Note 827 — VIII HUMANISM AND PURITANISM

In Stukeley, 610, the hero owes the bailiff of Finsbury, 'for frays and bloodshed in the Theatre fields, five marks'. The Middlesex justices had to deal with cases of stealing a purse at the Curtain in 1600, of a 'notable outrage' at the Red Bull in 1610, of abusing gentlemen at the Fortune in 1611, of stealing a purse at the Red Bull in 1613, and of stabbing at the Fortune in 1613 (Middlesex County Records, i. 205, 217, 259; ii. xlvii, 64, 71, 86, 88). On 7 July 1602 James wrote from Scotland to one James Hudson to intercede with the Council for John Henslay or Henchelawe of Grimsby, who was assaulted by Nicholas Blinstoun or Blunston at a play about the previous Whitsunday (23 May), and slew him (Scottish Papers, ii. 815; Hatfield MSS. xii. 363). Dekker (ii. 326), in Jests to Make you Merrie (1607), gives the private playhouse as the habitat of the 'foist' or pickpocket, and says, 'The times when his skirmishes are hottest, or yᵉ time when they run attilt, is ... a new play'. Again (iii. 158), in The Belman of London (1608), he tells us that rogues haunt playhouses, and (iii. 212) in Lanthorne and Candlelight (1609), 'A foyst nor a nip shall not walke into a fayre or a Play-house, but euerie cracke will cry looke to your purses'.