29 June, 1594 - Cutlack

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 27 of June 1594 ... R at cvttlacke ... xxxvj^s

In modern English: [29^th] June, 1594 ... Received at Cutlack ... 36 shillings.

Illustration of Belinus (or Brennius, it's not clear)
from Holinshed's Chronicles (1577)

Today is St Peter's Day, a special day in the church calendar. The Admiral's Men have revived Cutlack, their play about the eponymous Danish king and his intervention in the civil war between the British kings Brennius and Belinus. You can read more about this play in the entry for 16 May, 1594.

The company last performed Cutlack only three days ago, when it had attracted a fairly small  audience. Today's performance produced a bigger audience, of an average size for the Rose; perhaps the festive occasion has helped. Although Cutlack is not breaking any records, it is doing well for a such a frequently-staged play.

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 30 June was a Sunday in 1594. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 1 July for a week that will see the Admiral's Men start to settle into a groove.

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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