Abstract
Di Ponio analyses bear-baiting to establish a visual and spectacular early modern Theatre of Cruelty. This double of the Elizabethan theatre—non-linguistic and gestural—featured real blood and suffering, neither stylized nor representational. However, bear-baiting, as Artaud would have understood it—an existential crisis of confrontation where unseen forces inflict cruelty, thereby challenging one’s freedom and agency—is also addressed in this chapter. The shift between these viewpoints prompts interplay between the early modern theatre, the bear-baiting pit, and Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty in order to reveal the cultural ambivalence of this arena.
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- 1.
‘C’est pourquoi je propose un théâtre de la cruauté.—Avec cette maine de tout rabaisser qui nous appartient aujourd’hui à tous, « cruauté », quand j’ai prononcé ce mot, a tout de suite voulu dire, « sang » pour tout le monde. Mais « théâtre de cruauté » veut dire théâtre difficile et cruel d’abord pour moi-même. Et, sur le plan de la représentation, il ne s’agit pas de cette cruauté que nous pouvons exercer les uns contre les autres en nous dépeçant mutuellement les corps, en sciant nos anatomies personnelles, ou, tels des empereurs assyriens, en nous adressant par la poste des sacs d’oreilles humaines, de nez ou de narines bien découpés, mais de celle beaucoup plus terrible et nécessaire que les choses peuvent exercer contre nous. Nous ne sommes pas libres. Et le ciel peut encore nous tomber sur la tête. Et le théâtre est fait pour nous apprendre d’abord cela.’ TD, iv, 95.
- 2.
This was indeed the case at a bear-baiting in Southwark, London at Bear-House in Paris Garden on 13 January 1583, where seven people were killed, and two or three hundred others were injured, some to the point of death, when the whole building collapsed. Philip Stubbes, ‘Beare-baiting and other Exercyses, vsed vunlawfully in Ailgna’, in Anatomy of Abuses in England in Shakspere’s Youth, A.D. 1583, Part i, ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall, The New Shakspere Society (London: Trübner, 1877–79), pp. 177–80 (p. 179).
- 3.
E.K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, 4 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923), ii, 359.
- 4.
The Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg and Agas maps are reproduced in The A to Z of Elizabethan London, compiled by Adrian Prockter and Robert Taylor, London Topographical Society Publication, 122 (London: Margary, 1979), pp. 32; 23, 25. Please note that Prockter and Taylor suggest the start date for the Agas map to be sometime after 1561, and the completion date as 1570. They reason for the post-1561 start date because St. Paul’s Cathedral is missing its spire that was destroyed by fire in 1561. Dawson lists its approximate date of publication as ca. 1590.
- 5.
Stephen Dickey, ‘Shakespeare’s Mastiff Comedies’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 42 (1991), 255–75 (p. 261). See also Henslowe Papers: Being Documents Supplementary to Henslowe’s Diary, ed. by W.W. Greg, Part 3 (London: Bullen, 1907), p. 20.
- 6.
Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, in Ben Jonson, ed. by C.H. Hereford and Percy Simpson, 12 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925–52), vi (1938), 1–141 (Indvction [sic], 52–53).
- 7.
This is still the ideal shape for a high-capacity arena or stadium.
- 8.
Sir Sidney Lee, ‘Bearbaiting, Bullbaiting, and Cockfighting’, in Shakespeare’s England: An Account of the Life and Manners of his Age, ed. by Sir Sidney Lee, Walter Raleigh, and C.T. Onions, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917; repr. 1926), ii, 428–36 (p. 428).
- 9.
Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England 1500–1800 (London: Allen Lane, 1983), p. 97. Exodus 22 calls attention to the punishment of animals, and their owners in the cases where negligence is involved, if and when they commit either homicide or bestiality. It is the duty of man, specifically, as overseer to punish animal malefactors accordingly.
- 10.
See also Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England (1905 edn), i, 144. ‘Macaulay declared in a famous gibe that the Puritans disliked bear-baiting not because of the pain it gave the bear, but because of the pleasure it gave the spectators. There is a fragment of truth in that remark, but not in the way it is usually understood. Puritans lamented the readiness of dogs to fight with bears because they saw it as the result of the Fall and therefore a reminder of Man’s sin.’ Thomas, p. 157.
- 11.
Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process: The History of Manners and State Formation and Civilization, trans. by Edmund Jephcott (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), p. 48.
- 12.
