21 June, 1594 - The Massacre at Paris

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 19 of June 1594 ... R at the Gwies ... liiij^s

In modern English: 21^st June, 1594 ... Received at The Guise ... 54 shillings.

Henri, Duke of Guise, the villain of the play. 

Well, here's a blast from the past! Today, the Admiral's Men performed The Guise, which was presumably the same Tragedy of the Guise that Lord Strange's Men had performed at the Rose back in January of last year.

This play was written by Christopher Marlowe and survives today under the title The Massacre at Paris. It tells the story of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 16th century Paris, and focuses on the plotting of the evil Duke of Guise, hence its alternative name. You can read more about it in the entry for 26 January, 1593.

Lord Strange's Men had been able to perform this play only once in London before the theatres were closed due to plague.  Since then, that company had disbanded and its star, Edward Alleyn, had joined the Admiral's Men. Presumably it was Alleyn who took the text of the play with him to his new company. He must have recognized its potential from its solitary performance.

The Guise received very good box office, representing an almost full theatre. The company may have been hoping that it would prove as big a hit as their other Marlowe play, The Jew of Malta.

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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