21 January, 1594 - Friar Francis

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

Henslowe writes: R at ffrier ffrances the 20 of Jenewarye 1593 ... xxx^s 

In modern English: Received at Friar Francis, 21^st January, 1594 ... 30 shillings

Image from Hans Holbein's
Dance of Death (1538)

Henslowe has started to muddle his dates again; he'll be out of sync for the rest of this week.

Anyway, today, Sussex's Men today revived their lost play Friar Francis, a play that had become legendary for having provoked a real-life murderess in Norfolk into confessing her crime. The play was about a woman who murdered her husband and was haunted by his ghost, and it may included another plotline about two friars fighting over a pretty nun. You can read more about this play in the entry for 7th January.

Friar Francis was last performed only a week ago. Although it continues to receive only average box office, it seems to be more reliably average than some of the other plays in Sussex's repertory, so it could be turning into one of their stalwarts. 

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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