16 December, 1596 - Doctor Faustus

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 17 of desembȝ 1596 ... R at docterfostes ... ix^s

In modern English: [16^th] December, 1596 ... Received at Doctor Faustus ... 9 shillings

Faustus summoning Mephistopheles: from the
1616 text of the play 

Today, the Admiral's Men revived Dr Faustus, Christopher Marlowe's famous tragedy about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil. You can read more about it in the entry for 2 October, 1594.

Dr Faustus was last seen at the Rose a month and a half ago. The company is continue to revive this old classic, but one cannot help suspecting that they are doing so only for sentimental reasons; today's box office is dreadful. 

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow because Henslowe records no performance, for unknown reasons. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 18th, when there will be a bit of mild excitement at the Rose.

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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