14 January, 1594 - Friar Francis

Here's what the Earl of Sussex's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...

Henslowe writes: R at frier frances the 14 of Jenewary 1593 ... xxxvj^s 

In modern English: Received at Friar Francis, 14^th January, 1594 ... 36 shillings

Image from Hans Holbein's
Dance of Death (1538)

Today, Sussex's Men revived their lost play Friar Francis, which had become legendary for having provoked a real-life murderess in Norfolk to confess her crime. The play was about a woman haunted by the ghost of the husband that she had murdered, and it may have included another plotline about two friars fighting over a pretty nun. You can read more about this play in the entry for 7 January.

Friar Francis played to a packed house when it was staged last week. Today's house was merely average for the Rose, but it was a huge step up from the catastrophic box office that had befallen the two plays staged previously.

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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