Robert Darnton’s The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French History (New York: Basic Books, 1984) recollects the cat massacre of 1730s France, told by one Nicholas Contat: Ill-treated and sleep-deprived workers, Jerome (a version of Nicolas Contat) and Lévillé, along with several journeymen, gathered up the cats owned by print-shop owner Jaques Vincent and his wife, and as many alley cats as they could find, bludgeoned them to death, and then held a mock trial to determine their guilt. This was met with hilarity from witnesses. Lévillé reenacted the scene several times in the weeks that followed, and to the amusement of his fellow journeymen. The massacre was a response to the Vincents’s neglect of the workers whose animals were treated far better than the men (pp. 75–77).
- 13.
Daniel Baraz, ‘Seneca, Ethics, and the Body: The Treatment of Cruelty in Medieval Thought’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 59.2 (1998), 195–215 (p. 196).
- 14.
Baiting was first introduced into England, ‘according to one story, by a band of Italians and first exhibited before King John at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, “for his Highness’ amusement, wherewith he and his court were highly delighted”’. Dix Harwood, Love for Animals And How it Developed in Great Britain (New York: the author, 1928), pp. 51–53. The sport thrives today in parts of Northern Pakistan.
- 15.
‘Hanno passato il fiume in un certo loco forse ducento cani richiusi una separato dall’altro in alcune piciole casele di tavole, e sono de quelli che usiamo a Venetia alla caccia de tori, Hanno anco in un’altra casa molti orsi, et in un’altra alquanti tori saluatici, e nel mezo un loco rittondo circondato de palchi cõ li suoi coperti per la pioggia, e per il sole, ove ogni domenica amaestrando li cani si prende un solazzo grãde pagando a star a basso uno denaro, che sono s.2 e doi ad ascẽder nelli palchi. El solazzo è che ad hora di uespro cominciando fino alla sera ui faño bellissime caccie, prima menano in esso loco che è richiuso attorno, e non se ui puo uscire se non aprono alcune porte menano dico uno caualo di poco pretio con tutti li suoi fornimenti, et una simia in sella, poi quattro, o sei cani delli piu giouani con li quali dãno uno assalto, e li cambiano, conducendone delli altri piu esprimentati, nella qual caccia e bellissimo uedere el cauallo fugir trando calci, e mordendo, e la simia teuersi forte alla sella, et cridare molte uolte essendo morduta, nella qual caccia poi che hãno intertenuto un pezzo li circostanti con morte spesso del cauallo, conduttoso fuori ui introducono alquanti orsi hora uno alla uolta, e quando piu insieme, ma questa caccia non è molto bella da uedere. Vltimamente poi ui mettono un toro saluatico, e lo ligano cõ una corda cerca dua passa longa ad un palo fitto nel mezo, e questa caccia piu bella da ueder dell’altre, e con piu pericolo de cani delle altre, delli quali molti ne sono feriti, e morti e dura fin sera.’ Giles E. Dawson, ‘London’s Bull-Baiting and Bear-Baiting Arena in 1562’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 15 (1964), 97–101 (pp. 98–99). Both the Italian account in the FOLGER MS. v.a.259 (de Ricci 1713.I) and the English translation provided by Charles S. Singleton are found in Dawson.
- 16.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, ‘Of Crueltie’, in Essays & Belles-Lettres, trans. by John Florio, 3 vols (London: Dent & Sons, 1910; repr. 1946), ii, 122–23.
- 17.
Oscar Brownstein’s article questions the assumed popularity of the sport prior to the reign of King James . Oscar Brownstein, ‘The Popularity of Baiting in England before 1600: A Study in Social and Theatrical History’, Educational Theatre Journal, 21.3 (1969), 237–50.
- 18.
‘Of Bearbaytynge’, in The Select Works of Robert Crowley, ed. by J.M. Cowper (London: Trübner, 1922), pp. 16–17, lines 373–76, 381–88.
- 19.
John Nichols, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, 3 vols, Burt Franklin: Resource and Source Works Series, 117 (London: Franklin, 1823), i, 67–68.
- 20.
‘Bewick describes the Ban-dog as being a variety of the mastiff, but lighter, smaller, and more vigilant; although at the same time not so powerful. The nose is also less, and possesses somewhat of the hound’s scent; the hair is rough, and of a yellowish grey colour, marked with shades of black. The bite of a Ban-dog is keen, and considered to be dangerous; and its attack is usually made upon the flank. Dogs of this kind are now rarely to be met with.’ Nichols, i, 438, note 1.
