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Falcon Inn was a tavern in the Bankside area and was a popular destination for many Elizabethan playwrights.
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Situated on the south bank of the Thames in Southwark, the Falcon Inn or Falcon Tavern, as it was sometimes called, enjoys to this day a reputation as a frequent haunt of the most famous playwrights of the early modern era. According to John Bickerdyke’s
Amongst the inns and taverns frequented by
Shakspere [sic] may be mentioned the Falcon Tavern, by the Bankside, which was the place of meeting of the mighty poets and wits of the Elizabethan age—ofShakspere ,Ben Jonson ,Marlow ,Massinger ,Ford ,Beaumont ,Fletcher ,Drayton ,Herrick , and a host of lesser names. An assemblage, indeed, unique in any country or in any age! Here took place thoswit combats,of whichFuller speaks, betweenShakspere andBen Jonson ,which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon, and an English man-of-war; MasterJonson (like the former) was built far higher in learning; solid, but slow, in his performances.Shakspere , like the English man-of-war, 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.
The inn itself no longer stands, having been torn down in the
We may also imagine a somewhat raucous atmosphere at the Falcon Inn, since Southwark and more specifically Bankside was a place where one could indulge numerous vices like gambling and drinking and seek out diverse entertainments ranging from bear baiting to theatrical performances to paid companionship in a local brothel (
A Carrier from Reygate in Surrey doth come every thursday (or oftner) to the Falcon in Southwark(Taylor). Thus, the inn would have attracted a diverse group of people, from travellers to revellers to your everyday London citizen.
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