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TY - ELEC
A1 - Kelley, Shannon
A1 - Fairfield University English 213 Fall 2014 Student Group 3
ED - Jenstad, Janelle
T1 - Bear Garden
T2 - The Map of Early Modern London
ET - 7.0
PY - 2022
DA - 2022/05/05
CY - Victoria
PB - University of Victoria
LA - English
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/BEAR1.htm
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/BEAR1.xml
ER -
The Bear Garden was never a garden, but rather a polygonal bearbaiting arena whose exact locations across time are not known (Mackinder and Blatherwick 18). Labelled on the Agas map as The Bearebayting
, the Bear Garden would have been one of several permanent structures—wooden arenas, dog kennels, bear pens—dedicated to the popular spectacle of bearbaiting in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Programmer, 2018-present. Junior Programmer, 2015-2017. Research Assistant, 2014-2017. Joey Takeda was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English (Science and Technology research stream). He completed his BA honours in English (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Victoria in 2016. His primary research interests included diasporic and indigenous Canadian and American literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and the digital humanities.
Data Manager, 2015-2016. Research Assistant, 2013-2015. Tye completed his undergraduate honours degree in English at the University of Victoria in 2015.
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach, 2015–2020. Associate Project Director, 2015. Assistant Project Director, 2013-2014. MoEML Research Fellow, 2013. Kim McLean-Fiander comes to
Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of
Sally-Beth MacLean is professor of English, University of Toronto.
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.
Shannon Kelley is a MoEML Pedagogical Partner. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Fairfield University. Her teaching and research fields include Lyric Poetry, Literary Theory, Ecocriticism, Early Modern Culture, Science Studies, and Renaissance Drama. Her class will prepare encyclopedia entries on the gardens on the Agas map, including the Bear Garden.
Actor with the
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
King of England
Queen of England and Ireland
King of England and Ireland
Prince of Wales. Son of
Theatre financier. Husband of
Bohemian etcher. Moved to London in
King of Scotland
Poet and playwright.
Poet and antiquary.
Playwright and poet.
Dramatic character in
Historian and author of
Poet.
Cartographer. Drew a map of London in
Author of
Bishop of Winchester
Bookseller and antiquary.
Yeoman of
Member of the House of Commons.
Knight and courtier. Member of the House of Commons.
Presumed owner of a second bear garden in the Bankside area of Southwark.
Venetian writer. Documented his visit to London in
Soldier and sheriff of Surrey.
Earl of Leicester
Translator.
Roman poet.
Dramatic character in
Dramatic character in
Artist known for his
Student contributors enrolled in
Beasts of Recreacion: Henslowe’s White Bears
The Globe was the open-air, public theatre in which
Bull Baiting is depicted on the Agas map next to Bear Garden, with the
label Bolle bayting
, although the existence of an arena separate from the Bear Garden
is disputed. See the relevant section in Bear Garden article.
Described by Weinreb as redolent of squalor and vice
(Weinreb 39), London’s Bankside district in Southwark was known for its taverns, brothels and playhouses in the early modern period. However, in approximately
The city of London, not to be confused with the allegorical character (
For information about the Hope, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the
Our editorial and encoding practices are documented in detail in the Praxis section of our website.
Location:
"geometry": {
"type": "Point",
"coordinates": [-0.095958,51.507440]
}
On the Agas map, the Bear Garden is a circular arena with an open roof and a clear label—The Bearebayting
—located in the Liberty of the Clink, Southwark. The Bear Garden was never a garden, but rather a polygonal bearbaiting arena whose exact locations across time are not known (Mackinder and Blatherwick 18). To complicate matters of historical accuracy, by bear garden
was the generic name given to a set of permanent structures—wooden arenas, dog kennels, bear pens—dedicated to bearbaiting, and rebuilt on various occasions during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Mackinder and Blatherwick 19). Prior to the mid-sixteenth century, animal baiting occurred in an open field, so it was significant that the Elizabethans established permanent buildings for the practice, which typically occurred two days a week (including Sundays).
Locating the first permanent structure is difficult. a capital curtilage called le Beara yarde with le Berehouse and a garden
(Roberts and Godfrey). Mackinder and Blatherwick believe that there was a second bear garden operated by
Immediately west of the Bear Garden on the Agas map is a second, similar edifice labeled TheBolle baiting
. Some historians doubt that a separate, freestanding arena devoted to bullbaiting existed beyond the early sixteenth century, despite the evidence of the Agas Map. As W.W. Braines observes, there is no record of a place on the Bankside reserved specially for the baiting of bulls, but there is plenty of evidence that bulls (and other animals) were baited at the bear-rings
(Braines 48). Giles E. Dawson makes a similar argument based on an eyewitness account by a Venetian, earliest documentary evidence
for animal baiting is a bullring on an unpublished manuscript map of Southwark dated The Globe
, a smaller arena near the Thames, is really the Bear Garden, while Hollar’s Beere bayting h
(which has a tiring house) is the real Globe.
