8 February, 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: Shrove tewesday | 8 | tt at womon hard to please ... | 01 | 09 

In modern English: Shrove Tuesday ... 8^th [February, 1597] ... total at Woman Hard to Please ... £1 and 9 shillings [i.e. 29 shillings]

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

Today was Shrove Tuesday, a time for gluttony and merry-making before Lent! On this special day, the the Admiral's Men have revived their enigmatic lost play, A Woman Hard to Please. You can read more  this play in the entry for 27 January.

Shrove Tuesday does not always have an impact on box office and today is just an average result for this particular play. But that's OK, because the company is performing one of their success stories, A Woman Hard to Please. This is the fifth time they have staged this play in only eleven days, an almost unheard-of level of confidence. And the results are strong: the play continues to attract audiences filling half the theatre, which is again rare during the current season. 

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)

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