21 December, 1596 - Nebuchadnezzar

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 22 of desembȝ 1596 ... R at nabucadonizer ... xxvj^s 

In modern English: [21^st] December, 1596 ... Received at Nebuchadnezzar ... 26 shillings

Nebuchadnezzar's dream
of the tree, from
Speculum Humanae
Salvationis, a 15th-
century French manuscript

Today, the Admiral's Men performed Nebuchadnezzar, their Biblical drama about the Babylonian king whose dreams were interpreted by the prophet Daniel. You can read more about this play in the entry for 18 December. 

This is the second performance of Nebuchadnezzar, which premiered three days ago. After its very disappointing premiere before a half-full theatre, today's box office shows that word of mouth has not improved matters: the audience is smaller today. 

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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