25 January, 1593 - 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 the 25 of Jenewarye 1593 ... xxx^s 

In modern English: Received at Titus, 25^th January, 1593 ... 30 shillings

Today, Lord Strange's Men returned to Titus, which was presumably Titus and Vespasian, a popular fixture of their repertory. This lost play was mostly likely a gruesome and violent tale about the Roman siege of Jerusalem during the Jewish rebellion of the 1st Century; you can read more about it in the entry for 11th April.

The company has settled into a routine of performing Titus and Vespasian once every ten days or so. Today's performance was, like the last one, slightly under the average for the Rose. In other words, Titus has followed the same pattern as many of the others in this season: a strong first performance followed by a collapse into mediocrity.

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

FURTHER READING

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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