Literary Traces in Bridewell and Bethlem, 1602–1624

Abstract

The Minute Books of the Court of Governors of Bridewell and Bethlem Hospitals make reference to a number of persons associated with early seventeenth-century drama. The actor Christopher Beeston, a member of the earl of Worcester's men, and a former member of the Lord Chamberlain's men, stood accused at Bridewell on 5 November 1602 of raping Margaret White. Beeston denied the charge and brought ‘players’ to a subsequent hearing who ‘vehemently demeaned themselves to the governors’ and ‘much abused the place’. Subtle, in Jonson's The Alchemist, makes a brief topical reference to ‘an alehouse darker than deaf John's’, and entries in the Minute Books identify deaf John as a poor inmate of Bridewell. In Bartholomew Fair, Jonson has an allusion to ‘Whetstone’ at Bedlam. A 1624 census of Bethlem inmates confirms the identity of this character as William Whetstone, a notorious lunatic. Another Bethlem patient, John Gibbons, is recorded as owner of a playhouse on Bankside. This article identifies the playhouse concerned as the Hope.