160 WILD ANIMALS. 



accident befell the spectators; tlie scaffolding gave way, and 

 miserably maimed many people. There are several accounts of 

 this occurrence : one in Vaugban's " Golden Grove," 1608 ; and the 

 other in that quaint work, " The Anatomie of Abuses, — containing 

 a description of such notable vices and enormities — made dialogue- 

 wise by Philip Stubs, gent; and imprinted in London, 1595." 

 "Upon the 13 day of Januarie last, being the Sabaoth day, 

 anno 1583, the people, men, women, and children, both yonge 

 and old, an infinite number flocking to these infamous places, 

 where these wicked exercyses are usuallie practised (for they have 

 their courts, gardens, and yards for the same purpose), when 

 they were all come together and mounted aloft upon the scaffolds 

 and galleries, and in middest of all their jolytie and pastime, all 

 the whole building (not one stick standing) fell down with a 

 most wonderfuU and fearefull confusion ; so that either two or 

 three hundred men, women, and children (by estimation), whereof 

 seven were killed dead, some were wounded, some lamed, and 

 other some brused and crushed almost to death. . . . This wofuU 

 spectacle and heavie judgement pitifull to heare of, but most 

 ruefull to behold, did the Lord send down from heaven, to show 

 unto the whole world how greevously He is offended with those 

 that spend the Sabaoth in such wicked exercyses ; in the meane 

 tyme, leaving His temple desolat and emptie. God graunt all men 

 may take warning hereby to shun the same for feare of like or 

 wo rser judgement to come ! " 



This accident was looked upon by many other people as a 

 judgment for the continued breach of the Sabbath, and ^ '* afforded 

 the Puritans an opportunity for declaring the popular sport to be 

 under the ban of heaven — a mode of argument anticipated years 

 before by Sir Thomas More in his ' Dialogue.' ' At Beverley late, 

 much of the people being at a bear-baiting, the church fell sud- 

 denly down at evening time, and overwhelmed some that were in 

 it. A good fellow that after heard the tale told, ' So,' quoth he, 

 ' now you may see what it is to be at evening prayers when you 

 should be at the bear-baiting ! ' " 



Edward Alleyn, the actor, who performed Shakespeare's principal 



1 Chambers' " Book of Days." 



