Tuesday 31 May 2016

31 May, 1592 - Hieronimo

Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
Henslowe writes: R at Jeronymo the 19 27 maye 1592 ... xxiijs 

In modern English: Received at Hieronimo, 31st May, 1592 ... 23
 shillings 

Woodcut from the 1615 edition of The Spanish Tragedy.
Today, Lord Strange's Men revived Hieronimo, which is almost certainly an alternate title for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. You can read more about this play in the entry for 14th March

Today's performance returned the lowest box office that this play had ever received. The once all-conquering Spanish Tragedy is sinking from the doldrums of the average into the abyss of the ho-hum.

  • Tuesday, 14th March - 71 shillings (performed the day after the Comedy)
  • Monday, 20th March - 38 shillings (performed as an individual play)
  • Friday, 31st March - 60 shillings (Easter Week; performed the day after the Comedy)
  • Friday, 7th April - 26 shillings (performed as an individual play)
  • Friday, 14th April - 33 shillings (performed as an individual play)
  • Monday, 24th April - 28 shillings (performed one working day after the Comedy, but with Sunday interrupting)
  • Tuesday, 2nd May - 34 shillings (performed as an individual play)
  • Thursday, 11th May - 26 shillings (performed as an individual play)
  • Monday, 15th May - 64 shillings (Whitsuntide; performed as an individual play)
  • Thursday, 25th May - 27 shillings (performed the day after the Comedy)
  • Wednesday, 31st May - 23 shillings (performed as an individual play)



    Henslowe links



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    Monday 30 May 2016

    30 May, 1592 - Tamar Cam

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

    Henslowe writes: R at tambercame the 18 26 of maye 1592 ... xxxvjs vjd

    In modern English: Received at Tamar Cam, 30th May, 1592 ... 36 shillings and sixpence

    Today's entry presents a puzzle. A month ago, Lord Strange's Men introduced a new play called The Second Part of Tamar Cam. This was one of two lost plays about the Mongol conqueror Hulagu Khan, and you can read about them in the entry for 28th April. The company revived The Second Part on 12th May. But today's entry refers only to Tamar Cam, without specifying that it was second part. And for the remainder of this season, Henslowe will continue to write the title only as Tamar Cam.

    So, is this Part 1 or Part 2? Are the players continuing to perform The Second Part and Henslowe is simply abbreviating its title?  Or have the players given up on The Second Part and are reviving the original Tamar Cam instead? We don't know.

    But either way, we must suspect that The Second Part of Tamar Cam has been a big disappointment. Although, like all new plays at the Rose, its premiere was very popular, it was a long time before the company peformed it again, and, when they finally did, it received only average box office (unlike most new plays, which sank to that level only gradually). If today's performance was of The Second Part, it would show an even further decline in the box office. And if it was The First Part, it would mean that the company had already given up on the sequel, and had blown the dust off the original to see if that would do any better ... and it didn't.

    Persian illustration of Hulagu Khan (the likely inspiration for Tamar Cam) and his Christian wife


    FURTHER READING


    Tamar Cam information

    • Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entries 906 and 925.
    • Sally-Beth MacLean and Lawrence Manley, Lord Strange's Men and their Plays (Yale University Press, 2014), 138-43.
    • David McInnis, "Tamar Cham, Parts 1 and 2", Lost Plays Database (2016). 

    Henslowe links



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    Sunday 29 May 2016

    29 May, 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 17 25 of maye 1592 ... xxiiijs

    In modern English: Received at Harry VI, 29th May, 1592 ... 24 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 VIyou can read more about it in the blog entry for 3rd March.

    Lord Strange's Men continue to stage Harry VI about once a week. By this point, nearly three months after its premiere, the play is normally receiving rather weak box office and is being performed to a theatre that is less than half full. Yet the players still seem to have considered it worth their while to perform Harry VI more often than any other play in their repertory. I wonder why. Was it simply their personal favourite? Did they enjoy performing it more than the others?

