Abstract
When we think of the Bankside neighborhood, home of the Globe, the Rose, and the Swan, it’s easy to remember that there were brothels there. You would pass brothels on land owned by the Bishops of Winchester if, instead of hailing a water taxi, you walked over London Bridge to the theater district. As soon as you stepped off the bridge into Southwark you’d turn right at the church of St. Mary’s Overie—nothing gynecological, despite its proximity to the brothels—“Overie” meant “over the river.” A short stroll would then bring you to the Globe. Antitheatrical writers haven’t let us forget those brothels; but who now remembers that if you turned left after stepping off the bridge, and walked along Barnes Street parallel to the river, past St. Olave’s church, right next to Battle Bridge (which crosses a little waterway joining the Thames) you would find a house where John Mellis kept a school, perhaps for as long as 46 years? In this school a Londoner could learn double-entry bookkeeping.
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Woodbridge, L. (2003). Introduction. In: Woodbridge, L. (eds) Money and the Age of Shakespeare: Essays in New Economic Criticism. Early Modern Cultural Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982469_1
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