13 September, 1594 - Tamburlaine

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 12 of septmbȝ  1594 ... R at tamberlen ... xxxxv^s 

In modern English: [13^th] September, 1594 ... Received at Tamburlaine ... 45 shillings.

Illustration of the historical Tamburlaine
from Richard Knolles' General History
of the Turks (1603).

Today, the players performed Tamburlaine, Christopher Marlowe's spectacular epic about the bloodthirsty conqueror of Asia. You can read more about this play in the entry for 30th August.

After its extremely successful return to the stage at the end of August, it is surprising that the Admiral's Men have waited two weeks before performing it again. I wonder whether this enormous play, with its huge number of characters, its action set-pieces and its intense costume demands, may have had some teething troubles that needed ironing out?

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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