27 October, 1596 - Chinon of England

Welcome back to this ongoing blog in which we are following the records of the performances of the Admiral's Men at the Rose playhouse, as recorded in the diary of Philip Henslowe!

As I write this in 2020, the coronavirus continues to cause lockdowns around the world. Similar things have been happening in London in 1596; back in July, the Rose was forced to close in order to prevent the spread of plague and in the intervening months, the Admiral's Men have been touring their plays around England. These appear to have been hard times for the company, as in the month of October, Henslowe records lending lots of money to them.

But now, things are looking up. The restrictions have been lifted and the company is back at their base in  London to entertain the city folk once again. Hurrah!

Here's Henslowe's diary entry for today:

Henslowe writes: y^e 27 of octobȝ 1596 ... R at chynon ... lij^s

In modern English: 27^th October, 1596 ... Received at Chinon ... 52 shillings

 

The Knights of the Round
Table, from the Compilation
arthurienne de Micheau
Gonnot (1470)

The entry tell us that today, the Admiral's Men revived Chinon of England, their lost Arthurian drama about a fool who becomes a knight. You can read more about this play in the entry for 3 January. 

The box office today is excellent, but it probably has nothing to do with the specific play, as Chinon's popularity is wildly unpredictable. It likely has a lot more to do with the excitement of London's theatregoers, who have been starved of entertainment over the last few months.

Further reading

• Carol Chillington Rutter, Documents of the Rose Playhouse (Manchester University Press, 1984), 105-8.

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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