The Harvard Chapter of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity will present Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair" for its tenth annual Elizabethan revival.
The play was first produced in Hope Theatre, London, in 1614, and quickly became one of the most popular pieces of the time, because of its ridicule of the Puritans. After the Restoration it was revived, and the part of Cokes was played by Nokes, the most celebrated comic actor of his day.
There is very little plot, and the action centres around the four principal characters: Littlewit, a proctor; Busy, a Puritan; Cokes, an esquire of Harrow; and Overdo, a justice of the peace. The scene is laid at Bartholemew Fair, where the characters have gone for recreation. Cokes is buying toys and ballads, when Edgworth slips up and picks his pocket. Justice Overdo, who is present in disguise, is accused and placed in the stocks. Then the Puritan Busy enters, and, filled with fanatical zeal, tries to destroy the gaily-colored booths. He is also put in the stocks, where he is jointed presently by Waspe out-wits the drunken guards, and during the confusion, Overdo and Busy escape.
In the last act Littlewit goes to see how a puppet-show is conducted by Leatherhead. Busy rushes on and attempts to stop the performance, but is persuaded to be quiet. Now Overdo appears and discloses his identity, thinking he has discovered the perpetrators of all the crimes at the fair, but finds himself mistaken. Trouble-all, a mad man, Mooncalf, a tapster, and Haggise and Bristle, two drunken watchmen, furnish the low comedy parts.
The cast:
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