26 December, 1594 - The Grecian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 25 of desembȝ 1594 _{S steven} ... R at the greasyane comody ... xxxxvj^s 

In modern English: [26^th] December, 1594, St Stephen's ... Received at The Grecian Comedy ... 46 shillings

The Love of Helen and Paris
by Jacques-Louis David (1789)

Merry Christmas! Today is St Stephen's Day, which in Elizabethan times was regarded as the second day of Christmas (the equivalent of our Boxing Day). And today, the players at Henslowe's Rose returned to work!

The play they chose was The Grecian Comedy. We know nothing about this play beyond its title, although Henslowe sometimes calls it The Grecian Lady, which adds a tiny bit more information; you can read more about it in the entry for 5 October.

After the sparse audiences of the Advent period, Christmas is a time for theatre. You can see this in today's box office: The Grecian Comedy, normally a play that could barely attract a crowd, has instead drawn an audience far above the average for the Rose. The actors must be delighted.

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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