RADCLIFF

See RATCLIFFE.

RAINBOW

A sign in Fleet St., Lond., belonging to what is now No. 15. At first it was a printing house, but in 1657 James Farr opened a coffee house there, the second of its kind in England. It survived the Gt. Fire, but was pulled down in 1860, rebuilt, and reopened as the Rainbow Tavern. Glapthorne's Argalus was "Printed by R. Bishop for Daniel Pakeman at the Rainebow near the Inner Temple Gate. 1639."

RAM ALLEY
(Map H5)

A narrow court on the S. side of Fleet St., Lond., opposite to Fetter Lane, now known as Hare Pl. It took its name from a house with the sign of the Star and R., originally belonging to the Knights Hospitallers, but turned into a brewery after being confiscated by Henry VIII. It was only some 7 ft. wide, and ran down to the footway from Serjeant's Inn to the Temple. It claimed the right of sanctuary, and there was a backway from the Mitre Inn into the A. which afforded a way of escape from the law to the frequenters of that famous tavern. It was a place of evil reputation, inhabited chiefly by cooks, bawds, tobacco-sellers, and ale-house-keepers. The worst of its dens was the Maidenhead, near the Temple end of it. In Ret. Pernass. i. 2, Judicio says of John Marston: "He cuts, thrusts, and foins at whomsoever he meets And strews about R. A. meditations Tut, what cares he for modest clue-couched terms? Give him plain naked words stript from their shirts." One of the characters in Jonson's Staple is Lickfinger, "mine old host of R. A.," "old Lickfinger the cook," who is represented as having some share in the catering for the Lord Mayor's banquet and utilizing his opportunity by stealing 20 eggs. In Massinger's New Way ii. 2, Amble says of Marrall, the attorney: "The knave thinks still he's at the cook's shop in R. A., where the clerks divide and the elder is to choose." In Day's B. Beggar iv., Canby says, "You shall see the amorous conceits and love-songs betwixt Capt. Pod of Py-Corner and Mrs. Rump of R. A." Capt. Pod was a well-known exhibitor of motions, or puppet-shows, and it may be presumed that Mrs. Rump is equally historical. Hash, in Prognostication, says, "The fishwives shall get their living by walking and crying because they slandered R. A. with such a tragical infamy": probably they charged the cooks with selling flesh on Fridays or in Lent. Barry's Ram centres about the A. The rascally lawyer Throate "lies in R. A."; and in i. 3, he says, "Though R. A. stinks with cooks and ale, Yet say, there's many a worthy lawyer's chamber Buts upon R. A." In iii. 3, he says, "Are you mad? Come you to seek a virgin in R. A. So near an Inn-of-Court, and amongst cooks, Ale-men, and laundresses?" In Brome's Couple, Careless takes sanctuary in R. A., but, having got hold of some money, he says (ii. i), "I need no more insconsing now in R.-A." In his Damoiselle iv. i, Bumpsey says, "I'll but step up into R. A. Sanctuary."

RATCLIFFE

Originally a manor in the parish of Stepney on the N. bank of the Thames, between Shadwell and Limehouse. It is inhabited chiefly by people engaged in various marine industries. It gave its name to the old R. Highway, now known as St. George st. Hentzner mentions it as "a considerable suburb." In T. Heywood's I. K. M. B. 278, Dean Nowell says, "This Ave Gibson founded a free school at R." The lady referred to was Avice Gibson, wife of Nicholas Gibson, grocer, and her free-school and almshouses were almost the first buildings to be erected in R. In Oldcastle iii. 2, Acton, in a list of villages where the rebels are quartered, mentions, "Some nearer Thames, R., Blackwall, and Bow." In Look about v., Skink, pursued by the watch, says, "In the highway to R. stands a heater," i.e. a hot pursuer. In Day's B. Beggar iii., Canby says, "We'll wheel about by Ratcliff and get to his lodging" at Bethnall Green. In Jonson's Epicoene iv. 1, Otter says, "Well go down to Ratcliff and have a course i' faith," i.e. a bear-baiting. In his Alchemist iv. 4, Face says, "I'll ship you both away to Ratcliff Where we will meet to-morrow." In Davenant's Wits ii. 1, Palatine says, "I told her her beloved velvet hood [must] be sold to some Dutch brewer of R." In Launching, it is said, "The East India gates stand open wide to entertain the needy and the poor–Lyme House speaks their liberality; Ratcliff cannot complain nor Wapping weep nor Shadwell cry against their niggardliness."

