25 July, 1596 - closed until October 27

The Privy Council in 1604. Detail
from The Somerset House Conference

On this day, 424 years ago, the Rose playhouse was forced to close for several months. The Privy Council of England was concerned about the return of the plague that had devastated London a couple of years previously. On 22nd July, they ordered an end to the performing of plays, as a way of preventing large gatherings of people.

As I write today in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced theatres to close around the world, the words of the Privy Council in 1596 sound as though they could have been written yesterday:

Letters to the justices of Middlesex and Surrey to restrain the players from showing or using any plays or interludes in the places usual about the City of London, for that by drawing of much people together increase of sickness is feared.

As they had so often done before, the Admiral's Men stayed in business by laving London and undergoing an epic tour of England; places they may have visited during this period include Coventry, Ipswich, Oxford, Bath, and Dunwich. They returned to the Rose in October. 

This blog will thus be on hiatus until 27 October. When we return, look forward to a new season featuring many new plays! See you then!

FURTHER READING

Theatre closure information

• Carol Chillington Rutter, Documents of the Rose Playhouse (Manchester University Press, 1984), 104.

Touring information

• Andrew Gurr, Shakespeare's Opposites (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 290.

Comments?

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