te 176: _Ibid._, p. 95.]

In this attempt to secure a monopoly in private playhouses Rosseter
was foiled by the coming of Shakespeare's troupe to the Blackfriars;
but the King's Men readily agreed to join in the payment of the dead
rent to Pierce, for it was to their advantage also to eliminate
competition.

The agreement which Rosseter secured from Pierce was binding "for one
whole year"; whether it was renewed we do not know, but the Children
never again acted in "their house near St. Paul's Church."

CHAPTER VII

THE BANKSIDE AND THE BEAR GARDEN

From time out of mind the suburb of London known as "the
Bankside"--the term was loosely applied to all the region south of the
river and west of the bridge--had been identified with sports and
pastimes. On Sundays, holidays, and other festive occasions, the
citizens, their wives, and their apprentices were accustomed to seek
outdoor entertainment across the river, going thither in boats (of
which there was an incredible number, converting "the silver sliding
Thames" almost into a Venetian Grand Canal), or strolling on foot over
old London Bridge. On the Bankside the visitors could find maypoles
for dancing, butts for the practice of archery, and broad fields for
athletic games; or, if so disposed, they could visit bull-baitings,
bear-baitings, fairs, stage-plays, shows, motions, and other
amusements of a similar sort.

Not all the attractions of the Bankside, however, were so innocent.
For here, in a long row bordering the river's edge, were situated the
famous stews of the city, licensed by authority of the Bishop of
Winchester; and along with the stews, of course, such places as thrive
in a district devoted to vice--houses for gambling, for
coney-catching, and for evil practices of various sorts. The less said
of this feature of the Bankside the better.

More needs to be said of the bull- and bear-baiting, which probably
constituted the chief amusement of the crowds from the city, and which
was later closely associated with the drama and with playhouses. This
sport, now surviving in the bull-fights of Spain and of certain
Spanish-American countries, was in former times one of the most
popular species of entertainment cultivated by the English. Even so
early as 1174, William Fitz-Stephen, in his _Descriptio Nobilissimae
Ciuitatis Londoniae_, under the heading _De Ludis_, records that the
London citizens diverted themselves on holiday occasions with the
ba