10 February, 1596 - Fortunatus

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 10 of febreary 1595 ... R at forteunatus ... xxxx^s 

In modern English: 10^th February, [1596] ... Received at Fortunatus ... 40 shillings

Fortunatus receives the magic purse from
Lady Fortune (from the 1509 novel)

Today, the Admiral's Men revived Fortunatus, which was probably the first of a two-part play, and was the precursor of Thomas Dekker's Old Fortunatus; it told the story of a man who miraculously acquires infinite wealth. You can read more about it in the entry for 3rd February.

When Henslowe first recorded this play last week, he called it The First Part of Fortunatus, but now he just calls it Fortunatus, and no second part will ever be mentioned in his Diary. The players have brought the play back to the Rose swiftly, and  is has received comfortably high box office, suggesting that returning this old play to the stage was a good idea.

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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