    • Friday, 3rd March - 75 shillings (premiere)
    • Tuesday, 7th March - 60 shillings
    • Saturday, 11th March - 47 shillings
    • Thursday, 16th March - 31 shillings
    • Tuesday, 28th March - 68 shillings (Easter Week)
    • Wednesday, 5th April - 41 shillings
    • Thursday, 13th April - 26 shillings
    • Friday, 21st April - 33 shillings
    • Thursday, 4th May - 56 shillings
    • Tuesday, 9th May - 22 shillings
    • Tuesday, 16th May - 50 shillings (Whitsuntide)
    • Monday, 22nd May - 30 shillings
    • Monday, 29th May - 24 shillings


    Henslowe links



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    Friday 27 May 2016

    27 May, 1592 - Titus and Vespasian

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

    Henslowe writes: R at titus & vespacia the 16 24 of maye 1592 ... xxxs 

    In modern English: Received at Titus and Vespasian, 27th May, 1592 ... 30 shillings

    Today, Lord Strange's Men revived Titus and Vespasian, which they had last performed ten days agoThis lost play was probably a gruesome tale about the Roman siege of Jerusalem in the 1st century; you can read more about it in the entry for 11th April.

    The previous performance of Titus and Vespasian had been a great success as it was performed during the Whitsuntide holidays. But in its more regular performances, the play's popularity had begun to wane. Today receipts confirm that this once new play was now receiving the box office of an average Rose performance.

    Nicholas Poussin, The Destruction and Sack of the Temple at Jerusalem (1637)

    What's next?

    There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 28th May was a Sunday in 1592. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 29th May.


    Henslowe links



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    Thursday 26 May 2016

    26 May, 1592 - The Tanner of Denmark

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

    Henslowe writes: Ne ... R at the taner of denmarke the 14 23 of maye 1592 ... iijll xiijs vjd

    In modern English: New. Received at The Tanner of Denmark, 26th May, 1592 ... £3, 13 shillings and sixpence

    Today's entry in Henslowe's Diary is very mysterious. It tells us that Lord Strange's Men premiered a new play entitled The Tanner of Denmark, and that it was an enormous success: its box office takings probably represent an almost packed theatre. But the play is now lost, and it is hard to imagine what its subject matter might have been. And stranger still, the company seems never to have staged it again - at least, it never again appears in Henslowe's Diary. Why did they stop performing it if it was so successful?

    A solution to the mystery of The Tanner of Denmark has been proposed recently. It rests on slender evidence, but it's better than nothing, so let's walk through the logic, step by step...

    1. A tanner ... or a tamer?


    A German tanner from Die
    HausbĂĽcher der NĂĽrnberger

    ZwölfbrĂĽderstiftungen (1609)
    A tanner is an artisan who specializes in treating animal hides to turn them into leather. But despite the best efforts of scholarship, no-one can explain why a Danish tanner might have been the subject of a play. There are no such characters in the literature of the time. There is a tanner of Tamworth in Thomas Heywood's history play Edward IV (1599), in which King Edward disguises as a commoner to test the tanner's loyalty. But tanning itself isn't important to this story, so it gives us no clues as to what The Tanner of Denmark might have been about.

    But what if it wasn't about a tanner at all? In their book on Lord Strange's Men, Sally-Beth MacLean and Lawrence Manley ask whether Henslowe in fact intended to write The Tamer of Denmark. They admit that the word on the page looks like "taner", but they observe that Henslowe sometimes failed to distinguish 'n' from 'm' clearly.

    So, what might a play called The Tamer of Denmark have been about? MacLean and Manley suggest that such a title would apply rather well to a mysterious play called Edmund Ironside, which may be linked to Lord Strange's Men but does not appear in Henslowe's records. This play is about a temperate Anglo-Saxon king who defeats a rash and boastful Danish rival and ultimately forges peace; as such, he could justifiably be called a 'tamer of Denmark'. This is quite a leap of scholarly imagination, but let us, with one eyebrow cautiously raised, look more closely at how this theory works...

