27 January, 1597 - A Woman Hard to Please

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

Henslowe writes: 27 | ne | tt at womane hard to please ... | 2 | 11 

In modern English: 27^th [January, 1597] ... new ... total at Woman Hard to Please ... £2 and 11 shillings [i.e. 51 shillings]

Today, the Admiral's Men staged a new play! Unfortunately, A Woman Hard to Please is yet another lost play about which we know nothing.

A woman looks deeply unimpressed by her
rescuer in Paolo Uccello's St George and
the Dragon (c.1470)

With only the title available to us, it is difficult to speculate on what happened in this play, although perhaps the eponymous woman was pleased at the end in some kind of comic resolution.  

We may be reminded that not too long ago, the Admiral's Men were performing A Toy to Please Chaste Ladies. Despite its title, that play typically received very poor box office and thus seems to have pleased no-one, chaste ladies or otherwise; it has not been seen since November. One cannot help wondering whether the title of today's play is some kind of riposte. 

As for the actors, they will not be entirely pleased with the response to this play, as the Rose is busy but not full.

FURTHER READING

A Woman Hard to Please information

• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1056
• Roslyn L. Knutson, "Woman Hard to Please, A", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed January, 2021

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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