). At this time the
building, which had for many years been devoted wholly to the royal
sports of bull- and bear-baiting, was still standing. It is hard to
believe that an artist who so carefully represented the famous
edifices of the city should have greatly erred in drawing the "Bear
Baiting House,"--a structure more curious than they, and quite as
famous.

[Footnote 546: The Merian _View of London_, published in 1638 at
Frankfort-am-Main, is merely a copy of the Visscher view with the
addition of certain details from another and earlier view not yet
identified. It has no independent value. The _View of London_ printed
in Howell's _Londinopolis_ (1657), is merely a slavish copy of the
Merian view. Visscher's representation of the Bear Garden does not
differ in any essential way from the representation in Hondius's
_View_ of 1610. For a fuller discussion see pages 126, 146, 248.]

Hollar represents the Hope as circular. According to the contract
Katherens was "to build the same of such large compass, form,
wideness, and height as the playhouse called the Swan." Whether the
word "form" was intended to apply to the exterior of the building we
do not know. The Swan was decahedral; Visscher represents the "Bear
Garden" as octagonal (which is correct for the Bear Garden that
preceded the Hope). But since the exterior was of lime and plaster,
and a decahedral form had no advantage, Katherens may well have
constructed a circular building as Hollar indicates. Perhaps it is
significant in this connection that John Taylor, the Water-Poet, in
his _Bull, Bear, and Horse_, refers to the Hope as a "sweet,
_rotuntious_ college." Significant also, perhaps, is the clause in
the contract by which Katherens was required to "build the heavens all
over the stage," for this exactly describes the heavens as drawn by
Hollar. I see no reason to doubt that in the _View_ of 1647 we have a
reasonably faithful representation of the Hope.

[Illustration: THE HOPE PLAYHOUSE, OR SECOND BEAR GARDEN

The upper view is from Hollar's Post-conflagration map in the Crace
Collection of the British Museum; the lower view is from Faithorne's
Map of London (1658).]

The Hope was probably opened shortly after November 30, 1613, the date
at which Katherens had bound himself to have the building "fully
finished," and it was occupied, of course, by the Henslowe and
Rosseter troupe of actors. The arrangement of the movable stage
enabled Henslowe and Meade to