14 December, 1594 - The Set at Maw

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 14 of desembȝ 1594 ... ne ... R at the mawe ... xxxxiiij^s 

In modern English:14^th December, 1594 ... New ... Received at The Maw ... 44 shillings

Today, the Admiral's Men performed a new play! Henslowe calls it The Maw, but in later entries he will refer to it as The Set at Maw. This is a clue to the play's subject matter, for Maw is a card game.

The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs by Georges de la Tour (1620s)

The game of Maw is an older version of a  game known today as Twenty-Five. But why would anyone write a play about a card game? Could the title refer only to the most memorable scene of a play about cardsharps and gamblers in general?

Or could it be that the play instead used the rules of Maw as the basis for a tale in which the characters are based on playing cards? In his catalogue of British drama, Martin Wiggins highlights some characteristics of Maw that could make for an entertaining plot. For example, in Maw, the knave can trump the king and queen. The Five of Trumps, meanwhile, is known as the 'Five Finger', and is the strongest card in the pack, defeating the knave. It is thus possible to imagine a play in which characters murdered and cheated one another in ways that were amusingly referential to Maw.

Whatever its nature, The Set at Maw received a very promising box office -  though small for a premiere, it is excellent for this particular time of year, when Londoners appear to be staying away from the theatre for religious reasons.

What's next?

There will be no blog entries for the next two days, as Henslowe records no performances on those dates. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 17 December for a week that will include the return of another Christopher Marlowe classic. See you then!

FURTHER READING

The Set at Maw information

 

• David Parlett, "Maw: The Five-Fingered Gaelic Game", Historic Card Games (2018)
• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 976.

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!