11 March 1592 - Harry VI

Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...

Henslowe writes: R at harey the vj the 11 of marche 1591 ... xxxxvij^s 

In modern English: Received at Harry VI, 11^th March 1592 ... 47 shillings

1540s portrait of King
Henry VI

Today, Lord Strange's Men performed Harry VI again. This play was almost certainly Shakespeare's First Part of Henry VI; you can read more about it in the blog entry for 3rd March.

This is the company's third performance of their popular new play Harry VI in just over a week, a very unusual frequency of performance. Clearly, the players were keen to keep on performing this instant hit. However, the play made considerably less money this time. 47 shillings would be regarded as very good  box office for most of their plays, but it is just over half what the company had made with the previous performances of Harry VI.

What's next?

There will be no post tomorrow, because 12th March was a Sunday in 1592 and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 13th March for a week that will feature a mixture of familiar titles with still more new plays.

Henslowe links

• Transcript of this page of the Diary (from W.W. Greg's 1904 edition)
• Facsimile of this page of the Diary (from the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project)

Comments?

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