30 August, 1595 - The Siege of London

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 30 of aguste 1595 ... R at the seage of london ... xviij^s 

In modern English: 30^th August, 1595 ... Received at The Siege of London ... 18 shillings

Thomas Neville's siege of London, from a
1391 French manuscript

Today the Admiral's Men staged The Siege of London, an enigmatic lost play that might have portrayed the attacks on London by Canute in 1016 or by Thomas Neville in 1471. You can read more about this play in the entry for 27 December, 1594.

The players have reached far back into their archive, as they have not performed The Siege of London since March. But as so often this week, the box office is very poor; the people of London are unimpressed by most of the company's choices.

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 31 August was a Sunday in 1595 and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 1 September. 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!