26 October, 1594 - Galiaso

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 25 of octobȝ 1594 ... R at galleaso ... xj^s  

In modern English: [26^th] October, 1594 ... Received at Galiaso ... 11 shillings

A Spanish galleass, one possible subject of this
play. From Ships Through the Ages by Frederick
Leonard King (1934)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived for the last time their their lost play Galiaso. We do not know what this play was about, as its title could refer to many historical and fictional figures, or even to a kind of ship. You can read more about it in the entry for 28 June.

Today, we say farewell to another play. Galiaso was introduced at the end of June and has lasted four months, but received only nine performances in that time. The players seem not to have had much faith in it, and today's wretched box office is probably what led them to kill it off. We will never know what this play was about.

Just for fun, here's a graph comparing Galiaso with Philippo and Hippolito, which opened and closed at at a similar time. It's interesting to see how Galiaso starts and ends more popular than Philippo, but the latter gets more performances.

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow, because 27 October was a Sunday in 1594 and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 28 October. See you then!

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!