10 December, 1594 - The Jew of Malta

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 9 of desembȝ  1594 ... R at the Jew ... iij^s  

In modern English: [10^th] December, 1594 ... Received at The Jew ... 3 shillings

Caravaggio's portrait of the Grand

Master of the Knights of Malta,

1607-8.

Today, the players once again performed The Jew of Malta, Christopher Marlowe's satirical comic tragedy; you can read more about this play in the blog entry for 26th February 1592.

It has been six weeks since the players last dragged out the sad and unloved Jew of Malta, which had once been the most popular play at the Rose but is now barely able to attract anyone at all to the playhouse. Today's box office is the lowest recorded for any play thus far in Henslowe's Diary, even worse than the previous record-holder, The Grecian Comedy, a few days ago.

It must have been embarrassing for the players to perform this former blockbuster to a few dozen people. It is no surprise then to learn that the company will cease performing it for a year following this outing. But The Jew of Malta cannot be kept down, and you can expect to see it return before the Diary is ended.

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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