13 January, 1596 - 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 13 of Jenewary 1595 ... R at the sege of london ... xv^s 

In modern English: 13^th January, [1596] ... Received at The Siege of London ... 15 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.

This is strange. The players have finally revived The Siege of London after a long hiatus since September. It has not attracted a large audience, and it will not be seen at the Rose again until June. It seems that the players are experimenting with returning it to the regular repertory today, but will decide that it's not worth the effort.

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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