Shakespeare’s competition: the grisly world of British bear-baiting (2024)
One of the most famous stage directions in theatre is found in The Winter’s Tale: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” Bears – besides Paddington and Winnie-the-Pooh – are extinct in Britain, but Shakespeare’s audiences 400 years ago would have been entirely familiar with the animal. And thespians of old playing the Globe Theatre would have walked past the bear-baiting ring on their way in.
Bear-baiting was very popular in medieval and early modern times, attracting everyone from servants to royalty. Single or multiple dogs were set loose to bite or worry the bears. To prevent escapes (and the audiences being mauled) the bears were chained to stakes in the centre of the arena.
They were often named. George Stone, Tom Hunckes, Blind Bess were celebrity bears and one (Sackerson) is even mentioned in the Shakespeare play The Merry Wives of Windsor. To modern perspectives, it seems barbaric to not only perpetrate such cruel acts against animals but also to celebrate them. The closest parallel may be with the Roman Gladiators. Both were expensive to train and keep, both were named and celebrated by the public, and for both seeing them perform came with the frisson of their possible deaths.
For over 200 years, purpose-built bear-baiting arenas stood on the south bank of the Thames at Bankside. The association of Bankside and bears (still recognised in Southwark with the road names “Bear Garden” and “Bear Lane”), predated the better-known playhouses by at least 40 years. But when The Globe and The Rose Theatre were built alongside the bear-baiting arenas, they attracted the same audiences. In 1591 an anonymous complainant requested theatre to be restricted as it was harming the bear-baiting business.
And it was a business. Phillip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn paid £450 to become the “Masters of the King’s Beares, bulls and mastiff dogges” in 1604; this gave them the sole right to licence bearwards (bear keepers), breed mastiffs, and generally run “the game” on behalf of the king. While the bears were valuable and were rarely killed, the dogs were much more expendable. Records show that Alleyn was running out of dogs in 1607 and had to send people out to find more (one of the privileges of being the Master of the King’s Bears was that you could buy or, if necessary, take dogs for baiting). With responsibilities to the monarch it was important that they were ready to put on a baiting wherever and whenever they were asked.
Bearwards travelled far and wide to bring this entertainment to the non-urban masses. Congleton in Derbyshire had at least 33 visits from bearwards between 1588 and 1636, while records at Dulwich College record the travels of bearwards around Kent and Gloucestershire in the early 1600s. The costs of attending the theatre and attending the baiting was the same, between one and three pence depending on where you stood.
Eyewitness accounts vary greatly. There were those who were enthralled by the spectacle, such as the Spanish ambassador, who was fêted with the baiting of a white bear (he called it “the best sport of all”), and, more rarely, those who were horrified by the cruelty shown to the animals. Parliament suppressed the theatres in 1642, but while they tried to stop bear-baiting it continued for several years. Eventually, the High Sheriff of Surrey, Thomas Pride, took decisive action and in 1656 had the remaining bears shot. This ended bear-baiting during the Commonwealth, but with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 a new arena was built in 1662 in Southwark and bear-baiting continued as before.
Bear-baiting was made illegal in Britain 1835, although it continued elsewhere in the world until very recently – “bear baying” (where chained bears are held “at bay” by dogs, but not supposed to be come into contact with them) was only banned in South Carolina, US, in 2013.
Now the only live bears in Britain are in zoos, although they are occasionally discussed during debates about rewilding the countryside. But the British penchant for treating bears as celebrities has lasted. Images of bears are everywhere, from adverts to children’s toys and stories. We have taken an animal that was used for entertainment and turned it into an emblem of everything: from the wilderness, to comfort, to Marmalade sandwiches.
Bear-baiting was very popular in medieval and early modern times, attracting everyone from servants to royalty. Single or multiple dogs were set loose to bite or worry the bears. To prevent escapes (and the audiences being mauled) the bears were chained to stakes in the centre of the arena. They were often named.
Macbeth appears on stage and compares himself to a bear in a bear-baiting contest (i.e. he's in a serious jam). History Snack: Bear-baiting is a blood sport that involves chaining a bear to a stake and setting a pack of dogs on it. Elizabethans thought this was good clean family fun.
Today, "bear-baiting" most commonly refers to the practice of using edible bait to lure bears into an area for hunting. Bear-baiting in all forms has been subject to controversy and debate among animal rights advocates for centuries.
bearbaiting, the setting of dogs on a bear or a bull chained to a stake by the neck or leg. Popular from the 12th to the 19th century, when they were banned as inhumane, these spectacles were usually staged at theatre-like arenas known as bear gardens.
By far the most popular sport was bear-baiting. In this brutal test, a bear would be led into a pit and then chained to a stake by its leg or neck. As spectators cheered and placed bets, a pack of dogs—usually bulldogs or mastiffs—would be unleashed into the arena to torment and attack the bear.
The danger is that bears will become habituated to human-provided food and be more likely to interact with people. That was the top concern when the agency adopted its new rule banning bear baiting, said Peter Christian, a spokesperson for the National Park Service's Alaska district.
Sir Toby and Sir Andrew are joined by a new character, Fabian, who has been the victim of Malvolio's sanctimoniousness when he protested to the Lady Olivia that Fabian was involved in the cruel game of "bear baiting," a form of sport in which dogs barked and snapped at a bear chained to a post.
Noun. bear bait (countable and uncountable, plural bear baits) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bear, bait. (slang) A car or truck that is speeding and is likely to attract the attention of the highway patrol.
Some of the bears baited in the bear pits were famous and their names were known around London and beyond. George Stone, Harry Hunks, Ned of Canterbury, and Don Juan were all well-known bears, as was Sackerson, who is mentioned in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Although we lost the wolf, bear, elk and lynx to hunting long ago, Scotland still has a wealth of land mammals. Today, our majestic red deer is our largest wild land mammal and is widely distributed throughout Scotland.
Trophy hunters and hunting guides dump food in the woods to lure black bears in for an easy kill, in an unsporting and unethical practice called “baiting.” Bait piles are typically composed of foods unhealthy to bears, including fatty pastries rich in processed sugars, grease, or even toxins from Theobromines such as ...
Bull baiting was a contest in which trained bulldogs attacked tethered bulls. The bull, with a rope tied round the root of his horns, would be fastened to a stake with an iron ring in it, situated in the centre of the ring.
Watching animals fight was also popular with rich and poor. Queen Elizabeth herself enjoyed bear and bull-baiting (where the bull or bear was pitted against a pack of dogs). Among the poor, dogfights and co*ck fighting were common pastimes, and people often gambled on the outcome.
Bears were often seen as a symbol of motherhood. They are known for being fiercely protective of their young, and their milk is particularly rich. Celts venerated the bear goddess, Artio. Like a mother bear they believed she offered protection.
by Eva Lauenstein. Perhaps one of the most famous, or infamous of Shakespeare's stage directions, 'Exit, pursued by a bear' in Act III of The Winter's Tale, sees Antigonus meet death in the most unlikely of ways: at the hands – or rather the claws – of a bear.
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