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TY - ELEC
A1 - Mead-Willis, Sarah
ED - Jenstad, Janelle
T1 - Bethlehem Hospital
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/BETH1.htm
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/BETH1.xml
ER -
Although its name evokes the pandemonium of the archetypal madhouse, Bethlehem (Bethlem, Bedlam) Hospital was not always an asylum. As Priorie of Cannons with brethren and
sisters
, founded in one of the Sheriffes of London
(Stow 1:164). We know from
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
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC) who maintained the
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.
Student contributor enrolled in
Clergyman.
Playwright, poet, and author.
King of England
Sheriff of London
Dramatic character in
Sheriff of London
Historian and topographer.
Dramatic character in
Painter and engraver.
Natural philosopher.
Poet and playwright.
Clergyman and writer.
Playwright. Buried at St. Saviour (Southwark).
Dramatic character in
Dramatic character in
Historian and author of
Playwright and poet.
Poet. Daughter of
The city of London, not to be confused with the allegorical character (
Bishopsgate Ward shares its western boundary with the eastern boundaries of Shoreditch and Broad Street Ward and, thus, encompasses area both inside and outside the Wall. The ward and its main street, Bishopsgate Street, are named after Bishopsgate.
Bishopsgate Street ran north from Cornhill Street to the southern end of Shoreditch Street at the city boundary. South of
Cornhill, the road became Gracechurch Street, and the two streets formed a
major north-south artery in the eastern end of the walled city of London, from
London Bridge to Shoreditch. Important sites included: Bethlehem Hospital, a mental hospital, and Bull Inn, a place where plays were performed before
(Weinreb and Hibbert
67).
St. Botolph without Bishopsgate stood on the west
side of Bishopsgate Street north of Bishopsgate. It was in Bishopsgate Ward. St. Botolph without
Bishopsgate is featured on the Agas map, south of Bethlehem Hospital and west of Houndsditch Street. It is labelled
S. Buttolphes.
A low-lying marshy area just northeast of Moorgate and on the way to the Curtain, Moorfields was home to a surprising range of activities and accompanying cultural associations in early modern London. Beggars and the mentally ill patients of neighbouring Bethlehem Hospital often frequented the area. Some used the public space to bleach and dry linen, and the full of noysome waters
(Stow 2:77) until
Bridewell was a prison and hospital. The site was originally a royal palace (Bridewell Palace) but was transferred to the
Bride Well
.
Farringdon Without Ward is west of Farringdon Within Ward and Aldersgate Ward and is located outside the Wall. This ward is called without
Newgate and Ludgate and to differentiate it from Farringdon Within Ward. Farringdon Without Ward and its counterpart within the Wall are both named after
Located in Broad Street Ward and Cornhill Ward, the Royal Exchange was opened in
Fleet Street runs east-west from Temple Bar to Fleet Hill or Ludgate Hill, and is named for the Fleet River. The road has existed since at least the
Tower Street ran east-west from Tower Hill in the east to St. Andrew Hubbard. It was the principal street of Tower Street Ward. That the ward is named after the street indicates the cultural significance of Tower Street, which was a key part of the processional route through London and home to many wealthy merchants who traded in the goods that were unloaded at the docks and quays immediately south of Tower Street (for example, Billingsgate, Wool Key, and Galley Key).
Whitechapel was a street running east-west to the
Aldgate Bars from the east. fully
replenished with buildings outward, & also pestered with diuerse Allyes,
on eyther side
(Stow).
Our editorial and encoding practices are documented in detail in the Praxis section of our website.
Location:
Although its name evokes the pandemonium of the archetypal madhouse, Bethlehem (Bethlem, Bedlam) Hospital was not always an asylum. As Priorie of Cannons with brethren and
sisters
, founded in 1247 by one of the Sheriffes of London
(Stow 1:164). The name Bethlehem
likely owes its origin to
It is unclear precisely when Bethlehem extended its charitable duties to the care of the
mentally ill. The first reference to its role as a hospital appears in 1323
(Reed 13), and, in 1437, a Patent
Roll mentions Bethlehem undertaking
the succour of demented lunatics
(qtd. in Masters 34). The priory was disbanded during the dissolution of
England’s monasteries, but Bethlehem
maintained its function as a hospital for the ill, the indigent, and,
increasingly, the insane (Masters 35).
people that bee distraught in wits
(Stow 1:165), and his catalogue of Hospitals in the
Citie
, designates S. Mary Bethelem
as an institution for lunaticke
people
(Stow 2:144).
