Paul Griffiths

Contesting London Bridewell, 1576–1580

The opening of a new prison or hospital was not always a welcome event in Tudor London and not just because of the sky-high mortality rates that put countless patients in coffins. A brand new building changed physical and mental landscapes in the city, sometimes forever; its uses needed to be recognized and assimilated. People inside hospitals are familiar figures by now. The trials and tribulations of inmates, nurses, and doctors are the property of a burgeoning historiography. Less well noticed, however, are impressions of institutions like these in the minds of Londoners of all classes. Just as ‘‘state-of-the-art’’ medicine could soothe or irritate, so these opinions were naggingly unpredictable to governors. Yet little else might be expected from people whose first port of call when ill symptoms flickered was frequently a ‘‘wise woman’’ or some ‘‘irregular’’ healer, or for whom prisons were daunting, intrusive presences. In such predicaments, a prize civic possession could become a figure of fear and fun. Not long after London Bridewell (the main focus of this essay) first opened its doors in the mid-1550s, stories of near-death thrashings, maggot-laced food, and penny-pinching governors within its walls circulated in talk on the streets outside. The middle of the sixteenth century was a time of institutional flux

The Theatrical City: Culture, Theatre and Politics in London, 1576-1649.

Preface List of contributors List of illustrations Introduction 1. John Stows Survey of London Ian Archer and Lawrence Manley 2. Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream Penry Williams and Louis A. Montrose 3. Thomas Dekkers The Shoemakers Holiday Paul S. Seaver and David Bevington 4. John Marstons The Fawn Linda Levy Peck and Frank Whigham 5. Ben Jonsons Bartholomew Fair Patrick Collinson and Leah S. Marcus 6. Philip Massingers A New Way to Pay Old Debts Keith Lindley and Martin Butler 7. The Root and Branch Petition and the Grand Remonstrance David L. Smith and Richard Strier 8. John Miltons Eikonoklastes Derek Hirst and Marshall Grossman.