I wouldn't have thought that in the 1600-1800s there would be the information network available to source entertainers from outside the local area, much less the willingness of the public to pay an entrance fee. I suppose most of the "performers" would be regulars, with maybe the occassional "wandering minstrel" singing/playing for their ale and keep. Around the 1900's my great grandfather was a well known local pub entertainer who played a variety of instruments and, from what I could gather from my grandmother, "always had a pocket full of thre'penny-bits" which I suppose would be handed to him as he went round from pub to pub.I used to have a tape of my grandmother singing some of the songs he wrote.They were mostly topical, comedic ditties with a few risque double-entendres thrown in for good measure. Sadly the tape is lost, grandmother is long dead and all I've got are a few half-remembered lines.