15 November, 1594 - Belin Dun

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 15 of novmbȝ 1594 ... R at bellendon ...  xij^s

In modern English: 15^th November, 1594 ... Received at Belin Dun ... 12 shillings

A highwayman portrayed in Richard

Head's The English Rogue (1666)

Today, for what will be the last time for a while, the Admiral's Men performed Belin Dun, their lost play about the notorious robber who terrorized the highways around Dunstable during the reign of King Henry I; you can read more about this play in the entry for 10 June.

This will be Belin Dun's last performance for a long time: it will not return to the Rose for many months. The play was introduced back in June, and became one of the most popular plays at the Rose, being performed very frequently and to reliably solid box office. But gradually, as with all these plays, it has become stale with repetition, and after seventeen performances the actors have decided to let it rest for a while.

Below is a graph showing the fortunes of Belin Dun since its first performance at the Rose. It shows how reliable the play was for a long time, before nosediving quite recently.

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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