the building. Whereupon Vennar seized the money
paid for admission, and showed his victims "a fair pair of heels." The
members of the audience, when they found themselves thus duped,
"revenged themselves upon the hangings, curtains, chairs, stools,
walls, and whatsoever came in their way, very outrageously, and made
great spoil."[271]

[Footnote 269: Many writers, including Mr. Wallace, have confused this
Richard Vennar with William Fennor, who later challenged Kendall to a
contest of wit at the Fortune. For a correct account, see T.S. Graves,
"Tricks of Elizabethan Showmen" (in _The South Atlantic Quarterly_,
April, 1915, XIV) and "A Note on the Swan Theatre" (in _Modern
Philology_, January, 1912, IX, 431).]

[Footnote 270: From the broadside printed in _The Harleian
Miscellany_, X, 198. For a photographic facsimile, see Lawrence, _The
Elizabethan Playhouse_ (Second Series), p. 68.]

[Footnote 271: _Letters Written by John Chamberlain_, Camden Society
(1861), p. 163; _The Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1601-1603_,
p. 264. See also Manningham's _Diary_, pp. 82, 93.]

On February 8, 1603, John Manningham recorded in his _Diary_: "Turner
and Dun, two famous fencers, playd their prizes this day at the
Bankside, but Turner at last run Dun so far in the brain at the eye,
that he fell down presently stone dead; a goodly sport in a Christian
state, to see one man kill another!" The place where the contest was
held is not specifically mentioned, but in all probability it was the
Swan.[272]

[Footnote 272: This seems to be the source of the statement by Mr.
Wallace (_Englische Studien_, XLIII, 388), quoting Rendle (_The
Antiquarian Magazine_, VII, 210): "In 1604, a man named Turner, in a
contest for a prize at the Swan, was killed by a thrust in the eye."
Rendle cites no authority for his statement.]

For the next eight years all is silence, but we may suppose that the
building was occasionally let for special entertainments such as those
just enumerated.

In 1611 Henslowe undertook to manage the Lady Elizabeth's Men,
promising among other things to furnish them with a suitable
playhouse. Having disposed of the Rose in 1605, he rented the Swan and
established his company there. In 1613, however, he built the Hope,
and transferred the Lady Elizabeth's Men thither.

The Swan seems thereafter to have been occupied for a time by Prince
Charles's Men. But the history of this company and its intimate
connection with t