20 June, 1595 - Vallia and Anthony

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 20 of June ... R at antony & vallea ... xx^s 

In modern English: 20^th June ... Received at Antony and Vallia ... 20 shillings.

Portrait of an unknown couple by Lavinia
Fontana (1580s)

Today, the Admiral's Men returned, after a very long time, to the extremely puzzling play that is usually rendered Vallia and Antony or Antony and Vallia. This play is lost and we have no idea what it was about, since no known story has characters of these names in prominent roles. You can read more about the play in the entry for 4 January, 1595.

It is very strange that the company revived this old play back in January and then ignored it until June. The box office is unremarkable, suggesting that the experiment was not a success.

In other news, the authorities in London have begun a crackdown to enforce the rule of law following this week's riots. The number of watches has been doubled, masters have been ordered to control their apprentices, and officers have been sent to look out for 'loose persons' disguised as soldiers, and to round up 'masterless men'. As we will see, this is soon to have an impact on the Rose playhouse.

FURTHER READING

On the apprentice riots

• Carol Chillington Rutter, Documents of the Rose Playhouse (Manchester University Press, 1984), 92.
• M.J. Power, "London and the Control of the 'Crisis' of the 1590s", History 70 (1985), 379.
• "Rebellion by London apprentices in 1595", British Library - Discovering Literature: Shakespeare & Renaissance

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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