17 February, 1595 - Tamburlaine

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 17 of febreye 1594 ... R at tamberlen ... xxx^s 

In modern English: 17^th February, 1595 ... Received at Tamburlaine ... 30 shillings.

Illustration of the historical Tamburlaine
from Richard Knolles' General History
of the Turks (1603).

Today, the players performed Tamburlaine, Christopher Marlowe's spectacular epic about the bloodthirsty conqueror of Asia. You can read more about this play in the entry for 30th August.

The players have waited two and a half weeks before returning Tamburlaine to the Rose, and it has received exactly the same - very average - box office. I am sure the historical Tamburlaine is rolling in his grave about that last point.

Incidentally, over the next few days, you can watch Henslowe experimenting with new ways to spell 'February'.

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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