t of wit with one William Fennor, who proudly styled
himself "The King's Majesty's Riming Poet."[551] On the appointed day
the house was "fill'd with a great audience" that had paid extra money
to hear the contest between two such well-known extemporal wits. But
Fennor did not appear. The result may best be told by Taylor himself:

I then stept out, their angers to appease;
But they all raging, like tempestuous seas,
Cry'd out, their expectations were defeated,
And how they all were cony-catch'd and cheated.
Some laught, some swore, some star'd and stamp'd and curst,
And in confused humors all out burst.
I (as I could) did stand the desp'rate shock,
And bid the brunt of many dang'rous knock.
For now the stinkards, in their ireful wraths,
Bepelted me with lome, with stones, with laths.
One madly sits like bottle-ale and hisses;
Another throws a stone, and 'cause he misses,
He yawnes and bawles, ...
Some run to th' door to get again their coin ...
One valiantly stepped upon the stage,
And would tear down the hangings in his rage ...
What I endur'd upon that earthly hell
My tongue or pen cannot describe it well.[552]

[Footnote 551: Fennor is not to be confused (as is commonly done) with
Vennar (see p. 177). Such wit-contests were popular; Fennor had
recently challenged Kendall, on the Fortune Stage.]

[Footnote 552: John Taylor's _Works_, Folio of 1630, p. 142; The
Spenser Society's reprint, p. 304.]

At this point the actors came to his rescue and presented a play that
mollified the audience. Taylor had to content himself with a printed
justification. The bitter invective of Taylor against Fennor,
Fennor's reply, and Taylor's several answers are to be found in the
folio edition of the Water-Poet's works. The episode doubtless
furnished much amusement to the city.

Some three weeks after this event, on October 31, 1614, the Lady
Elizabeth's Men produced with great success Jonson's _Bartholomew
Fair_; and on November 1 they were called upon to give the play at
Court. But the career of the company was in the main unhappy. Henslowe
managed their affairs on the theory that "should these fellows come
out of my debt, I should have no rule with them."[553] Accordingly in
three years he "broke" and again reorganized them no fewer than five
times.

[Footnote 553: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, p. 89.]

At last, in February, 1615, he no