Bear Garden shared its Bankside home with both theatres and brothels. Martha Carlin characterizes Southwark as a haven of criminals and forbidden practices within sight of the royal court and law courts at Westminster
(Carlin xix). Early references to Bear Garden—including
Now to returne to the Weſt banke, there be two Beare gardens, the olde and the new places, wherein be kept Beares, Buls and other beaſtes to be bayted. As also Maſtiues in ſeuerall kenels, nouriſhed to baite them. These Beares and other Beaſts are there bayted in plottes of ground, ſcaffolded about for the Beholders to stand ſafe(Stow 1603, sig. 2D4r). He then shifts to a brief legal history of the
Bordello or ſtewesand their privileges, which date to the reign of
As to the Brothel-Houſes formerly in Southwark, we find a Statute as old as the(Bagford sig. K2r). An ordinance datedReign of for their TolerationEdw. III. ’tis probable that they were firſt eſtabliſhed by the Romans, (for the Bull and Bear Garden in that Place is but of late Settlement,) who had alſo a Play-Houſe on that ſide, and had their Abode very much in Southwark, which was then a Place of Fortification
make pastimewith the king’s bears at the stews (Roberts and Godfrey).
Bearbaiting is more clearly documented in the seventeenth century. In Mastership of the Game of Bears, Bulls and Mastiff Dogs
(Greg 101). The document gives bayete or cause to be bayted
the crown’s bears (Greg 101).
During the Commonwealth period, bearbaiting continued despite Puritan opposition. Briefly closed in accuses the Parliament of even stooping to lure young men to the Bear Garden under the guise of showing a new kind of bear-baiting, and then impressing them into the Army
(Hotson 278). The Bear Garden continued to operate until
Bears were trained by their bearwards, almost like Roman gladiators, to defend themselves in carefully timed and choreographed matches against English mastiffs, a particular breed of dog known for its courage (Ravelhofer 288). When the bears were old and blinded by wounds from dogs, they were simply staked to the ground and whipped until blood poured down their backs (Ravelhofer 288). As Ravelhofer argues, when bears were not beaten, but rather trained to dance or
- Ned of Canterbury.
- George of Cambridge.
- Don Iohn.
- Ben Hunt.
- Nan Stiles.
- Beeſe of Ipſwich.
- Robin Hood.
- Blind Robin.
- Iudith of Cambridge.
- Beſſe Hill.
- Kate of Kent.
- Roſe of Bedlam.
- Nan Talbot.
- Mall Cut-Purſe.
- Nell of Holland.
- Mad Beſſe [(one of] two white Beares.[)]
- Will Tookey [(one of] two white Beares.[)]
- Beſſe Runner.
- Tom Dogged.
the anonymous dogs
, while the bears—especially George Stone, Harry Hunks, and Sackerson—attained celebrity status, such specificity suggests a broad cultural acceptance and awareness of the bears’ significance (de Somogyi 102). For example, Sackerſon looſe, twenty times, and haue taken him by the Chaine
in
the spectator’s interest was in the dogs, their willingness, pursuit, attack, and tenacity:
it was the dogs which won the prizes which were offered and it was the dog’s owners, primarily, who made the wagers(Brownstein 243-244). Regardless which creature was the object of immediate attention at the baiting event, the specific naming and cultural celebrity status of the bears is sufficient to suggest public awareness of them as individual combatants.
Studies of bearbaiting by literary critics and cultural historians often consider the mindset whereby early modern Londoners could consider bearbaiting as a form of entertainment. Such questioning might appear significant for those Shakespeareans who recognize that bearbaiting arenas and playhouses practically overlapped in popular appeal, while, in the case of the Hope Theatre, the two activities actually did overlap. Ravelhofer proposes that, on at least two occasions, the bears were perhaps called upon to perform in plays: (1) typological kinship of the buildings
, it seems reasonable to suggest that there are crucial parallels between these worlds, one of which (bearbaiting) has ceased to exist (Höfele 6). We tend to identify the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage as a site of philosophical inquiry, artistic creation, and humanist thought, while we criminalize dogfighting, cockfighting, and animal baiting. How could the same crowd attend both events without experiencing cognitive dissonance?
For Jacqueline Vanhoutte, the Bear Garden appealed to early modern spectators since, when a strong, powerful beast was tied to the stake and rendered weak, if not impotent, this enforced bondage mirrored the affairs of men who likewise suffer impotency when confronted with the vagaries of life. Vanhoutte illustrates this by focusing on They haue tied me to a ſtake, I cannot flye, [b]ut Beare-like I muſt fight the courſe. What’s he [t]hat was not borne of Woman? Such a one [a]m I to feare, or none
(Shakespeare sig. 2N3v). And as
I am tyed to’th’Stake, / And I must ſtand the Courſe(Shakespeare sig. 2R4v).
Cultural critics also note that bearbaiting, while obviously relying on blood sport, spectacle, and violence, was nevertheless often advertised as festive and comical. In addition, as Stephen Dickey notes when considering the undeniable violence of bearbaiting
, records exist of animals refusing to fight or of stalemate baiting endings, which appear to confirm how inconclusive
such violence might appear in a typical bearbaiting match
(Dickey 260). Ravelhofer likewise acknowledges that baiting was a showpiece of controlled violence under the auspices of a master-producer
where opponents could be separated before serious harm ensued
(Ravelhofer 288). Whatever our modern predisposition and opposition to blood sport activities, it is important to recognize the sites of baitings, such as those held at Bear Garden, as culturally significant in an early modern historical context and no more or less likely to be condemned than their near neighbors, London’s playhouses.
MoEML recommends that teachers and students look at the