Note 234 — SCENE III.
Reading edition
A tavern which used to be frequented by Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and other wits of the times, and often mentioned in their works. From the following enumeration of taverns, in an old poem called "Newes from Bartholmew Fayre" [by Richard West, 1607], the title-page of which is lost, we find it was situate in Cornhill:—
"There hath beene great sale and utterance of wine, Besides beere and ale, and ipocras fine, In every country, region, and nation; Chefely at Billingsgate, at the Salutation, And Bores Head, neere London Stone, The Swan at Dowgate, a taverne well knowne, The Miter in Cheape, and then the Bull Head, And many like places that make noses red; The Bores Head in Old Fish Street, three Cranes in the Vintree, And now of late, St Martin's in the Sentree: The Windmill in Lothbury, the Ship at the Exchange, King's Head in New Fish Streete, where roysters do range; The Mermaid in Cornhill; Red Lion in the Strand, Three Tuns in Newgate Market, Old Fish Street, at the Swan."