Event Comment: Tom Brown, writing to
George Moult, 30 Aug. 1699: As I have observ'd to you, this noble Fair is quite another thing than what it was in the last Age; it not only deals in the humble stories of
Crispin and Crispianus,
Whittington's Cat,
Bateman's Ghost, with the merry Conceits of the Little Pickle-herring; but it produces Opera's of its own Growth, and is become a formidable Rival to both the Theatres. It beholds Gods descending from Machines, who express themselves in a language suitable to their dignity; it trafficks in Heroes; it raises Ghosts and Apparitions; it has represented the
Trojan Horse, the Workmanship of the divine
Epeus; it has seen
St. George encounter
the Dragon, and overcome him; In short, for Thunder and Lightning, for Songs and Dances, for sublime Fustian and magnificent Nonsense, it comes not short of
Drury-Lane or
Lincolns-Inn-Fields (in Thomas
Brown, Works, 4th edition, 1715, I, 212-13). [For a colorful account of
Bartholomew Fair at the turn of the century, see
The London Spy Compleat, 1703, Parts X and XI, particularly pages 228-58.]