Before Shakespeare Christmas Quiz '17

Silent Night, Disorderly Night. 1592 and 1593 are chaotic years for English theatre and the various parties involved in play production, but what group of people caused a fracas in June 1592 after they assembled in Southwark on a Sunday (in the words of the Lord Mayor William Webbe) "by occasion and pretence of their meeting at a play"?

Auld Lang Syne. Surviving court records suggest that John Lyly's Campaspe was performed before Queen Elizabeth I on New Year's Day, but it's often difficult to place plays with certainty at particular commercial playing spaces in the 1580s and 1590s. Thanks to surviving prologues, though, we know that John Lyly's Campaspe (1583/4) and Sapho and Phao (1584) were performed at what venue?

London Fireworks. On the 23 August 1584, Lupold von Wedel noted down a show he witnessed during his visit to London as follows: "The next was that a number of men and women came forward from a separate compartment, dancing, conversing and fighting with each other: also a man who threw some white bread among the crowd, that scrambled for it. Right over the middle of the place a rose was fixed, this rose being set on fire by a rocket: suddenly lots of apples and pears fell out of it down upon the people standing below. Whilst the people were scrambling for the apples, some rockets were made to fall down upon them out of the rose, which caused a great fright but amused the spectators. After this, rockets and other fireworks came flying out of all corners, and that was the end of the play." (Lupold von Wedel on bearbaiting, 23 August 1584, from E. Chambers, ES 2, 455; trans. G. von Bulow in 2 Transactions of Royal Hist. Soc. ix. 230, from MS in possession of Graf von der Osten at Plathe, Pomerania.) What event was he supposedly attending?

The School Nativity... The Merchant Tailors' School performed "common plays and such like exercise" that could be "seen for money" in the 1570s (Guildhall MS 34010/001; fo. 699). According to their minutes, why did they attempt to call an end to these commercial ventures in March 1573? (SELECT TWO ANSWERS)

Ho ho ho... There are several inn-based playing spaces in Elizabethan London. Which one was reported as being the place to go "to hear a worthy jest" (Gascoigne, 1575) or "prose books" (Gosson 1579), and is characterised by its particularly high stage (Silver, 1599)?

Under the mistletoe... Which Doctor and man of letters visited the Curtain playhouse in April 1599 hoping to court a young woman. He noted down for posterity that "after the play we wente in the fields together, and she and I had some parl[ey] [. . . ] but nothing of any thing touching the matter, and she seemed very kind and courteous, and I led her by the hand [. . .] I never moved any question. . ."

Sewer's Greetings. The sewer records for Kent and Surrey provide information about playhouse owners and builders in Southwark and Newington. Philip Henslowe, builder of The Rose playhouse, is fined in 1588 for failing to "cleanse and scour and to lop the willows that hang of the common sewer to the great annoyance [. . .] 10 poles [50.29 metres] more or less lying against their ground at the new play house [. . .]" (SKCS, fo. 153v). But what alias is Philip listed under?

Transport for Santa. Both The Theatre (Shoreditch, 1576) and the Red Lion (Mile End, 1567) are sometimes called London's "first" public playhouses, but where, in terms of today's London tube stations, did John Rastell (the brother-in-law of Thomas More) set up a stage in the 1520s?

Three Fence Hens. Fencing regularly took place in a number of the playing venues in Elizabethan London. In 1582, The Lord Mayor refused to allow Ambrose Warwick's servant to play a fencing competition at the Bull in Gracious Street, because it was "somewhat too close for infection" (24 July 1582; Remembrancia I 384). What venue did he suggest would be better?

Who's naughty or nice... Arguably the most famous performer of his time, the comic actor and clown Richard Tarlton was said by John Harington (1596) to have uttered what apparently hilarious word "into the Theatre with great applause"?