Indulgence
The play is rife with images and representations of indulgence – food, alcohol, sex, etc. – in which characters happily take part. These portrayals of indulgence help blur social lines that are otherwise distinct, like that between men and women, the upper classes and the lower classes, and the authorities and the criminals. As characters continue to eat, drink, and seek entertainment at the fair, the notion of an orderly London society swift destabilizes.
Buying and Selling
Bartholomew Fair remained a place for merchants to buy and sell commodities through the nineteenth century. In the play, there are a number of merchants (and some scammers) who attempt to sell their goods at the various stalls in the field. Bartholomew Cokes goes on a shopping spree at these stalls, even though Quarlous and Winwife remark early on that one would have to be foolish to spend money on anything people were selling.
Prostitutes
Toward the end of the play, Ursla dresses up Win Littlewit and Mistress Overdo in what she perceives as fine clothing. A woman named Alice then berates them because she thinks they are prostitutes. This imagery of their costuming is significant because it underscores the debauched nature of the fair and the various misunderstandings that occur while characters are eating, drinking, scheming, and otherwise enjoying themselves.
The Stocks
The stocks were a mechanism used for public shaming at events like the fair. Transgressors were placed in the stocks with boards covering their wrists and ankles so they could not move, and others were invited to pester or heckle them for whatever they had done. In the play, the stocks become home to both Busy and Overdo, an ironic image in which the people usually enforcing the laws (both political and religious) are shackled and denigrated by commoners and petty criminals.
