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The most famous of Jonson's public resorts was the Devil Tavern, which stood at No. 1 Fleet Street, between the Temple Gate and Temple Bar. The banking-house of the Childs was built upon its site in 1788. Here he gathered together his 'boys,' and, as he himself says, 'drank bad wine at the Devil.'

mens Jon

The first speech in my 'Catiline' spoken to Scylla's BengemGhost was writ after I parted with my friends at the son, MMS. Memoranda, Devil Tavern. I had drunk well that night, and had Dulwich brave notions.

Collection.

Book of

The great room [in the Devil Tavern] was called 'The Apollo !' Thither came all who desired to be sealed of the tribe of Ben;' here Jonson lorded it with greater Cunningauthority than Dryden did afterwards at Will's, or ham's Hand Addison at Button's. The rules of the club, drawn London: up in the pure and elegant Latin of Jonson and Devil placed over the chimney, were, it is said, engraven in marble. In the 'Tatler' [No. 79] they are described as being in gold letters; and this account agrees with the rules themselves in gold letters, upon board- still preserved in the banking-house of Messrs. Child, where I had the pleasure of seeing them in 1843.

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A bust of Apollo and a board containing the 'Welcome to the Oracle of Apollo,' taken from the Devil at the time of its destruction in 1788, are still to be seen in an upper hall of Child's Bank; but the 'Rules,' as described by Mr. Cunningham, are not to be found there.

Another tavern of Jonson's was the Mermaid in Cheapside, which was destroyed in the Fire of 1666.

Jonson is described as wearing a loose coachman's coat, frequenting the Mermaid Tavern, where he drank seas of Scott's Canary, then reeling home to bed, and after a profuse chap. V. perspiration, arising to his dramatic studies.

Dry

Shakspere, according to tradition, was a frequenter of the Mermaid, and a companion there of Jonson.

Many were the wit combats betwixt Shakspere and Ben Jonson, which two I beheld like a Spanish galleon and an English man-of-war; Master Jonson, like the former, was

Fuller's

Worthies of built far higher in learning; solid but slow in his England. performances. Shakspere with the English man-ofwar, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention.

As Fuller was but eight years old when Shakspere died, his accounts of what he saw and heard of Shakspere in the Mermaid are hardly to be relied upon.

The Mermaid in Bread Street, the Mermaid in Friday Street, and the Mermaid in Cheap, were all one and the same. The tavern situated behind had a way to it from these thoroughfares, but it was nearer to Bread Street than Friday Street. . . . The site of the Mermaid is clearly defined from the circumstance of R. W., a haberdasher of small wares 'twixt Wood Street and Milk Street, adopting the same sign, 'Over against the Mermaid Tavern in Cheapside.'

Burns's
Catalogue
of the
Beaufoy
Tokens.

Among the other public houses frequented by Jonson were the Half Moon in Aldersgate Street, marked by Half Moon Alley (see CONGREVE, p. 64); The Falcon near the Theatre, Bankside,' marked by Falcon Dock and Falcon Wharf, Nos. 79 and 80 Bankside (see SHAKSPERE); and the Three Cranes in the Vintry, described by Strype as being in New Queen Street, and marked now by Three Cranes Lane, Upper Thames Street, which runs parallel with Queen Street to the east of Southwark Bridge (see PEPYS). The Swan at Charing Cross,' of which Jonson speaks pleasantly, was probably the tavern called in 'The New View of London,' published in 1708, the Swan Inn on the N. W. side of the Strand, near St. Martin's Lane End.' It has long since disappeared.

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A favorite suburban resort of Jonson was the Three Pigeons in the Market Place opposite the Town Hall, then the Market House, of Brentford. It was taken down some years ago, and a modern gin-palace built upon its site.

JOHN KEATS.

1795-1821.

KEATS was born in London on the 29th of October,

1795.

Writers by

His maternal grandfather, Jennings, was proprietor of a large livery-stable called 'The Swan and Hoop' on the RecollecPavement in Moorfields, opposite the entrance into tions of Finsbury Circus. . . . Keats's father was the principal Charles and servant in 'The Swan and Hoop,' a man so remark- den Clarke: Mary Cowably fine in common sense and native respectability Keats. that I perfectly remember the warm terms in which his demeanor used to be canvassed by my parents after he had been to visit his boys.

Keats is believed to have been born in the immediate neighborhood of these stables, the exact position of which cannot now positively be determined, although old maps and directories have been consulted, and the memories of old inhabitants of that portion of London have been severely taxed. Cunningham, in his 'Hand-Book,' places the 'Swan and Hoop Stables at No. 28, on the Pavement in Moorfields over against the riding-school, now [1850] a public house with that name.' But since Mr. Cunningham wrote, the Pavcment has been extended and renumbered, and the sign 'Swan and Hoop' is no longer to be seen. 'No. 28 on the Pavement' in 1850 was a few doors from London

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