23 July, 1596 - Phocas

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 17 of July 1596 ... R at focas ... xxix^s

In modern English: [23^rd] July, 1596 ... Received at Phocas ... 29 shillings

Phocas depicted in Richard
Rainoldes' Chronicle of all the
Noble Emperors of the Romans (1571)

Today, for the last time, the Admiral's Men returned to Phocas, their tragedy about an army officer who became Byzantine emperor and ruled as a tyrant. You can read more about this play in the entry for 20 May.

Phocas is yet another casualty of a week that has seen the last recorded performances of several plays. It premiered only a month ago, and has received seven performances since then, none of which were notably unsuccessful. But for whatever reason, the company will decide not to revive it when they return after the impending closure of the Rose. 

Five plays have existed the repertory in the past fortnight. Just for fun, here's a graph illustrating their respective journeys; you can see their popularity rise and fall.  

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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