Note 1393 — BOOK IV THE PLAY-HOUSES (continued 3)

Dekker, Work for Armourers (1609, Works, iv. 98), ‘At length a blind bear was tied to the stake, and instead of baiting him with dogs, a company of creatures that had the shapes of men and faces of Christians (being either colliers, carters, or watermen) took the office of beadles upon them, and whipped Monsieur Hunkes till the blood ran down his old shoulders’.