8 May, 1595 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 8 of maye 1595 ... R at the venesyon comodye ... xxx^s 

In modern English: 8^th May, 1595 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 30 shillings

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, for the last time, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about it in the entry for 27 August.

The Venetian Comedy was first performed back in August of last year. The company performed it eleven times in total, but it rarely attracted large audiences. They seem to have decided after today that it was time for retirement.

For the sake of interest, here's a graph charting the play's fortunes over time (excluding today).

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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25 February, 1595 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 25 of febreary 1594 ... R at the venesyan comodey ... xx^s 

In modern English: 25^th February, 1595 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 20 shillings

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about it in the entry for 27 August.

The players have waited a fortnight to revive The Venetian Comedy. The box office keeps on being unimpressive, though never disastrously so.

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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10 February, 1595 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 10 of febreary 1594 ... R at the venesyan ... xx^s 

In modern English: 10^th February, 1595 ... Received at The Venetian ... 20 shillings

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about it in the entry for 27 August.

The players have not performed this play for two and a half months, but today they have decided to revive it. The box office remains unimpressive, however, as it has done almost every time the players have performed this comedy.

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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26 November, 1594 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 26 of novmbȝ 1594 ... R at the venecyon comodey ... xiij^s 

In modern English: 26^th November, 1594 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 13 shillings

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about it in the entry for 27 August.

The players have waited only a fortnight before restaging The Venetian Comedy - after leaving it an entire month last time - but the renewed confidence was misplaced, as hardly anyone has shown up for it today.

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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11 November, 1594 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 11 of novembȝ 1594 ... R at the venesyon comodey ... xxj^s 

In modern English: 11^th November, 1594 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 21 shillings

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about it in the entry for 27 August.

It's been a month since the players last performed The Venetian Comedy, which had been struggling last time we saw it. Today's box office is better, but not enormously so.

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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12 October, 1594 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 11 of octobȝ 1594 ... R at the venesyon comodey ... xvj^s 

In modern English: [12^th] October, 1594 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 16 shillings

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about it in the entry for 27 August.

The players have whisked The Venetian Comedy back to the stage after only a week, despite its poor showing on its last outing. Today the box office is worse. Whatever they're trying to do is not working.

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow, as 13th October was a Sunday in 1594, and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 14th for a week that will include a new play. See you then!

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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4 October, 1594 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 3 of octobȝ 1594 ... R at the venesyon comodey ... xvij^s 

In modern English: [4^th] October, 1594 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 17 shillings

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about this play in the entry for 27 August.

This is the fifth performance of The Venetian Comedy and its box office has already sunk to disastrous levels. One must assume that it was not funny in the slightest.

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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24 September, 1594 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 22 of septmbȝ 1594 ... R at the venesyon comodey ... xxv^s 

In modern English: [24^th] September, 1594 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 25 shillings

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about this play in the entry for 27 August.

After only four peformances, The Venetian Comedy is already declining rapidly in its box office, plunging to below average levels.

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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16 September, 1594 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 15 of septmbȝ 1594 ... R at the venesyon comodey ... xxxvj^s vj^d

In modern English: [16^th] September, 1594 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 36 shillings and sixpence

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived The Venetian Comedy, a play about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about this play in the entry for 27 August.

The Venetian Comedy continues to attract solid rather than remarkable audiences, despite having been staged only three times now. While it is doing better than most of the older plays in the repertory, it is not doing as well as most new plays have done.

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!

5 September, 1594 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 7 5 of septmbȝ 1594 ... R at the venesyon comodey ... xxxvj^s vj^d

In modern English: 5^th September, 1594 ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 36 shillings and sixpence

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived the play that they had premiered last week, The Venetian Comedy, about which we know nothing beyond its title. You can read more about this play in the entry for 27 August.

The Venetian Comedy had attracted a surprisingly small crowd to its debut performance last week, and today's follow-up performance must have been equally disappointing for the players. It received merely an average-sized audience, a very inauspicious sign for its future. It represents a marked contrast with the recently debuted play, Tasso's Melancholy, which has continued to pull large audiences for its second and third performances. The Admiral's Men must have their doubts about this one.

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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27 August, 1594 - The Venetian Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 25 of aguste 1594 ... ne ... R at the venesyon comodey ... l^s vj^d

In modern English: [27^th] August, 1594 ... New ... Received at The Venetian Comedy ... 50 shillings and sixpence

Today, the company performed a new play! Unfortunately, it is now lost, and it possessed a title so utterly generic that it's impossible to piece together anything about it.

The Quack Doctor by Pietro Longhi (late
18th century)

Comedies set in Venice are plentiful in English Renaissance drama, and indeed the city, with its labyrinthine geography and the tendency of its citizens to wear masks at any opportunity, is almost designed to produce farcical comedy.

But the Venetian setting doesn't help us to pin down the plot of this play. Back in 1592, you might recall, we saw a Venetian comedy entitled Bindo and Ricciardo which had a plot so bizarre that even the wildest scholar could never have imagined it. We will just have to shrug and accept that some things can never be known.

Whatever its plot, The Venetian Comedy has begun its career poorly. 50 shillings is a very disappointing result for a brand new play. Perhaps the generic title failed to drum up sufficient excitement?

FURTHER READING

Venetian Comedy information

• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 964.

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!