Like all waterside places, R. had a bad reputation for the character of its inhabitants. In News from Hell, it is mentioned along with Turnbull-st., Southwark, Bankside, and Kent-st., as the abode of whores and thieves. In Webster's Cuckold ii. 3, Compass says of the time of the birth of children: "It varies again by the time you come at Wapping, Radcliff, Limehouse, and here with us at Blackwall: our children come uncertainly, as the wind serves," i.e. because the husbands are away on voyages and their wives misbehave in their absence. Gosson, in School of Abuse, p. 37 (Arber), says of loose women: "They live a mile from the city, like Venus' nuns in a cloister, at Newington, Ratliffe, Islington, Hogsdon, or some such place."

RED BULL [1]

The sign of a bookseller's shop in Lond. Nabbes' Unfort. Mother was "printed by J. O. for Daniel Frere and are to be sold at the sign of the Red Bull in Little Britain. 1640."

RED BULL [2]
(Map J2)


One of the old Lond. Theatres, standing in Woodbridge St., off St. John St., in Clerkenwell. It was opened about 1605, and seems to have been, as the name would suggest, a converted inn-yard. Prynne, in Histrio-mastix, records its recent re-building in 1633. In New Book of Mistakes (1637), we have: "The R. B. in St. Johns St. who for the present (alack the while) is not suffered to carry the flag in the maintop," i.e. it was closed on account of the plague in 1636-7. A picture of a stage in the frontispiece to Kirkman's The Wits (1673) has been erroneously described as the stage of the R. B., and has often been reproduced as part of the evidence as to the arrangement of the Elizabethan stage. It shows a traverse hanging either from the balcony, or not more than a foot or two in front of its alignment, and a separate curtain to conceal the balcony itself when necessary. But the R. B. was an open-air theatre, and this picture cannot represent it. It was used for "drops" or variety entertainments during the Commonwealth, re-opened at the Restoration, but finally abandoned by the drama in 1663 and handed over to fencers, wrestlers, and the like. The site was later occupied by a distillery. Wright, in Historia Histrionica (1694), says, "The Fortune near Whitecross St., and the R. B. at the upper end of St. John's St. The two last were mostly frequented by citizens and the meaner sort of people." Later on he says, "The Globe, Fortune and B. were large houses and lay partly open to the weather; and there they always acted by daylight." In Davenant's Playhouse i., the Player says, "Tell 'em the R. B. Stands empty for fencers; there are no tenants in it but old spiders"; this was in 1663.

In B. & F. Wit S. W. ii. 2, Pompey, telling of Sir Gregory Fop's new method of courtship, says: "He drew the device from a play at the B., t'other day." In their Pestle iv. 1, when the Citizen suggests as to Ralph, "Let the Sophy of Persia come and christen him a child," the Boy answers, "Believe me, Sir, that will not do so well; 'tis stale; it has been had before at the R. B." Probably the reference is to The Travails, by Day, Rowley, and Wilkins, which dates from 1607, the same year as Pestle. In Cooke's Greene's Tu Quoque p. 558, Geraldine says, "We'll go to the R. B; they say Green's a good clown," to which Bubble, the part being acted by Green himself, says, "Green! Green's an ass," and adds, "He is as like me as ever he can look." In Tomkis' Albumazar ii. 1, Trincalo says, "Then will I confound her with compliments drawn from the plays I see at the Fortune and R. B." In Randolph's Muses' i. 1, Mrs. Flowerdew's Puritan brother is reported by her to have prayed that "the B. might cross the Thames to the Bear-garden, and there be soundly baited." In Cowley's Cutter [a.k.a. The Guardian] iii. 7, Jolly says, "Tho' you shall rage like Tamerlain at the B., 'twould do no good here." Dekker, in Raven's, says of the actors: "Fortune must favour some . . . the whole world must stick to others . . . and a 3rd faction must fight like Bulls" where the reference is to quarrels between the actors at the Fortune, Globe, and R. B. Goffe, in Careless prol., says "I'll go to the B. or Fortune and there see A play for twopence and a jig to boot." In verses prefixed to Randolph's Works, Haz., p. 504, the writer speaks of the "base plots" acted at the R. B. Gayton, in Pleasant Notes on Don Quixote, p. 24, says, "I have heard that the poets of the Fortune and R. B. had always a mouth-measure for their actors, who were terrible tear-throats, and made their lines proportionable to their compass which were sesquipedales, a foot and a half." Pepys, in his Diary, March 23rd, 1661, went "out to the R. B." and saw All's Lost by Lust.

