14 June, 1594 - Titus Andronicus

Here's what the Admiral's Men and/or the Chamberlain's Men performed at the Newington Butts playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...

Henslowe writes: y^e 12 of June 1594 ... R at andronicous ... vij^s

In modern English: 14^th June, 1594 ... Received at Andronicus ... 7 shillings.

Titus and Lavinia kill Tamora's sons: illustration
from the Pepys Collection's copy of a ballad
of Titus Andronicus (1680s)

Today, the players at Newington Butts revived again Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's violent tragedy about a cycle of vengeance in ancient Rome. You can read more about this play in the entry for 24 January.

The companies have waited only a week before reviving Titus, suggesting that they see it as a good bet. But the box office is lower than last time, and indeed among the lower of the receipts at this season at Newington. Titus may not be the crowd-puller that they had hoped.

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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