 noun nos upon all occasions as if it meant nose, 

 as Nos qui vivimus, Libera nos, Nos maximus om- 

 nium. Sec. He supposes that "Nose maximus om- 

 nium " has died suddenly : — 



" Be it knowne to all noses red, 

 Nos maximus omnium is gone and dead. 

 This is strange and this is true ; 

 Therefore, mine Host, belongs to you. 

 And all that sell good beere and ale, 

 To haue regard unto my tale. 

 And send unto the Vintners hall 

 Present word, to warne them all 

 To make ready his funerall, 

 And bury him in malmesey tunne 

 For the good deedes that he hath done : 

 For he was free of the old Haunce, 

 And much good wine procured from France, 

 With sack and sugar out of Spaine, 

 Whereby he did more noses gaine 

 Under his banner for to be, 

 Than all the noses that be free. 

 And a very commodious nose had he." 



It is a mere drollery from beginning to end, 

 and bears internal evidence of having been writ- 

 ten oft' at a heat, by some rhymer (whose own nose 

 had first been well warmed by sherry-sack) for the 

 mere purpose that the tract should be bought by 

 the merry frequenters of the fair. Another pas- 

 sage, where the writer uses the Skeltonic measure, 

 is the following : — 



" The Canmaker cried, as if he had bin mad : — 

 sticks and stones. 

 Brickbats and bones. 

 Briefs and brambles, 

 Cookes shops and shambles I 

 O fishers of Kent, 

 Heycockes and bent 1 

 cockatrices and hernshawes, that in woods do dwell ! 

 O Colliers of Croydon ! 

 O rusticks of Roydon t 

 O Devills of Hell ! 

 O pewterers and tinkers, 

 O swearers and swinkers ! 

 good ale drinkers! * * * 

 O rimers and riddlers ! 

 fencers and fiddlers ! 

 O taylors and tumblers ! 

 joyners and jumblers ! * * 



