3 April, 1592 - Machiavel

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

Henslowe writes: R at matchevell the 3 of ap^rell 1591 ... xxij^s

In modern English: Received at Machiavel, 3^rd April, 1592 ... 22 shillings

Niccolò Machiavelli, the
original machiavel.

Today, Lord Strange's Men performed again their lost play about a machiavel (a devious, manipulative villain). You can read more about this play in the entry for 2nd March.

The company had not performed this play for a month. Then, it had made an unimpressive 14 shillings. This time it made a few shillings more, but was still not drawing big crowds. Was this because Easter Week was over and fewer Londoners could spare time for theatre? Or was it simply that Machiavel was not a very good play?

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)

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