26 May, 1596 - Fortunatus

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 24 of maye 15956 ... R at ffortunatus ... xiiij^s 

In modern English: [26^th] May, 1596 ... Received at Fortunatus ... 14 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.

The players have waited two weeks to revive Fortunatus, and the box office continues to decline gradually.

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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