13 April, 1596 - A Toy to Please Chaste Ladies

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 13 of ap^rell 1596 ... R at toye to please chaste ladeys ... xxxix^s 

In modern English: 13^th April, 1596 ... Received at Toy to Please Chaste Ladies ... 39 shillings

Two Women at a Window by Murillo (1655-60)

Today, the Admiral's Men returned to A Toy to Please Chaste Ladies, an enigmatic lost play; you can read more about it in the entry for 14 November.

Today is the second day of Easter Week, and the audience numbers are thus high, and indeed better than yesterday. They are not as high as the same holiday's audiences in previous years, however, and as with yesterday the problem may be the play: A Toy to Please Chaste Ladies has always been unpopular. It is odd that the players have chosen to open their new season with two unloved plays.

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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