Bethlem and Bridewell in The Honest Whore Plays

Even though The History of Bethlem, an account of London's notorious psychiatric hospital ("Bedlam"), disavows any substantial connection between the hospital and Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton's The Honest Whore, Part One (1605), this essay argues that the historians' narrative actually exposes a clear relationship between play and place. The historians suggest that the hospital began an organized effort to show its mad inhabitants around 1600, not for perverse entertainment, but to elicit charity. This real charitable "show" corresponds to the odd and confusing conclusion of Dekker and Middleton's play and Dekker's sequel, The Honest Whore, Part Two.