Sunday 31 October 2021

31 October, 1597 - Friar Spendleton

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

Henslowe writes: octobȝ | 31 | ne | tt at fryer splendelton |  02 | 00

In modern English: October 31st, [1597] ... total at Friar Spendleton ... £2 [i.e. 40 shillings]


Welcome back! After another mysterious gap in performances, the Rose is open for business again with a new play! But the end of the Diary approaches: Henslowe's box office records will cease, without fanfare or spectacle, on 5 November. Prepare a handkerchief.

Portrait of a Camaldulense
Friar
by Moroni (1560s)
Today was the premiere of Friar Spendleton, a new play, now lost.  Unfortunately, there is nothing more we can say about it. No character of that name appears elsewhere, and it is thus impossible to know the story was about. Perhaps, given the attitudes of Protestant England, the friar was a figure of fun, or of evil. But who can say?

The box office is unimpressive for a premiere, suggesting that London's theatregoers are not very excited about plays about friars.

What's next?


There will be no entry tomorrow, for reasons unknown. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 2 November. See you then!


FURTHER READING


Friar Spendleton information

  • Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1046.
  • Christopher Matusiak and Roslyn L. Knutson, "Friar Spendleton", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed August 2021. 

Henslowe links


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Wednesday 20 October 2021

20 October, 1597 - Hardicanute and another short hiatus

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

Henslowe writes: tt at hardwute | 00 | 16

In modern English: [20th October, 1597] ... total at Hardicanute ... 16 shillings

Today, the players performed a play we have not previously seen at the Rose!  The exact date of this performance is unclear, by the way; Henslowe does not identify the day, merely placing the entry between 19th and 31st October, so my choice of the 20th is merely a guess.

Henslowe calls this play Hardwute, which scholars have interpreted as a garbled form of Hardicanute, one of the Danish kings of England. They thus assume it to be the same play as the Canute that will appear in the Diary in a few days time. The play is now lost, but its title tells us something of its content. 

Henslowe does not mark Hardicanute as "new", so it may be an older play that has been resuscitated after a spell in the archives. One reason for its earlier absence from Henslowe's Diary may be that it belonged to Pembroke's Men, whose actors have recently begun to perform at the Rose. 

The play


Hardicanute as depicted in the Genealogical
Roll of the Kings of England
(14th century)
'Hardicanute' is an anglicization of Harthacnut, the ill-fated son of Canute, a Danish Viking who ruled England in the early eleventh century. When Canute died, Hardicanute, still in his early twenties, became King of Denmark, but his half-brother Harold Harefoot assumed power in England. 

Hardicanute's mother, Queen Emma, was determined that he should be king of England, especially because Harold had murdered one of her sons by a previous husband. When Harold unexpectedly died, she and Hardicanute sailed for England and assumed power. 

But Hardicanute was a despotic ruler. He also became known as an oath-breaker when he had Earl Eadwulf of Bernicia assassinated after promising him safe conduct. There may then have been few tears when Hardicanute died after only two years on the throne, apparently as a result of drinking too much at a wedding, although poison has been suspected. 

Emma depicted in The Encomium
of Queen Emma
(c. 1050)
Hardicanute was succeeded by his half-brother (another of Emma's sons), Edward the Confessor, who would reign far more successfully. 

The bare facts of Hardicanute's short reign do not suggest much of a story, but a talented dramatist could no doubt spin something interesting out of it. The youthful monarch who becomes a hated tyrant could have been an exciting role for an actor, and the role of the formidable Queen Emma could have been a striking one.

The below average box office does not, however, suggest that London's theatregoers are excited by the staging of Hardicanute. The players will need to rummage deeper in the archives!


What's next?


There will now be another unexplained hiatus in the entries, and Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will return on Hallowe'en. See you then!



FURTHER READING


Hardicanute information


Henslowe links


Comments?


