6 January, 1595 - Greenwich Palace

Today was the Feast of Epiphany, one of the most important festivals in the Elizabethan church year, and the last of the twelve days of Christmas (hence it's also being known as Twelfth Night). It was traditional for the Queen and her court to see a play on this occasion, and this year it was the Admirals' Men who were invited to perform. The evidence is not in Henslowe's Diary but rather in a record of payment to the actors in the accounts of the Lord Chamberlain:

To Edward Alleyn, Richard Jones and John Singer, servants to the Lord Admiral, upon the Council warrant dated at Whitehall 15 March, 1594, for three several comedies or interludes showed by them before Her Majesty in Christmastime last past, viz: the 28th December, on New Year's Day, and Twelfth Day, 22 shillings and by way of Her Majesty reward £10 in all.

We do not know which play the company performed performed to the Queen, but we do know that the show took place in the Great Chamber at Greenwich Palace.

19th-century illustration of the possible appearance of Greenwich Palace.

Greenwich Palace, located on the banks of the Thames, sadly no longer stands: it was demolished in the 1660s and the Old Royal Naval College now stands on its site. We can therefore only imagine the spectacle of seeing the players perform in the great hall of a royal palace. You can read more about the experience of a court performance this in the entry on Lord Strange's Men performing at Hampton Court in 1592.

FURTHER READING

• David Cook and F.P. Wilson, eds., 'Dramatic Records in the Declared Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, 1558-1642', Malone Society Collections (Oxford University Press, 1962), 28-9
• R. Chris Hassell, Jr., Renaissance Drama and the English Church Year (University of Nebraska Press, 1979), 77-93
• John Astington, English Court Theatre, 1558-1642 (Cambridge University Press, 1999)