17 January, 1593 - Friar Bacon

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

Henslowe writes: R at frer bacon the 17 of Jenewary 1593 ... xx^s

In modern English: Received at Friar Bacon, 17^th January, 1593 ... 20 shillings

From the title page of a prose tale of Friar Bacon, 1629,
which was re-used for the 1630 edition of the play.

Today, Lord Strange's Men revived their magical fantasy about the wizard Friar Bacon. This play may have been Robert Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, or it may have been the anonymous John of Bordeaux; you can read more about it in the entry for 19th February, 1592.

The company had previously performed Friar Bacon only a week ago, had it had underachieved at the box office. Today, it was even less popular. The play had never been successful even in the previous season, and it's still hard to understand why the company keeps reviving it.

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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