    2. Was it Edmund Ironside?


    Edmund Ironside depicted in a
    14th century genealogy of
    English kings
    Edmund Ironside the English King, or War hath Made All Friends is a play that survives only in a single manuscript now held by the British Library. It tells the story of King Edmund's war with the Danish invader Canute during the eleventh century. No-one knows who wrote this play, or when, or for which playing company. But it has become better-known that it might otherwise have been because a few writers have claimed it to be an early work by Shakespeare. Most notably, in a remarkably acerbic 1985 book, Eric Sams pointed to lines in the play that seem similar to lines in Shakespeare. Most Shakespeare scholars are unconvinced by this claim, seeing these lines as imitations or memories of other plays rather than proof that Shakespeare wrote it.

    The plays that Edmund Ironside seems most closely related to include the Henry VI plays, especially the first of them, and Titus Andronicus, but it also seems to have inspired elements of the anonymous A Knack to Know a Knave (which will premiere at the Rose in a couple of weeks). Since The First Part of Henry VI and Knack were performed by Lord Strange's Men, MacLean and Manley see a hint that Ironside might have been too.

    Canute depicted in a
    English kings
    In support of this suggestion, they point out an intriguing passage in Thomas Nashe's satirical prose work Piers Penniless's Supplication to the Devil (1592). We've already encountered this book before, because it contains an apparent description of The First Part of Henry VI in performance, and shows some familiarity with the work of Lord Strange's Men. But elsewhere in the book, Nashe includes a satirical description of Danish people, whom he condemns as "gross and senseless proud dolts" who only respect braggart soldiers with giant battleaxes. Some of the language in his description is reminiscent of that used by the swaggering Canute in Edmund Ironside, and this leads MacLean and Manley to propose that Nashe was inspired by a performance of that play. If they're right, then we may get a glimpse of Edward Alleyn in the role of Canute here:

    Thus walks he up and down in his majesty, taking a yard of ground at every step, and stamps on the earth so terrible as if he meant to knock up a spirit ... [but] if an Englishman set his little finger to him, he falls like a hog's trough that is set on one end.

    This does sounds like the tall Alleyn, who was famed for prowling the stage with his long strides. So, MacLean and Manley knit together all these threads to suggest that maybe Edmund Ironside was performed by Lord Strange's Men under the title The Tamer of Denmark, which ended up in a garbled form in Henslowe's Diary.

    MacLean and Manley acknowledge that this is highly speculative, and I must say that I'm not fully convinced, due to the large number of 'ifs'. It might be true if Henslowe meant to write 'tamer' and if  the play of Edmund Ironside was known as The Tamer of Denmark, and if it was written for Lord Strange's Men, and if Nashe was remembering it when he satirized Danes. But we can't prove any of those things. And they admit that an apparent borrowing from Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis (1593, a year after Henslowe's entry) needs to be shrugged off if their theory is to work.

    So, I'm not sure I buy it. And yet...


    3. Why was the play performed only once?


    Despite being held together with thin strands of evidence, MacLean and Manley's Edmund Ironside theory is still tempting because they propose that it helps solve the other mystery surrounding The Tanner of Denmark: why was it only performed once?

    Christian IV, King of Denmark, 1588-1648;
    his boozy boorishness fitted the English
    stereotype of  Danes rather well
    They point out that Nashe's satire Piers Penniless was brought to the attention of the Privy Council as a politically dangerous work precisely because it made fun of foreigners such as Danes. What's wrong with laughing at Danes? Well, among other things, King James of Scotland, the likeliest heir to the English throne, had recently married Anne of Denmark, and there was a strain of hostility among the populace about the idea of these foreigners inheriting the English throne. A paranoid politician might have seen Nashe's joking about Danes as contributing to that hostility.

    MacLean and Manley thus propose that in this context, a popular play that encouraged its audience to cheer as proud Englishmen beat back a Danish invasion of their nation might have raised alarm bells and could have been suppressed by the authorities. Again, this is all unproven (which MacLean and Manley fully admit), but it does at least make for a tidy solution to the puzzle surrounding Henslowe's entry.

