Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: [After leaving lif] met my wife in a coach, and stopped her going thither [lif] to meet me; and took her, and Mercer, and Deb., to Bartholomew Fair, and there did see a ridiculous, obscene little stage-play, called Marry Andrey; a foolish thing, but seen by every body; and so to Jacob Hall's dancing of the ropes; a thing worth seeing, and mightily followed

Event Comment: William Blaythwaite to Sir Robert Southwell, 4 Sept. 1679 [describing a visit made on 3 Sept. 1679 by Sir Edward Dering, Mrs Helena Percival, Miss Helena, Miss Betty, and himself]: What we saw was the dancing on the ropes performed first by Jacob Hall and his company, then by a Dutch dancer, who did wonderful feats. From thence we went to the Elephant, who I think was more terrible than pleasant to the young spectators (Morley, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, p. 192)

Event Comment: A poem, Bartholomew-Fayr, is in A Choice Compendium; or, An Exact Collection of the Newest, and most Delightful Songs (entered in the Term Catalogues, February 1680@1); it refers to some of the activities at the Fair: @Here's that will Challenge all the Fayr,@Come buy my Nuts, Damzens, my Burgamy Pears;@Here's the Whore of Babylon, the Devil and the Pope,@The Girl is just a going on the Rope:@Here's Dives and Lazarus, and the Worlds Creation,@Here's the Tall Dutch Woman, the like's not i'th Nation.@Here is the Booth where the High-Dutch Maid is,@Here are Bares that Dance like any Ladies.@Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, says the little Penny Trumpet.@Here's Jacob Hall that does Jump it, Jump it.@Sound Trumpets, sound, for Silver Spoon and Fork,@Come here's your Dainty Pigg and Pork.

Event Comment: Luttrell, A Brief Relation, I, 186: There [has] been a tall Irish man to be seen in Bartholomew-fair. The Epilogue to a revival of Mithridates (See mid-October 1681) has some lines which refer to recent activities at Bartholomew Fair: @Have not you seen the Dancing of the Rope?@When Andrew's wit was clean run off the Score,@And Jacob's Cap'ring Tricks could do no more,@A Damsel does to the Ladders Top advance@And with two heavy Buckets drags a Dance;@The Yawning Crowd pearch't up to see the sight,@And slav'r'd at the Mouth for vast delight.

Event Comment: This work is advertised in The Loyal Protestant 22, 27, and 29 Aug. 1682: at Mrs Saffry's, a Dutch Woman's booth, over against the Greyhound Inne in West Smithfield. [Her first announcement calls the company "By an Approved Company"; the other two notices refer to it as "the first New-market Company." See Rosenfeld, The Theatre of the London Fairs, p. 6.] John Coysh paid #6 for a booth at the Fair (Rosenfeld, The Theatre of the London Fairs, p. 6). See also Morley, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, p. 222, for notice of the Indian Water Worksv. In Wit and Drollery (1682), p. 304, are verses on the Fair: @Here's the Whore of Babylon the Devil and the Pope,@The Girl is just agoing on the Rope@Here's Dives and Lazarus and the World's Creation,@Here's the Tall Dutch Woman the like's not in the Nation,@Here is the Booth where the High-Dutch Made is@Hear are the Bears that dance like any Ladies,@Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat says the little penny Trumpet@Here's Jacob Hall, that does so jump it, jump it.@Sound Trumpet Sound, for Silver Spoon and Fork,@Come here's your dainty Pit and Pork.@ [See also August 1680.

Event Comment: John Dryden to Jacob Tonson, ca. August 1684: I desire to know whether the Dukes house are makeing cloaths & putting things in a readiness for the singing opera [The Tempest?], to be playd immediately after Michaelmasse: for the Actors in the two plays, which are to be acted of mine, this winter [All for Love and The Conquest of Granada], I had spoken with Mr Betterton by chance at the Coffee house the afternoon before I came away: & I believe that the persons were all agreed on, to be just the same you mentioned. Only Octavia was to be Mrs Buttler, in case Mrs Cooke were not on the Stage. And I know not whether Mrs Percivall who is a Comedian, will do so well for Benzayda (Letters of John Dryden, ed. Ward, pp. 23-24)

Event Comment: John Dryden to Jacob Tonson: I have broken off my Studies from The Conquest of China (Letters of John Dryden, p. 97)

Event Comment: James Brydges, Diary: Toward seven...to ye Playhouse in Lincolns Inn fields; here I saw Mr Freeman, Mr Worsely, Sr Edwd Ernly &c.: from hence I went to ye Playhouse in Covent Garden, thinking to have met my Brother Frank, Sister Jacob &c.: there, but did not. I sat with Mr Cook of Darby, & spoke with Mr Winninton &c. (Huntington MS ST 26)

Event Comment: John Vanbrugh to Jacob Tonson (Vanbrugh, Works, IV, 125): The Opera will begin about the 10th of March under the Academy of Musick. It will be a very good one this year, and a better the next. They having engag'd the best Singers in Italy, at a great Price. Such as I believe will bring the Expences to about twice as much as the Receipts. But the fund Subscribed being about #20000, may probably Support it, till Musick takes such root, as to Subsist with less aid. The King gives a #1000 a year to it

Event Comment: [By Hildebrand Jacob.

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Jacobs, the new Colombine, lately arrived from France. Mainpiece: The only Master-Piece that the famous Mons d'Noble ever writ. Afterpiece: Written by M Moliere. Pit and Boxes to be laid together at 5s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never Acted before. [By Hilderbrand Jacob. Edition of 1738 refers to individuals determined to silence the first fruits of the Licensing Act.]