7 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 5 of June, 1594 ... R at andronicous ... xij^s

In modern English: 7^th June, 1594 ... Received at Andronicus ... 12 shillings.

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

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

Following on from yesterday's performance of The Jew of Malta, the companies appear to be cracking out the popular hits from Rose last year. But as in the previous days, we cannot be sure how many, or how few, audience members showed up to see Shakespeare's cavalcade of gore.

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!