    I'm still only half-convinced. But since the alternative is to give up and return to the fruitless subject of tanning in Denmark, let's briefly look at the play of Edmund Ironside itself...


    If the play was Edmund Ironside ...


    Edmund Ironside the English King, or War hath Made All Friends tells the story of two men who both have claims to the English throne. Edmund Ironside is the son of King Ethelred of England. But the Danes have conquered England and Prince Canute is claiming the crown too. Edmund assumes the role of king and encourages the English people to resist Danish rule.

    Battles ensue. In the first, Canute beseiges London, but Edmund's forces rescue the city and push the Danes north. The second battle is inconclusive. In the background of all this lurks a machiavel, the bastard Edricus, who shifts between both sides, and manages to convince both Edmund and Canute that he is spying for them. Edricus plays off the rival kings against one another, while plotting to gain power for himself and gloating to the audience in smug soliloquies.

    The battle between Edmund Ironside and Canute, from the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris (14th century)

    In the climax, Edricus persuades Edmund and Canute to end the stalemate with single combat. Edmund wins the fight. But because Canute surrenders honourably, Edmund agrees they will divide England between them. The former enemies leave to celebrate peace. As they go, Edricus expresses pleasure at this amicable ending:
                                 'Tis meet it should be so.
    Thus hand in hand and heart in heart we go,
    And, till occasion fits them, sleeping wink.
    But then he turns aside and says to himself,
    But I have sworn and I will keep my vow:
    By heaven, I'll be revenged on both of you!
    And with this ominous conclusion, the play sets up a sequel, which, so far as we know, never got written...

    If you would like to read Edmund Ironside, the most widely available edition is Eric Sams' Shakespeare's Lost Play: Edmund Ironside (1985) but Sams' over-egged claims about Shakespeare's authorship and his pompous dismissal of contrary evidence make for an irritating and misleading read. Harder to find, but a lot more useful, is Randall Martin's edition of Edmund Ironside and Anthony Brewer's The Lovesick King (1991).


    But what about tanners?


    I've given a lot of space to MacLean and Manley's Edmund Ironside hypothesis, but it's still entirely possible that this play really was about a tanner of Denmark. Let's conclude, therefore, with a celebration of the ancient craft of tanning, and you can decide whether it has any dramatic potential.







    FURTHER READING


    Tanner of Denmark and Edmund Ironside information


    • Eric Sams, Shakespeare's Lost Play: Edmund Ironside (Fourth Estate, 1985)
    • Randall Martin, Edmund Ironside; and Anthony Brewer's The Lovesick King (Garland, 1991)
    • David McInnis, "The Tanner of Denmark", Lost Plays Database (2009). 
    • Will Sharpe, "Authorship and Attribution", William Shakespeare and Others: Collaborative Plays, ed. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
    • Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entries 929 and 1064.
    • Sally-Beth MacLean and Lawrence Manley, Lord Strange's Men and their Plays (Yale University Press, 2014), 149-56.


    Henslowe links



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    Wednesday 25 May 2016

    25 May, 1592 - Hieronimo

    Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
    Henslowe writes: R at Jeronymo the 13 22 maye 1592 ... xxvijs 

    In modern English: Received at Hieronimo, 25th May, 1592 ... 27
     shillings 

    Woodcut from the 1615 edition of The Spanish Tragedy.
    Today, Lord Strange's Men revived their old standard Hieronimo, almost certainly an alternate title for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. You can read more about this play in the entry for 14th March.

    After its very popular staging during the Whitsuntide holiday, today's performance was much weaker. In previous entries, I have wondered whether The Spanish Tragedy tended to receive higher box office when it was performed the day after its companion piece, The Spanish Comedy. The data had seemed to be suggesting that it did. However, today's poor performance, despite coming a day after the Comedy, would seem to suggest that there was no real connection. Oh well, it was worth asking the question...

