28 November, 1594 - Warlamchester

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

Henslowe writes: y^e  of 28 of novmbȝ 1594 ... R at warlamchester ... xxiij^s 

In modern English: 28^th November, 1594 ... Received at Warlamchester ... 23 shillings

Today, the Admiral's Men performed a lost play that has not appeared in the Diary before. It was apparently an old play that they were restoring to the stage. The title, Warlamchester, is the Anglo-Saxon name for the town that would later be renamed St Albans after the saint who was martyred there.

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th century
manuscript by Matthew Paris

It seems likely that Warlamchester told the story of the martyrdom of St Alban. In Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, the go-to history book for English dramatists, we learn that this event took place during the persecutions of Christians by the Roman emperors Dioclesian and Maximian.

(Now, here we must pause for thought. These persecutions were also the subject of another Rose play, Diocletian, which premiered only a few days ago. And that play received only two performances, the last being a few days ago. It is not completely impossible that Warlamchester is simply an alternative name for Diocletian. The possibility is tantalizing but unprovable, so let's just assume it's a different play.)

According to Holinshed, one of the persecuted Christians was "Alban, a citizen of Warlamchester", who would become the first Briton martyr. Alban had been "converted to the faith by the zealous Christian Amphibalus". When Roman soldiers came to arrest his teacher, Alban disguised himself as Amphibalus, and was tried and arrested in his place. And when he "refused to do sacrifice to the false gods, he was beheaded on the top of an hill over against the town of Warlamchester".

Shrine of St Alban in the Abbey

Holinshed notes some details that would have been interesting, if challenging, to stage. He writes that the executioner was suddenly converted to Christianity and refused to behead Alban. Someone else stepped forward to do the deed and struck Alban down, but the killer's "eyes fell out of his head down to the ground, together with the head of that holy man which he had then cut off".

Alban was not forgotten. Holinshed records that "afterwards was builded a church and monastery in remembrance of his martyrdom" and the town of Warlamchester "took name of him, and so is unto this day called Saint Albans".


As for the box office, Warlamchester did not draw a large crowd, whatever its subject may have been.

FURTHER READING

Warlamchester information

• Tom Rutter, "Warlamchester", Lost Plays Database (2013). 
• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 860.

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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