26 June, 1596 - Crack Me This Nut

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 23 of June 1596 ...  R at cracke me this nvtt ... xij^s

In modern English: [26^th] June, 1596 ...  Received at Crack Me This Nut ... 12 shillings

Dessert Still Life by Georg Flegel (1566-1638)

Today, for the last time, the Admiral's Men returned to Crack Me This Nut. We know nothing about the content of this lost play, but you can read more about it in the entry for 5th September, 1595.

This is the final recorded performance of Crack Me This Nut in Henslowe's records of performance. The play premiered 10 months ago, in September, 1595, and has appeared onstage 16 times. It has never been one of the company's biggest hits, but neither has it been notably unpopular. At this point, however, with a fairly sparse audience after a much bigger one a fortnight ago, the company seems to have decided to call it a day.

This isn't the end for Crack Me This Nut, however. Five years from now, in 1601, Henslowe will record paying a tailor for buckram (a kind of stiff cloth) to make a new costume for the play, so the company must have been planning a revival. Those nuts still needed cracking!

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 27th June was a Sunday in 1596 and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 28th June for a week that will include a new play. See you then!

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?

Did I make a mistake? Do you have a question? Have you anything to add? Please post a comment below!