    • Tuesday, 14th March - 71 shillings (performed the day after the Comedy)
    • Monday, 20th March - 38 shillings (performed as an individual play)
    • Friday, 31st March - 60 shillings (Easter Week; performed the day after the Comedy)
    • Friday, 7th April - 26 shillings (performed as an individual play)
    • Friday, 14th April - 33 shillings (performed as an individual play)
    • Monday, 24th April - 28 shillings (performed one working day after the Comedy, but with Sunday interrupting)
    • Tuesday, 2nd May - 34 shillings (performed as an individual play)
    • Thursday, 11th May - 26 shillings (performed as an individual play)
    • Monday, 15th May - 64 shillings (Whitsuntide; performed as an individual play)
    • Thursday, 25th May - 27 shillings (performed the day after the Comedy)



      Henslowe links



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      Tuesday 24 May 2016

      24 May, 1592 - The Comedy of Hieronimo

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

      Henslowe writes: R at the comodey of Jeronymo the 12 21 maye 1592 ... xxviijs 

      In modern English: Received at The Comedy of Hieronimo, 24th May, 1592 ... 28 shillings

      Today, Lord Strange's Men gave another performance of The Comedy of Hieronimo, which they had not staged for over a month. This lost play, also known as The Spanish Comedy of Don Horatio, was most likely about the events leading up to those in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (you can read more about it in the entry for 23rd February). Today's performance received rather weak box office.

      Tomorrow, Lord Strange's Men will perform The Spanish Tragedy, thereby staging the two plays consecutively in order to emphasize their linked narratives. something they have occasionally done in the past. In previous entries, I have wondered whether the Comedy was more popular when performed in tandem with the Tragedy. I think the data below confirms that it made no difference whatsoever.
      • Wednesday, 23rd February - 13 shillings and sixpence (performed as an individual play)
      • Monday, 13th March - 29 shillings (performed the day before The Spanish Tragedy)
      • Wednesday, 30th March - 39 shillings (performed the day before The Spanish Tragedy)
      • Monday, 10th April - 28 shillings (performed as an individual play)
      • Saturday, 22nd April - 17 shillings  (performed one working day before The Spanish Tragedy, but with a Sunday intervening)
      • Wednesday, 24th May - 28 shillings (performed the day before The Spanish Tragedy)

      Henslowe links



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      Monday 23 May 2016

      23 May, 1592 - The Jew of Malta

      Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
      Henslowe writes: R at the Jewe of mallta the 11 20 maye 1592 ... liiijs

      In modern English: Received at The Jew of Malta, 23rd May, 1592 ... 54 shillings


      Caravaggio's portrait of the Grand
      Master of the Knights of Malta,
      1607-8.
      Today, Lord Strange's Men performed their satirical comic tragedy The Jew of Malta again. You can read more about this play in the blog entry for 26th February.

      After the disappointing response to the last performance of The Jew of Malta, the company has returned to its habit of performing the play once every two weeks. They've been rewarded with an excellent turnout, yet another reminder that this play has a higher-than-average popularity compared to the others in the repertory.

      • Saturday, 26th February - 50 shillings
      • Friday, 10th March - 56 shillings
      • Saturday, 18th March - 39 shillings
      • Tuesday, 4th April, 43 shillings
      • Tuesday,  18th April, 48 shillings and sixpence
      • Friday, 5th May, 41 shillings
      • Saturday, 13th May, 34 shillings
      • Tuesday, 23rd May, 54 shillings


        Henslowe links




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        Sunday 22 May 2016

        22 May, 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 109 of maye 1592 ... xxxs

        In modern English: Received at Harry VI, 22nd May, 1592 ... 30 shillings
        Henslowe's Diary becomes very messy this week. He wrote today's date hopelessly wrong, and although he corrected it later, his correction was wrong too, so that his recorded dates become increasingly out of sync with reality. It's further evidence that Henslowe may have been entering the data into his account book some time after the actual performances.

        1540s portrait of King
        Henry VI
        Anyway, today, Lord Strange's Men performed Harry VI again. This play was almost certainly Shakespeare's First Part of Henry VIyou can read more about it in the blog entry for 3rd March.

        The company have returned to their practice of staging Harry VI once a week. After the boost it received during the Whitsuntide holidays, the play has returned to being merely an average performer at the box office.