- 21.
Robert Laneham’s Letter; Whearin, part of the entertainment unto the Queenz Maiesty at Killingworth Castl, in Warwik Sheer in this Soomerz Progress 1575 is signified, ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall, The New Shakspere Society (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1890), p. 17.
- 22.
Chambers, ii, 455. Passage translated by G. von Bülow (note 1).
- 23.
Chambers, iv, 307.
- 24.
Dickey uses examples from Shakespeare’s canon to illustrate this point of malleability, with the examples of Octavius and Macbeth, who both appear ‘at the stake’; however, Octavius is victorious, and Macbeth is not. Although in the latter example the bear is defeated, as an audience, we are still interested in the battle itself (pp. 264–65).
- 25.
Anonymous, The Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham, ed. by M.L. Wine, The Revels Plays (London: Methuen, 1973), i. 1. 198. All further quotations from Arden of Faversham are from this edition.
- 26.
For a thorough discussion of Macbeth’s descent into bestial territory, see Chapter 1 of Andreas Höfele’s thorough investigation in Stage, Stake, and Scaffold: Humans and Animals in Shakespeare’s Theatre (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011): ‘“What beast was’t then”: Stretching the Boundaries in Macbeth’, pp. 41–67.
- 27.
This same structure works equally well in comedy. Jonson’s Epicoene, or The Silent Woman contains several references to baiting—Tom Otter’s chief carousing cups are named bull, bear, and horse—and features the baiting of Morose (a lone ‘bear’ longing for silence) to non-violent ends. Ben Jonson, Epicoene, or The Silent Woman, in Ben Jonson, ed. by C.H. Hereford and Percy Simpson, 12 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925–52), v (1937), 139–272.
- 28.
S.P. Cerasano, ‘The Master of the Bears in Art and Enterprise’, in Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism, and Reviews (New York: AMS Press, 1984–), v, ed. by Leeds Barroll (1991), 195–209 (p. 197). I cite Cerasano, in particular, because she sources both the W.W. Greg edition of Henslowe Papers (1907), as well as George F. Warner’s Catalogue of the Manuscripts and Muniments of Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift at Dulwich (1881), which contain several documents in regard to both Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn’s joint position of Master of the Bears during the reign of King James .
- 29.
See also E.K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, ii, 448–71 for a detailed account of the position of the ursarius, or bearward , in his discussion of The Hope Theatre and its early beginnings as Bear Garden.
- 30.
Tom a Lincoln is also the title character in Richard Johnson’s late sixteenth-century Arthurian romance.
- 31.
John Taylor, the Water Poet, Bull, Beare, and Horse, in The Works of John Taylor The Water Poet Not Included in the Folio Volume of 1630, Third Collection, The Spenser Society, 19 (Manchester: The Spenser Society, 1876; repr. New York: Franklin, 1967), pp. 1–69 (pp. 61–62). Either of the two white bears could have been used in productions of Shakespeare ’s The Winter’s Tale, thus realizing the famous stage direction, ‘Exit, pursued by bear’.
- 32.
Publius Ovidius Naso, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, trans. by Mary M. Innes (London: Penguin, 1955; repr. 1978), p. 80. The story here is of Actaeon in Book iii of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, who after losing his way, accidentally espied the goddess Diana bathing in her private bower. To punish the unknowing hunter, she turned him into a stag, but left his mind intact, so that when his hounds fatally attacked him, he was fully conscious. Only when Actaeon was mutilated beyond salvation was Diana ‘appeased’.
- 33.
Thomas Dekker, Worke for Armourours, in The Non-Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, ed. by Alexander B. Grosart, 5 vols (London: Hazeli, Watson, and Viney, 1884–86), iv (1886), 87–166 (p. 131).
- 34.
Erica Fudge, Perceiving Animals: Humans and Beasts in Early Modern English Culture (London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s, 2000), pp. 16, 17.
- 35.
Marjorie Speigel, The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery (London: Heretic Books, 1988), pp. 82, 84. Cited in Fudge, Perceiving Animals, p. 17.
- 36.
Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality, trans. by Mary Dalwood (first published as Death and Sensuality: a Study of Eroticism and the Taboo, New York: Walker, 1962; repr. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1986), p. 69.
- 37.
René Girard, Violence and the Sacred, trans. by Patrick Gregory (London: Athlone Press, 1988; repr. Continuum, 2005), p. 271. Girard ’s notion of sacrifice and the ‘sacrificial crisis’ is discussed in Chapter 6 of this book.
