Wednesday 22 May 2019

22 May, 1595 - The Second Part of Tamburlaine

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

Henslowe writes: ye 22 of maye 1595 ... R at 2 pt of tamberlen ... xxvs

In modern English: 22nd May, 1595 ... Received at Second Part of Tamburlaine ... 25 shillings

The mausoleum of Timur (or Tamburlaine)
in Samarkand
Today, the Admiral's Men performed the sequel to Tamburlaine, in which the conqueror of Asia meets his inevitable doom; you can read more about this play in the entry for 19th December, 1594.

As is their usual habit, the company is performing the two Tamburlaine plays as a pair on subsequent days. And as is almost always the case, the second part has received a slightly larger audience.

Henslowe links



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2 comments:

  1. Sarah22 May 2019 at 20:27

    Hi Dr. Nicol! I was wondering if you have any speculation as to why the second part of Tamburlaine draws (slightly) larger audiences than the first part. Also, how would audiences have known which play was to appear each day, and how far in advance would they have known? (Please excuse me if you have already answered these questions and I couldn't find the answers). -- Sarah Deller (PS: Thank you for the awesome blog. I really look forward to it every day).

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  2. David Nicol23 May 2019 at 08:59

    Hi Sarah, thanks for the nice words!!

    I don't know, because Tamburlaine 1 feels like a better-constructed play to me, but I wonder if it's because people prefer plays with proper endings? Tamburlaine 1 ends with "terrifying amoral warlord successfully conquers half of Asia", whereas Tamburlaine 2 portrays his death; maybe people preferred that. I just noticed that the final episode of 'Game of Thrones' received the show's highest viewing figures ever, which implies that a lot of people's first episode was the ending. Maybe endings are pleasurable.

    They used to put up "playbills", i.e. posters, around town. They also used to announce tomorrow's play at the end of today's performance. So you didn't get much notice and things could change. There's a description from the 1610s of a visit to a playhouse; the actors announce tomorrow's play at the end, but the audience is angry and demands another play instead. https://books.google.ca/books?id=y82YJ1P5gksC&pg=PA415&lpg=PA415&dq=venetian+ambassador+%22frati,+frati%22&source=bl&ots=6wRYiGZR_m&sig=ACfU3U2AhYqQvK7d2dd5oE2RJLOS2rsntw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKh8zNzLHiAhWs1lkKHbi5C70Q6AEwCXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=venetian%20ambassador%20%22frati%2C%20frati%22&f=false

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