        • Friday, 3rd March - 75 shillings (premiere)
        • Tuesday, 7th March - 60 shillings
        • Saturday, 11th March - 47 shillings
        • Thursday, 16th March - 31 shillings
        • Tuesday, 28th March - 68 shillings (Easter Week)
        • Wednesday, 5th April - 41 shillings
        • Thursday, 13th April - 26 shillings
        • Friday, 21st April - 33 shillings
        • Thursday, 4th May - 56 shillings
        • Tuesday, 9th May - 22 shillings
        • Tuesday, 16th May - 50 shillings (Whitsuntide)
        • Monday, 22nd May - 30 shillings


        Henslowe links



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        Friday 20 May 2016

        20 May, 1592 - Harry of Cornwall

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

        Henslowe writes: R at harey of cornwell the 18 of maye 1592 ... xxxjs

        In modern English: Received at Harry of Cornwall, 20th May, 1592 ... 31 shillings

        Gustav Doré's 1875 illustration
        of the murder of Henry
        Today, Lord Strange's Men returned to Harry of Cornwall, a play that they have been performing approximately once a month. This lost play was about the revenge of the De Montfort brothers upon the eponymous Henry; you can read more about it in the entry for 25th February.

        Harry of Cornwall continues to prove itself a play of merely average popularity. I wonder what causes the company to perform this play once a month, while they perform other 'average' plays, like Muly Molocco, almost every week?


        • Friday, 25th February - 33 shillings
        • Thursday, 23rd March - 13 shillings and sixpence (Holy Week)
        • Saturday, 29th April - 26 shillings
        • Saturday, 20th May - 31 shillings

        What's next?


        There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 21 May was a Sunday in 1592. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 22 May for a week that will include an enigmatic new play alongside the usual suspects...

        Henslowe links



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        Thursday 19 May 2016

        19 May, 1592 - Muly Molocco

        Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
        Henslowe writes: R at mvllomvloco the 17 of maye 1592 ... xxxvjs vjd 

        In modern English: Received at Muly Molocco, 19th May, 1592 ... 36 shillings and sixpence 

        1629 Portuguese illustration of the Battle of Alcazar
        Today, Lord Strange's Men returned again to Muly Molocco, after its popular performance on May Day two and a half weeks ago. This play was about Abd el-Malik's struggle for the throne of Morocco; you can read more about it in the blog entry for 21st February.

        The big Whitsuntide audiences that we have observed for the last few days seem to have ended, for Muly Molocco is back to its normal so-so box office.



        Monday, 21st February - 29 shillings
        Tuesday, 29th February - 34 shillings
        Friday, 17th March - 29 shillings
        Wednesday, 29th March - 62 shillings

        Saturday, 8th April - 23 shillings
        Monday, 17th April - 30 shillings
        Thursday, 27th April, 26 shillings
        Monday, 1st May, 58 shillings (May Day)
        Friday, 19th May, 36 shillings


        Henslowe links



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        Wednesday 18 May 2016

        18th May, 1592 - Sir John Mandeville

        Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
        Henslowe writes: R at mandevell the 16 of maye 1592 ... xxxxs

        In modern English: Received at Mandeville, 18th May, 1592 ... 40 shillings


        Mandevillian monster from
        the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
        The lively Whitsuntide festival continues! Today, Lord Strange's Men decided to revive their lost play about Sir John Mandeville. Although Mandeville is today most famous for his fantastical travel narratives, the most plausible theory is that this play was a chivalric and comic romance, in which Sir John won the hand of a fair lady above his station; you can read more about the play in the entry for 24th February.

        The impact of Whitsuntide is still being felt at the Rose; Sir John Mandeville had always received mediocre box office in the past, but today it succeeded in making 40 shillings - only a little above the average for the Rose, but much better than usual for this play. 