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Wednesday 13 October 2021

13 October, 1597 - Doctor Faustus and a short hiatus

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

Henslowe writes: tt at docter fostes ... 0

In modern English: [13 October, 1597]  ... total at Doctor Faustus ... 0

Faustus summoning Mephistopheles: from the
1616 text of the play 
Today, the Admiral's Men revived Dr Faustus, Christopher Marlowe's famous tragedy about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil. You can read more about this play in the entry for 2 October, 1594. But no box office figure is recorded, and Henslowe will list no more performances for a week.

Dr Faustus is one of the most famous plays of the English Renaissance, but its box office as recorded in Henslowe's Diary has generally been unremarkable. Although the zero in today's entry surely does not mean that no-one came at all (more likely it is an error of some kind), it is a sadly appropriate grave-marker for the play's last appearance in Henslowe's Diary.

That does not mean that this is the end of the line for Dr Faustus. There are records of it being performed in other playhouses decades later, and it will live on in the cultural memory (see here for examples). But for us, it's a rather awkward goodbye to a legend.


What's next?


For unknown reasons, no more performances are listed until 20 October. See you then!


Henslowe links



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Tuesday 12 October 2021

12 October, 1597 - A Humorous Day's Mirth

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

Henslowe writes: tt at the comodey of vmers... | 02 | 00

In modern English: [12 October, 1597] ... total at Comedy of Humours ... £2 [i.e. 40 shillings]

Today, the Admiral's Men revived their 
A classic image of a
melancholic, from
Robert Burton's Anatomy
of Melancholy (1622)
Comedy of Humours
, which is almost certainly another name for George Chapman's A Humorous Day's Mirth. You can read more about this eccentric comedy in the entry for 11 May

A Humorous Day's Mirth  was the a smash hit of this year, and it makes sense for the company to return it swiftly to the stage. However, today's box office, though nothing to sneeze at, has not equaled the heights of its earlier popularity. 

Henslowe links



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Monday 11 October 2021

11 October, 1597 - Hieronimo and a new beginning

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

Henslowe writes: In the name of god amen the xj of octobe begane my lord admerals & my lord of penbrockes men to playe at my howse 1597

11 |  tt at Joroneymo | 02 | 00


In modern English: In the name of god, Amen; 11 October began my Lord Admiral's and my Lord of Pembroke's Men to play at my house, 1597 
11th [October, 1597] ... total at Hieronimo ... £2

Welcome back! Today, the Rose playhouse has re-opened its doors after London's theatres were closed back in July. If you recall, the authorities had demanded that the playhouse cease performances until "Allhallowtide next", which would indicate the end of October, but the players have returned early, for reasons unknown.

As you can see from Henslowe's note at the top of today's entry, there are some changes at the Rose. The Admiral's Men, who have been performing here for many years, are now apparently joined by the Earl of Pembroke's Men. This is the company that had previously been performing at the Swan playhouse down the road, and whose production of the scandalous Isle of Dogs play may have been the cause of the shutdown of the theatres. Pembroke's Men were apparently no longer able to perform at the Swan, and it is not clear whether some of the members have merged with the Admiral's, or whether the two companies are remaining separate, perhaps taking turns at the Rose. 

Woodcut from the 1615 edition of The Spanish Tragedy.
To mark their return to the Rose, the players have revived Hieronimo, which is almost certainly an alternate title for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, a famous and much-loved old play about the revenge of a grieving father for his son's death. You can read more about it in the entry for 14th March, 1592. London's theatregoers seem surprisingly unexcited by the return of playing to the Bankside, however, with the theatre only about half full. 

This is the last performance of The Spanish Tragedy recorded in Henslowe's diary. The old classic is one of the most frequently-performed plays in the Diary, and has been seen 29 times since its first appearance five years ago (when it was already no spring chicken).  But a last entry in the Diary doesn't mean its stage life is over. We are now in the final batch of Henslowe's records of performances, and the end of this blog is thus nigh! I should warn you that the last entries are not a spectacular climax; they are puzzling and intermittent, with several hiatuses, and ultimately, they will fizzle out unceremoniously in mid-November. Don't say I didn't warn you.


Henslowe links


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