2 January, 1594 - George a Greene

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

Henslowe writes: R at gorge a greene the 2 of Jenewarye 1593 ... xviij^s 

In modern English: Received at George a Greene, 2^nd January, 1593 ... 18 shillings

Fighting with staves, from a German fighting
manual published by Christian Egenolff

Today, Sussex's Men revived George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield. This is a festive comedy in which the eponymous northern folk hero supports the king, wins the hand of a fair maid, and beats several opponents in fights with staves. You can read more about this play in the entry for 28 December.

After the enormous success of George a Greene's first performance at the Rose last week, today's box office must have come as an great disappointment, being about a third of the size. Perhaps Londoners hadn't been very amused by George's story. Or perhaps, as the Christmas holiday season was drawing to an end, people simply had less time for fun at the theatre.

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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