        Henslowe links




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        Tuesday 17 May 2016

        17th May, 1592 - Titus and Vespasian

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

        Henslowe writes: R at tittus & vespacia the 15 of maye 1592 ... iijll 

        In modern English: Received at Titus and Vespasian, 17th May, 1592 ... £3

        The Whitsuntide holidays continued today, and Lord Strange's Men revived Titus and Vespasian for their festive-minded audience. This lost play was probably a gruesome tale about the Roman siege of Jerusalem in the 1st century; you can read more about it in the entry for 11th April.

        Titus and Vespasian, once an exciting new play, had begun to wane in popularity of late. But today, boosted by the Whitsuntide holidays, it was firing on all four cylinders, achieving a very impressive 60 shillings. The actors must have loved this time of year, not only for the increase in earnings, but also for the increased energy in the theatre as they walked onstage to face an enormous crowd.

        Nicholas Poussin, The Destruction and Sack of the Temple at Jerusalem (1637)

        Henslowe links



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        Monday 16 May 2016

        16 May, 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 6 the 14 of maye 1592 ... ls

        In modern English: Received at Harry VI, 16th May, 1592 ... 50 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 VIyou can read more about it in the blog entry for 3rd March.

        The Whitsuntide holidays continued today and have succeeded in reviving the popularity of Harry VI, which had been receiving weak box office of late. Over-familiarity with the play may have been causing its audiences to wane, but at this festive time of year we can guess that the Rose was thronged with people who normally didn't have time to attend the theatre very often.

        • Friday, 3rd March - 75 shillings (premiere)
        • Tuesday, 7th March - 60 shillings
        • Saturday, 11th March - 47 shillings
        • Thursday, 16th March - 31 shillings
        • Tuesday, 28th March - 68 shillings (Easter Week)
        • Wednesday, 5th April - 41 shillings
        • Thursday, 13th April - 26 shillings
        • Friday, 21st April - 33 shillings
        • Thursday, 4th May - 56 shillings
        • Tuesday, 9th May - 22 shillings
        • Tuesday, 16th May - 50 shillings (Whitsuntide)


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        Sunday 15 May 2016

        15th May, 1592 - Hieronimo

        Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
        Henslowe writes: whittson tyde R at Jeronymo the 13 maye 1592 ... iijll 4s 

        In modern English: Whitsuntide. Received at Hieronimo, 15th May, 1592 ... 
        £3 and 4 shillings 


        Today was an exciting day for Philip Henslowe and Lord Strange's Men. It is the first day of Whitsuntide, a multi-day holiday celebrating the beginning of summer! Many Londoners would have free time and be in a festive mood, so there was the chance of bigger and livelier audiences. 


        Woodcut from the 1615 edition of The Spanish Tragedy.
        Sure enough, today's performance received splendid box office. The company chose to stage their old standard Hieronimo, which is almost certainly an alternate title for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. You can read more about this play in the entry for 14th March. The performance nearly filled the theatre, showing that the mad revenge of a grieving father could still draw large crowds.


        • Tuesday, 14th March - 71 shillings (performed the day after the Comedy)
        • Monday, 20th March - 38 shillings (performed as an individual play)
        • Friday, 31st March - 60 shillings (Easter Week; performed the day after the Comedy)
        • Friday, 7th April - 26 shillings (performed as an individual play)
        • Friday, 14th April - 33 shillings (performed as an individual play)
        • Monday, 24th April - 28 shillings (performed one working day after the Comedy, but with Sunday interrupting)
        • Tuesday, 2nd May - 34 shillings (performed as an individual play)
        • Thursday, 11th May - 26 shillings (performed as an individual play)
        • Monday, 15th May - 64 shillings (Whitsuntide; performed as an individual play)



          Henslowe links



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          Friday 13 May 2016

          13th May, 1592 - The Jew of Malta

          Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
          Henslowe writes: R at the Jewe of malta the 11 of maye 1592 ... xxxiiijs

          In modern English: Received at The Jew of Malta, 13th May, 1592 ... 34 shillings


          Caravaggio's portrait of the Grand
          Master of the Knights of Malta,
          1607-8.
          Today, Lord Strange's Men performed their satirical comic tragedy The Jew of Malta again. You can read more about this play in the blog entry for 26th February.

