Bartholomew Fair

Synopsis

London, 1614. The raucous Bartholomew Fair springs to life, a vibrant tableau of Jacobean society in all its bawdy, chaotic glory.

A motley crew of characters converge on the eponymous fair, each with their own agenda. Justice Overdo, disguised as a fool, seeks to expose the fair’s licentiousness, while the newly-wed Bartholomew Cokes hunts for toys, losing his new wife Win-the-Fight in the process. Puritan Zeal-of-the-Land Busy rails against the fair’s perceived sinfulness, and the cunning Ursula, the pig-woman, presides over her booth of ale and roast pork. As the day unfolds, identities are mistaken, fortunes are won and lost, and the characters find themselves embroiled in increasingly farcical situations.

Jonson’s play is a masterful satire of Jacobean society, skewering hypocrisy, greed, and moral pretension with gleeful abandon. Through its sprawling cast and interwoven plotlines, the play explores themes of justice, social order, and the tension between puritanism and pleasure. The fair itself becomes a microcosm of London, where class boundaries blur and societal norms are upended. With its richly drawn characters, biting wit, and vivid depiction of early 17th-century life, Bartholomew Fair stands as one of Jonson’s most ambitious and entertaining works, offering a riotous celebration of human folly and the carnivalesque spirit.