3 September, 1594 - Tasso's Melancholy

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 3 of septmbȝ 1594 ... R at Tasso ... xxxxvj^s 

In modern English: 3^rd September, 1594 ... Received at Tasso ... 46 shillings

Tasso in the Madhouse
by Eugene Delacroix (1839)

Today, the Admiral's Men returned to Tasso's Melancholy. This lost play dramatized the lovesick insanity of the Italian poet Torquato Tasso; you can read more about it in the entry for 13th August.

Tasso's Melancholy is proving a great success: it has followed its popular premiere with two well-attended subsequent performances. If this lost play was indeed an attempt at capturing the audience who loved The Spanish Tragedy and the ur-Hamlet, it seems to have worked.

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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