          Normally, the company has been performing The Jew of Malta approximately once every fortnight. However, today they revived it after only a week. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the result was the weakest box office that the play has received thus far. As with some of the previous entries, it's hard not to conclude that overly-frequent performances of plays caused their audiences to decline.


          • Saturday, 26th February - 50 shillings
          • Friday, 10th March - 56 shillings
          • Saturday, 18th March - 39 shillings
          • Tuesday, 4th April, 43 shillings
          • Tuesday,  18th April, 48 shillings and sixpence
          • Friday, 5th May, 41 shillings
          • Saturday, 13th May, 34 shillings


          What's next?


          There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 14th May was a Sunday in 1592. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 15th May.


            Henslowe links




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            Thursday 12 May 2016

            12 May, 1592 - The Second Part of Tamar Cam

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

            Henslowe writes: R at the 2 pte of tambercam ye 10 of maye 1592 ... xxxvijs

            In modern English: Received at The Second Part of Tamar Cam, 10th May, 1592 ... 37 shillings

            Today, Lord Strange's Men returned to the new play that they had debuted just under two weeks ago, The Second Part of Tamar Cam. This lost play was most likely about the Mongol conqueror Hulagu Khan and his conquest of the Middle East. You can read more about it in the blog entry for 28th April.

            It's surprising that the company waited so long before restaging their new play, and it's also surprising that it received such average box office on only its second performance. Was there something about this play that didn't work, for either the actors or the audience?

            Persian illustration of Hulagu Khan (the likely inspiration for Tamar Cam) and his Christian wife

            Henslowe links



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            Wednesday 11 May 2016

            11 May, 1592 - Hieronimo

            Here's what Lord Strange's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
            Henslowe writes: R at Jeronymo the 9 maye 1592 ... xxvjs 

            In modern English: Received at Hieronimo, 11th May, 1592 ... 26 shillings 


            Woodcut from the 1615 edition of The Spanish Tragedy.
            Today, Lord Strange's Men gave another performance of Hieronimo, which is almost certainly an alternate title for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, a play that they had previously performed just over a week ago. You can read more about this play in the entry for the 14th of March. Once again, the company performed it as a stand-alone play, rather than pairing it with its companion piece, The Spanish Comedy.

            The company is continuing its pattern of performing The Spanish Tragedy approximately once a week. Today's performance continued the fairly average box office that the play has been receiving of late. In previous posts, 
            I've pondered whether the The Spanish Tragedy may have been more popular when performed the day after The Spanish Comedy. The list below suggests that this may have been true, if you ignore the aberration on 24th April. I'm thus starting to think the company should have hired me as a consultant.


            • Tuesday, 14th March - 71 shillings (performed the day after the Comedy)
            • Monday, 20th March - 38 shillings (performed as an individual play)
            • Friday, 31st March - 60 shillings (Easter Week; performed the day after the Comedy)
            • Friday, 7th April - 26 shillings (performed as an individual play)
            • Friday, 14th April - 33 shillings (performed as an individual play)
            • Monday, 24th April - 28 shillings (performed one working day after the Comedy, but with Sunday interrupting)
            • Tuesday, 2nd May - 34 shillings (performed as an individual play)
            • Thursday, 11th May - 26 shillings (performed as an individual play)



              Henslowe links



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              Tuesday 10 May 2016

              10 May, 1592 - Titus and Vespasian

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

              Henslowe writes: R at tittus & vespacia the 8 of maye 1592 ... xxxs 

              In modern English: Received at Titus and Vespasian, 10th May, 1592 ... 30 shillings

              Today, Lord Strange's Men revived Titus and Vespasian. This lost play was probably a gruesome tale about the Roman siege of Jerusalem in the 1st century; you can read more about it in the entry for 11th April.

              Titus and Vespasian debuted a month ago, and had been taking impressive box office on its previous outings; clearly, the audience had been enjoying the novelty of this new play. But now, as is the way of all things, familiarity has made it just another average play.

              Nicholas Poussin, The Destruction and Sack of the Temple at Jerusalem (1637)

              Henslowe links



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