1 November, 1594 - A Knack to Know an Honest Man

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 1 of novembȝ 1594 ... R at the knacke to know & onest man  ... iij^ll iij^s

In modern English: 1^st November, 1594 ... Received at The Knack to Know an Honest Man ... £3 and 3 shillings

Two  Young Venetian Men (anon., 1515)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived A Knack to Know an Honest Man, their comical moral romance set in Venice. You can read more about this play in the entry for 23rd October.

What a surprise! We suddenly have an unexpected hit on our hands! A Knack to Know an Honest Man received a very disappointing premiere a week and a half ago, but its second performance was unexpectedly better. And today's performance has resulted in a full house!

The likely reason is that today was All Saints' Day, a public holiday that would have enabled more Londoners than usual to attend the theatre. Even so, this is an impressive turnaround for the Knack.

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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