RED CROSS ST.
(Map M3)

Lond., running N. from the front of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, to Barbican, opposite Golden Lane. It had its name from a cross which stood at its Barbican end. A Chronological Catalogue of the Electors Palatine was "printed by William Jones, dwelling in R.-C.-St. 1631."

RED LATTICE

It was the custom for taverns in Lond. to have a red lattice for a window. In Gascoigne's Government iv. 6, he says, "There at a house with a r. 1. you shall find an old bawd and a young damsel." In H4 B. ii. 2, 86, the Page says of Bardolph: "A 'calls me e'en now through a r.1. and I could discern no part of his face from the window." In Marston's Ant. Rev. v. 1, Balurdo boasts ironically, "I am not as well known by my wit as an alehouse by a red lattice." When Greene, in News from Heaven and Hell, is represented as speaking of "a pot of that liquor that I was wont to drink with my hostess at the R. Lattise in Tormoyle St.," he uses the word generically for a tavern, not specifically as the sign of one particular hostelry. In Curates Conference (1641), Needham complains that in Lond. parish clerks "can have their meetings usually in taverns of 3 or 4 pounds a sitting, when poor curates must not look into a r. 1. under fear of a general censure."

RED LION [1]

A common public-house sign, derived no doubt from the R. L. rampant of Scotland, to be seen in the 2nd quarter of the British Royal Standard. R. L. St, in Holborn, was so-called from the R. L. Inn, and in the wall of the building which now occupies its site a tablet is set in with the date 1611. Here were brought the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw in 1661 before they were dragged to Tyburn. In Middleton's No Wit ii. 1, Weatherwise says, "She was brought a-bed at the R. L. about Tower Hill." In News Barthol. Fair, in a list of taverns, we have "R. L. in the Strand." In Jonson's Tub ii. 1, Hilts says, "Find out my Capt. lodged at the R. L. in Paddington; that's the inn." This inn is still to be found at the corner of the Edgeware and Harrow Rds.; there is a tradition that Shakespeare once acted there.

RED LION [2]

An inn at Waltham, also an inn at Brentford. In B. & F. Pestle ii. 1, Humphrey is riding a sorrel "which I bought of Brian, The honest host of the R. roaring L. In Waltham situate:' There was a R. L. at Brentford mentioned in Julian of Brainford's Testament as being "at the shambles' end."

RED LION [3]
(Map V4)


[addendum to Sugden]. There was a Red Lion in Middlesex, parish of St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel–beyond Aldgate and near the Mile End mustering grounds. It was likely a farmhouse that had been converted into an Inn. In 1567 John Brayne (James Burbage's brother-in-law and partner in the Theatre venture of 1576) contracted for and had built a playhouse behind the main building. It therefore has some claim to being the first purpose built playhouse in England. An allusion exists to one play (dealing with Samson) having been played at the Red Lion, yet the playhouse may have existed no more than a season or two.

RICHARD, SAINT

This may have been Richd. Fitznige, Bp. of Lond. in the reign of Henry II, whose shrine was in St. Paul's Cathedral; but there was also a Richd., son of Lothar, K. of Kent, who died at Lucca, where miracles were wrought at his shrine; and another of Chicester. In J. Heywood's Four PP. i., the Palmer claims to have been "at Saynt Rycharde and at Saynt Roke."

ROGUE LANE

A nickname for Sheere or Shire Lane, Lond., given to it because of its extremely disreputable character. See under SHEER LANE. In Middleton's Quarrel iv. 4, Clough wishes for Priss: "Mayst thou set up in R. L., and die sweetly in Tower Ditch."

ROLLS HOUSE
(Map G5)

The official residence of the Master of the R. on the E. side of Chancery Lane, Lond, The site was originally occupied by a H. of Maintenance for Converted Jews, built by Henry III in 1233. A very ancient picture of the R. Chapel is preserved in a MS. of Matthew Paris at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and is reproduced in Bell's Fleet Street in Seven Centuries, p. 80. In 1377 the house and chapel were handed over to the Master of the R., who resided and held his court there. A new H. was erected is 1717, but the Chapel remained. Now [in 1925] H. and Chapel have gone to make room for the new Public Records Office, and the Court has been transferred to the Royal Palace of Justice. In Lydgate's Lickpenny the author says, "into the R. I gat me from thence Before the clerks of the Chancerie, Where many I found earning of pence But none at all once regarded me." Marlowe's Ed. II was "printed at London for Roger Barnes, and are to be sold at his shop in Chauncerie Lane over against the Rolles. 1612."

