15 September, 1595 - Tamburlaine

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 15 of septmbȝ 1595 ... R at j pte of tamberlen ... xxj^s 

In modern English: 15^th September, 1595 ... Received at First Part of Tamburlaine ... 21 shillings.

Illustration of the historical Tamburlaine
from Richard Knolles' General History
of the Turks (1603).

Today, the players performed the first part of Tamburlaine, Christopher Marlowe's spectacular epic about the bloodthirsty conqueror of Asia. You can read more about this play in the entry for 30th August.

There have been enormous gaps between the last few performances of Tamburlaine, and the same is true of today's - this is the first time the company has performed it in London since May. And as before, the play continues to disappoint, attracting only smallish audiences that don't echo its epic scale.

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)

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