Despite its shift in function from priory to hospital and hospital to asylum,
Bethlehem remained at its
original site well into the early modern period. We know from
to be a burial for the dead(Stow 1:114). The western perimeter of the cemetery was circumscribed by a
deepe ditchthat separated the hospital’s grounds from Moorfields (Stow 1:165).
In 1557, the City of London designated the administration of Bethlehem to the governors of Bridewell, a correction house
(nominally a hospital) in Farringdon Ward
(without) (Jackson 49). Bridewell’s governors, however,
devoted little attention or capital to Bethlehem, leaving it in the hands of a master or keeper, who did
with the hospital what his limited funds and equally limited conscience
decreed (Allderidge 149). Hence, Bethlehem’s reputation for squalor
and neglectful management began to accrue and, by the early 1600s, allusions
to the hospital’s notorious conditions surface repeatedly in plays and print
culture (Reed 50).
Let his straw be sweet and fresh[Ssg. F4v]), while
Greed. Take a Mittimus And carry him to Bedlam. Well-doe. Carry him to some darke roome There try what Art can do for his recouery.
In his 1632 catalogue of the major landmarks and locales of London, Bedlam
would become
synonymous:
it seemes strange that any one shold recouer here, the cryings, screechings, roarings, brawlings, shaking of chaines, swearings, frettings, chaffings, are so many, so hideous, so great, that they are more able to driue a man that hath his witts, rather out of them, then to helpe one that neuer had them, or hath lost them, to finde them againe.
As Reed conjectures, part of the reason for Bethlehem’s notoriety may be that many Londoners would have witnessed its conditions firsthand (24). Until 1770, the hospital was not only open for visitation, but it appeared to encourage public admission as a major source of revenue (25). Certainly, if contemporary drama is any indication, the citizens of early modern London regarded Bethlehem as a regular—if slightly perverse— form of entertainment (Jackson 12). In
Bel. Stay, yonders the Dolphin without Bishops-gate, where our horses are at rack and manger, and wee are going past it: come crosse ouer: and what place is this? May. Bedlam ist not? Bel. Where the mad-men are, I neuer was amongst them, as you loue me Gentlemen, lets see what Greekes are within.
References to Bethlehem as a
destination or attraction appear more than once in
being at Bedlam yesterday(Jonson sig. C1v), while in
Cen. Let him allow you your Coach, and foure Horses, your Woman, your Chamber-maid, your Page, your Gentleman-Vsher, your French Cooke, and four Groomes. Haughty. And goe with vs to Bed’lem, to the China Houses, and to theExchange.
Even if a Londoner did not visit Bethlehem, he or she would likely have some acquaintance with its
inmates. As demonstrably unfortunate
groups who could solicit charity without
reprisal. Hence, ex-Bedlamites would have constituted a substantial class of
beggar in early modern London (Jackson
47). In
Tom O’ Bedlamalludes to the mad beggar’s legal impunity:
Edgar :The country gives me proof and precedent Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices Strike in their numbed and mortified bare arms Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary; And with this horrible object, from low farms, Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills, Sometimes with lunatic bans, sometimes with prayers, Enforce their charity.
Indeed, counterfeit Bedlamites—those who feign madness to enforce
charity
—were evidently common enough to be mentioned in Idle Vagabonds
(qtd. in Dionne
34).
Whether due to the ubiquity of its denizens (spurious or otherwise), its
function as lurid spectacle, or its frequent mention in popular plays and
pamphlets, it would appear that Londoners regarded Bethlehem as an integral part of the city’s
landscape. In
And Bedlam must not be forgot, For that was oft my walk I there too many people leave That out of tune do talk.
the mad knaves of Bedlamwhen he tells
the Shoemakers, the courageous cordwainers, the flower of St. Martin’s, the mad knaves of Bedlam, Fleet Street, Tower Street, and Whitechapel(1.223–25).
Indeed, the idea of Bethlehem appears so prominently in the early modern imagination that it functions in a figurative as well as a literal capacity. Later in
bandog and bedlam(4.10) to mean
furiously and madly(
Madnesse) to which one can fall victim (Adams sig. B1r). Thus, it would seem that Bethlehem occupied a dual conceptual status in the minds of early modern Londoners. It was at once a tangible civic landmark and a byword for derangement, chaos, and uproar.
In 1674, the governors of Bridewell
commissioned
viewthe inmates, educational visits to the hospital’s museum and art gallery are encouraged free of charge (