17 October, 1594 - Palamon and Arcite

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 16 of octobȝ 1594 ... R at palaman & arset ... xxvij^s 

In modern English: [17^th] October, 1594 ... Received at Palamon and Arcite ... 27 shillings

Emily watched by the prisoners from their cell
window; from a 15th-century manuscript of
Boccaccio's Teseida

Today, the company revived Palamon and Arcite, an adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer's "Knight's Tale", in which two noble kinsmen become rivals for the hand of a fair maiden. You can read more about this play in the entry for 18th September.

Something is wrong about Palamon and Arcite. Its premiere back in mid-September received surprisingly low box office. Now, the players have waited a month before returning it to the stage, and this second performance has drawn only an average-sized audience. It seems that for whatever reason, this play has been misfiring from the outset.

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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