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: [20^th 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

• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1069.
• Roslyn L. Knutson, "Hardicanute (Canute)", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed August 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?

Did I make a mistake? Do you have a question? Have you anything to add? Please post a comment below!