- 38.
Alexander Leggatt, ‘Shakespeare and Bearbaiting’, in Shakespeare and Cultural Traditions: The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Tokyo, 1991, ed. by Tetsuo Kishi, Roger Pringle and Stanley Wells (London: Associated University Presses, 1994), pp. 43–53 (p. 52). Leggatt’s argument is similar to Dickey’s (albeit, the latter’s is a lengthy analysis of bear-baiting in Twelfth Night specifically) as it also focuses on the images of baiting in Shakespeare ’s plays. Leggatt traces which aspects of the baiting Shakespeare found useful in his work. Although Leggatt’s is a brief discussion, there are numerous examples specified. He asserts that the following plays all contain images of a baiting, of attack and counter-attack, of pursuer and pursed: 1 Henry iv, Love’s Labour’s Lost , Henry v, Macbeth , 2 and 3 Henry vi, Timon of Athens, Richard iii , Henry viii, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, All’s Well That End’s Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titus Andronicus , King Lear , and Coriolanus .
- 39.
Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London: Harper & Row, 1978), pp. 277–78. To some extent, Burke attributes this detachment to the increase in education. The upper classes and newly educated gentry were also no longer satisfied with lower forms of entertainment, such as the jig, which was considered a ‘“low” form of art’ (p. 277). Whether this was a new attitude towards the jig at the turn of the century, or simply a reaffirmation of the obvious, is not addressed in Burke.
- 40.
See the introduction to Shakespeare and Elizabethan Popular Culture, ed. by Stuart Gillespie and Neil Rhodes (London: Thomson Learning, 2006), pp. 3–5.
- 41.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. by Robert Latham and others, 11 vols (London: Bell and Sons, 1970–76, vols i–ix; Bell & Hyman, 1983, vols x–xi), vii (1972), 245–246. See Z.C. von Uffenbach, London in 1710 (ed. by Quarrell and Mare), pp. 59–60, for an account of Samuel Pepys’s dislike of blood-thirsty sports.
- 42.
The gentry owned and trained mastiffs for private and often public baiting. Points were awarded for the hits made on attack. Brownstein, p. 243.
- 43.
The Diary of John Evelyn: With a Prefatory Note by George W.E. Russell, ed. by William Bray, 2 vols (London: Dent, 1907), ii, 49.
- 44.
Thomas, p. 150. As a historian, the concern for Thomas is the question as to why the boundary was ‘enlarged so as to embrace other species along with mankind’ (p. 150).
- 45.
The society is known today as the RSPCA—The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
- 46.
William Harrison Drummond, Humanity to Animals: The Christian’s Duty; A Discourse (London: Hunter, 1830), pp. 12, 16.
- 47.
Robert Bolton, Some generall directions for a comfortable walking with God deliuered in the lecture at Kettering in Northhamptonshire (London: Felix Kyngston, 1626), pp. 155–56.
- 48.
‘La cruauté n’est pas surajoutée à ma pensée; elle y a toujours vécu: mais il me fallait en prendre conscience.’ TD, iv, 122.
- 49.
‘On peut donc reprocher au théâtre tel qu’il se pratique un terrible manque d’imagination. Le théâtre doit s’égaler à la vie, non pas à la vie individuelle, à cet aspect individuel de la vie où triomphent les CARACTÈRES, mais à une sorte de vie libérée, qui balaye l’individualité humaine et où l’homme n’est plus qu’un reflet. Créer des Mythes voilà le véritable objet du théâtre, traduire la vie sous son aspect universel, immense, et extraire de cette vie des images où nous aimerions à nous retrouver.’ TD, iv, 139–40.
- 50.
Terence Hawkes, Shakespeare’s Talking Animals: Language and drama in society (London: Arnold, 1973), p. 37.
- 51.
‘Sans un élément de cruauté à la base de tout spectacle, le théâtre n’est pas possible. Dans l’état de dégénérescence où nous sommes, c’est par la peau qu’on fera rentrer la métaphysique dans les esprits.’ TD, iv, 118.
- 52.
TD, iv, 97–98; Richards, p. 81.
- 53.
‘le spectateur placé au milieu de l’action est enveloppée sillonné par elle.’ TD, iv, 115.
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Di Ponio, A. (2018). Bear-Baiting and the Theatre of Cruelty. In: The Early Modern Theatre of Cruelty and its Doubles. Avant-Gardes in Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92249-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92249-2_4
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