27 September, 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 25 of septmbȝ 1594 ... R at the masacar... xiiij^s

In modern English: [27^th] September, 1594 ... Received at The Massacre ... 14 shillings  

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

Today, the Admiral's Men revived for one last time Christopher Marlowe's tragedy about the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 16th-century Paris; you can read more about this play in the entry for 26 January, 1593.

And so, farewell to The Massacre at Paris! We first met this play as a brand new drama more than a year and a half ago, and we have seen ten more performances of it since. But the play has slowly but surely faded from popularity as the audience wearied of it. Ironically enough, Marlowe's older plays, Dr Faustus and Tamburlaine have surged back to the stage in triumph, but today's wretched box office is no indication of a future rebound for the Massacre, and the Admiral's Men appear to have decided that enough is enough.

This is not in fact the end for Marlowe's play, though. In 1601, Henslowe will record payments to "the little tailor", for making costumes for a revival. And fortunately for us, the playtext has survived so that we can still read and perform it today.

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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