and we hear Mr. Pinkethman[1] has removed his in genious company of strollers to Greenwich: but other letters from Deptford say, the company is only making thither, and not yet settled; but that several heathen gods and goddesses, which are to descend in machines, landed at the King's Head Stairs last Saturday. Venus and Cupid went on foot from thence to Greenwich; Mars got drunk in the town, and broke his landlord's head; for which he sat in the stocks the whole evening; but Mr. Pinkethman giving security that he should do nothing this ensuing summer, he was set at liberty. The most melancholy part of all, was, that Diana was taken in the act of fornication with a boatman, and committed by Justice Wrathful, which has, it seems, put a stop to the diversions of the theatre of Blackheath. But there goes down another Diana and a patient Grissel next tide from Billingsgate.[2]
- ↑ William Pinkethman, the popular actor and droll, was spoken of by Gildon as "the flower of Bartholomew Fair, and the idol of the rabble." In June, 1710, he opened a theatre at Greenwich, and in 1711 his "wonderful invention called The Pantheon, or, The Temple of the Heathen Gods," with over 100 figures, was to be seen in the Little Piazza, Covent Garden (Spectator, No. 46, advertisement).
- ↑ "It is credibly reported that Mr. D———y has agreed with Mr. Pinkethman to have his play acted before that audience as soon as it has had its first sixteen days' run in Drury Lane" (folio). The play was D'Urfey's Modern Prophets."
Brookfield, in the parish of St. Martin's, Westminster, to commence on the first day of May, and to continue fifteen days yearly. It soon became the resort of the idle, the dissipated, and the profligate, insomuch that the peace-officers were frequently opposed in the performance of their duty; and, in the year 1702, John Cooper, one of the constables, was killed, for which a fencing-master, named Cook, was executed. (See also No. 20.) The fair was revived under George I., but was finally abolished through the exertions of the sixth Earl of Coventry.
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