ROMVILE

(thieves' cant for LOND.). In Middleton's R. G. v. 1, Moll and Tearcat sing "A gave of ben rombouse in a bousing ken of R. is benar than a caster, peck, pennam, lap, or popler, which we mill in deuse a vile"; which is, being interpreted; "A quart of good wine in a drinking shop of Lond. is better than a cloak, meat, bread, butter-milk or porridge, which we steal is the country." Dekker, in Lanthorn, quotes as an example of pedlars' French: "Cut benar whiddes, and, being we to Rome vile, to nip a boung"; which translated is, "Speak better words and go we to Lond. to cut a purse."

ROSE [1]

A common tavern sign is Lond. The R. in Russell St., Covent Garden, next to Drury Lane Theatre, became notorious during the later part of the 17th and 18th cents. as a haunt of men about town. It has been immortalized in Plate III. of Hogarth's Rake's Progress. In Shirley's Hyde Park iii. i. Lord Bonvile says, "A cup of sack and Anthony at the R. Will reconcile their furies." There was another R. Tavern at the corner of Thanet Pl., outside Temple Bar. It is described by Strype as having "good conveniences of rooms and a good garden," In Prodigal ii. 4, Liver says, "Let's meet at the R. at Temple Bar. That will be nearer your counsellor and mine." In Middleton's R. G. iv. 2, Greenwit, disguised as a sumner, says, "I have caught a cold in my head, Sir, by sitting up late in the R. Tavern." In B. & F. Wit Money ii. 3, Lute says that in the country there is "no master Such-a one to meet at the R."

There was another R. Tavern close to the Ch. of All Hallows, Barking, which was destroyed by an explosion of gunpowder in a shipchandler's shop adjacent, in 1649. In Oldcastle iv. 4, one of the Bp. of Rochester's men, being at the Tower, says, "Come, we may have a quart of wine at the R. at Barking, and come back an hour before he be ready to go." In Haughton's Englishmen iii. 2. Pisaro, who lives in Crutched Friars, says, "Well, well to the R. in Barken for an hour." In Deloney's Craft i. 14, Nicholas says to John, "Stay for me at the R. in Barking."

Yet another R. Tavern stood on Holborn Hill, from which Taylor, the Water-Poet, records that he started for Southampton in 1647. In Carrier's Cosmographie, Taylor speaks of it as near Holborn Bdge. In T. Heywood's Lucrece ii. 5, Valerius sings: "The gardener hies him to the R."; but which of them does not appear.

ROSE [2]

A bookseller's sign is St. Paul's Churchyard. One of the old editions of Colin Clout was "imprinted at Lond. in Paules churche yard at the sign of the Rose by John Wyghte."

ROSE AND CROWN [1]

A bookseller's sign near Holborn Bdge. Three Lords was "printed by R. Jhones at the R. & C. near Holburne Bdge. 1590." Robinson's Handfull of Plesant Delites was printed at the same sign in 1584; and Marlowe's Tamburlaine bears the same imprint in 1590.

ROSE AND CROWN [2]

A famous tavern in the Poultry at the W. end of the Stocks Market. The sign was painted by the Dutch painter, Hoogstraten, and cost £20. The name was afterwards changed to the King's Head. It was destroyed in the Gt. Fire, but rebuilt, and lasted till the middle of the 19th cent., when it at last disappeared. Machin, in his diary (1560), mentions it as the R. Tavern, and describes a fray there over the arrest of one Cobham for debt. In T. Heywood's I. K. M. B. 257, an apprentice says, "I'll but drink a cup of wine with a customer at the R. & C. in the Poultry and come again presently." Taylor, in Carrier's Cosmographie, mentions a R. & C. as a Carrier's inn in St. John's St.

