26 June, 1595 - The Second Part of Caesar

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 26 of June 1595 ... R at the 2 pte of seaser ... xx^s 

In modern English: 26^th June, 1595 ... Received at The Second Part of Caesar ... 20 shillings.

Mark Antony displaying
the body of Caesar, from
Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition
of Shakespeare

Today, the Admiral's Men followed up their performance of The First Part of Caesar yesterday with their new Second Part, which probably told of the assassination of Julius Caesar. You can read more about this play in the entry for 18 June.

But this is a disaster. The decision to turn the company's old Caesar play into a two-parter has attracted only a small audience. A huge amount of effort has won the company very little. They must be very disappointed.

Indeed, they will never perform either play again. But one reason may be an interruption that will begin tomorrow, when performances at the Rose will come to an unexpected halt. Tune in tomorrow to find out why!

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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