20 December, 1594 - Doctor Faustus

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 20 of desembȝ  1594 ... R at docter fostes ... xviij^s 

In modern English: 20^th December, 1594 ... Received at Dr Faustus ... 18 shillings

Faustus summoning Mephistopheles: from the
1616 text of the play 

Today, the Admiral's Men staged Christopher Marlowe's famous tragedy Dr Faustus, in which a scholar summons a demon and sells his soul to the devil. You can read more about this play in the entry for 2 October.

This has been a week of nothing but Marlowe at the Rose, although admittedly, the players have not been performing every day. Dr Faustus continues to disappoint though, lacking the boost that Tamburlaine received from the return of its sequel (a sequel to Faustus is less easy to imagine...)


What's next? 

There will be no blog entries for a few days - Henslowe's Diary suggests that the players took some time off, perhaps to relax before the busy Christmas season. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on Boxing Day for some festive frivolities. See you then!

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?

Did I make a mistake? Do you have a question? Have you anything to add? Please post a comment below!