ROSEMARY LANE
(Map T5)

(now ROYAL MINT ST., LOND.). Running E. from the S. end of the Minories to Leman St., where it is continued by Cable St. It had a bad reputation, and one side of it was occupied by old clothes shops, whence it was often called Rag Fair. Richd. Brandon, the supposed executioner of Charles I, lived in R. L. In Noble Soldier v. 2, Baltasar describes himself as "as honest housekeeper in R. L., too, if you dwell in the same parish." The allusion is to the use of r. both at funerals and weddings. In Glapthorne's Hollander iii. 1, the President of the Twiball club is styled "Lord Paramount of all Garden-Alleys, Gun Alley, and R. L." In News from Hell, R. L. is mentioned with many other places of ill repute as an abode "of whores and thieves." In Middleton's Quarrel v. 1, Chough says of the r. prepared for his wedding, "Make a bonfire on't, to sweeten R.-l."

ROSE THEATRE
(Map N8)


The 3rd Lond. Theatre [ed. note: Sugden is obviously counting only the Theatre and Curtain, built in 1576 and 1577 respectively. He here ignores both the Red Lion of 1567 and Newington Butts, also built in or around 1576], built on the Bankside at Southwark by Philip Henslowe in 1587 or '88. It was the first of the Bankside theatres, except perhaps that at Newington Butts. It was apparently a wooden building, and after the building of the Swan and the Globe was outclassed, and was abandoned by Henslowe in 1603, though it was still used for occasional entertainments. It stood in R. Alley, which ran from the Bankside to Park St. just to the W. of Southwark Bdge. It was first used by Lord Strange's company, and then by the Admiral's men, the chief rivals of the Chamberlain's men, who played at the Globe. In Dekker's Satiro. iii. 1, 316, Tucca says to Mrs. Miniver, "Thou hast a breath as sweet as the R. that grows by the Bear-Garden." The Bear-Garden lay N.W. of the R.T.

ROTTEN ROW
(Map Q2)
(area only; site unmarked)

A row of cottages on the E. side of Norton Folgate, above the old St. Mary Spital; they were built as almshouses by the Prior of the Hospital, but fell into decay after its dissolution. Afterwards a draper, called Russell, pulled them down and built on their site, changing the name to Russell's R. The old name, however, stuck to them, and they shared the general bad repute of Shoreditch as a haunt of profligates and thieves.

There was also a R. R., afterwards called Middle R., on the E. side of Goswell Rd., S. of Old St., near the Charterhouse. Close by was the infamous Pickthatch (q.v.); this is probably the one intended in the quotation. In Glapthorne's Hollander iii. 1, the President of the disreputable society of the Twiball knights is described as "Duke of Turnbull, Bloomsbury, and R. R." The well-known Rotten Row in Hyde Park was first made by William III, as an approach to Kensington Palace, and was not in existence in our period.

ROUND, THE

The round ch. at the W. end of the Temple Ch., Lond. See under TEMPLE.

RUFFIANS'-HALL

A name for W. Smithfield, where sword and buckler fights often took place (see SMITHFIELD). In Eastward i. 1, 17, Touchstone exclaims "Hey-day, R.-H.! Swords, pumps, here's a racket indeed!" Fuller, quoted in Strutt's Sports 26 1, says, "West Smithfield was formerly called R. H., where such men usually met . . . to try masteries with sword and buckler." Nash, in Pierce D. 1, says, "Men will needs quarrel . . . that they may make R. H. of hell." In Almond for Parratt C. 4, he says of Martin Marprelate: "Masse Martin hath never broke sword in R.H."

RUSSELL ST.
(Map E4)
(area only; site unmarked)

Lond., running E. from the E. side of Covent Garden to Drury Lane. It was built in 1634. Later it became famous for its coffee-houses; Will's at the N.W. corner of Bow St., Button's on the S. side, 2 doors from Covent Garden; and Tom's on the N. side. Here also were the Rose and the Three Feathers taverns. Joseph Taylor, one of Shakespeare's actors, lived in R. St., 1634-1641. The 4th Folio of Shakespeare was "printed for H. Herringman, E. Brewster, and R. Bentley at the Anchor in the New Exchange, the Crane in St. Paul's churchyard, and in R.-St. Covent Garden. 1685."

RUTLAND HOUSE
(Map K2)
(area only; site unmarked)

A Lond. mansion, at the top of Aldersgate St., near what is now Charter House Sq. The name is preserved in R. Pl. on the N. side of the square. At R. H., Davenant succeeded in getting leave to give dramatic entertainments towards the close of the Commonwealth. His First Day's Entertainment at Rutland House, with its interesting accounts of contemporary Lond. and Paris, was staged on May 21, 1656; and his Rhodes in August of the same year. In the printed edition of the latter it is stand that it was "made a representation at the back part of R. H. in the upper end of Aldersgate St, Lond., 1656."