Bull-baiting Bull-baiting Author Natasha Neudorf Ediger Supervising Editor Melissa Walter Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Natasha Neudorf Ediger, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

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A black and white image of a bulldog and a bull getting ready to attack each other in a pen while another bull runs away. Etching by F. Barlow of a bull and a dog preparing to attack eachother. Date Unknown. Courtesy of Wellcome Collection. Public Domain. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/n9ztjj5w/images?id=h6xp3uth.
Introduction

The ferocious sport of bull-baiting was one of the main bloodsport pastimes for English citizens in the early modern period, attracting men and women of all ages. In bull-baiting, chained bulls were attacked by dogs who had been released into the arena. The English enjoyed this blood sport as much as they enjoyed any other friendlier form of amusement, such as plays, puppet shows, sports like wrestling, and music. Some people opposed this form of entertainment, mainly the Puritans. Prominent Puritan critic of the theater Philips Stubbes lamented What Christian heart can take pleasure to see one poor beast rend, tear and kill another. Despite their efforts to eliminate it, bull-baiting continued to take place up until Parliament outlawed animal blood sports in 1835.

The Bloody Arena

Arenas were purposefully crafted in England to sustain this form of entertainment. Hundreds of dogs were separated by wooden boards, while bulls and bears were kept in larger pens. Surrounding the open space where these baitings occurred were stands which cost viewers two pennies to access. In the 16th century, evidence indicates London may have had separate bloodsport arenas right beside each other, one adapted to entertaining its viewers with bull-baiting and the other with bear-baiting, but only one remained after 1583. Early modern Londoners took delight in watching experienced bulls and dogs attack each other until severely wounded or dead.

Why Bull-baiting?

Queen Elizabeth herself thoroughly enjoyed watching all different kinds of animal blood sports. In one 1575 entertainment she attended, 13 bears were provided, although some of them may have been performers rather than involved in baiting. Bear baiting and cockfighting were also popular in London and around England. One widely believed theory was that bull-baiting made the bull’s meat both safe to eat and more tender.

Attitudes of English Citizens in the Early Modern Period

Readers in the 21st century may wonder why the English in the early modern period were fascinated rather than distraught by bloodsports like bull-baiting. In her book Brutal Reasoning: Animals, Rationality, and Humanity in Early Modern England, Erica Fudge lays out some of the principal attitudes towards bull-baiting during this time period: English people struggled to determine whether animals had reason or not. Animals were used as a tool to make humans feel superior (192).

From the Theatre to the Arena

Macbeth himself refers to animal baiting when considering his final encounter with his foes, stating they have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, / But, bear-like, I must fight the course. (Macbeth 5.7.1–2) Here reference is made to bear-baiting, a blood sport identical in nature to bull-baiting. The same people who consistently attended these bull, bear, dog, and other animal baiting scenes, also attended live theater, thus revealing the variety and contrast of English pastimes in the early modern period.

Key Print Sources Dawson, Giles E. London’s Bull-Baiting and Bear-Baiting Arena in 1562. Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 1, Folger Shakespeare Library, The Shakespeare Association of America, Inc., Johns Hopkins University Press, George Washington University, 1964, pp. 97–101, DOI 10.2307/2867963. Fudge, Erica. Brutal Reasoning: Animals, Rationality, and Humanity in Early Modern England. Cornell University Press, 2019. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, Folger Shakespeare Library, 1623.
Key Online Sources Andrews, Evan. The Gruesome Blood Sports of Shakespearean England. History, A&E Television Networks, 9 Jan. 2019, https://www.history.com/articles/the-gruesome-blood-sports-of-shakespearean-england. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. Bearbaiting. Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Mar. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/sports/bearbaiting. Accessed 5 Jan. 2023.
Image Sources Barlow, F. A Bull and a bulldog are about to attack eachother in an enlosure while another bull is running away. Etching. Wellcome Collection. https://wellcomecollection.org/search/images?query=n9ztjj5w#.