24 January, 1593 - A Knack to Know a Knave

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

Henslowe writes: R at the knacke the 24 of Jenewarye 1593 ... xxxiiij^s

In modern English: Received at The Knack, 24^th January, 1593 ... 34 shillings

The knaves from an Italian
pack of cards, c.1490

Today, Lord Strange's Men revived A Knack to Know a Knave, their comical morality play; you can read more about it in the entry for 10th June.

A Knack to Know a Knave has not been very popular so far with London's crowds. Today's performance was a bit more successful, rising to the level of merely average and indicating a half-full theatre (or perhaps a half-empty one, if you're that kind of person).

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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