4 July, 1597 - Frederick and Basilea

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

Henslowe writes:  4 | tt at fredericke & baselia ... | 01 | 00

In modern English: 4^th [July, 1597] ... total at Frederick and Basilea ... £1 [i.e. 20 shillings]

Detail from The Reception of the Ambassadors
in Damascus (anonymous, 1511)

Today, for the last known time, the Admiral's Men revived Frederick and Basilea, a lost play that survives only as a 'plot': a list of entrances used to help the actors keep on track. You can read more about this play in the entry for 3 June.

The company has waited two and a half weeks to stage Frederick and Basilia a fourth time. The box office is a bit higher than last time, but this is the play's last appearance in Henslowe's Diary. That doesn't necessarily mean they will never perform it again (the Diary will come to an end later this year, but the Rose performances will not). But its prospects have never looked promising. 

 

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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