14 June, 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 14 of June 1596 ... R at sege of london ... xxx^s 

In modern English: 14^th June, 1596 ... Received at Siege of London ... 30 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 yet another peculiar reappearance of The Siege of London. The company staged it last September, ignored it until January, and then ignored it again until now. Perhaps they are experimenting to test its appeal. Today's performance is much more successful than the last two. Will it return to the normal repertory?

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)

Comments?

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