11 January, 1595 - 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 11 of Jenewary 15945 ... R at tasso ... xx^s 

In modern English: 11^th January, 1595 ... Received at Tasso ... 20 shillings

Tasso in the Madhouse
by Eugene Delacroix (1839)

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

Today's box office for Tasso's Melancholy is not very impressive, but it's far better than the dismal audiences that it drew a moth ago, during the lean times of Advent.

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow, because 12th January was a Sunday in 1595 and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 13th, for a week that will include some surprises. 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!