Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog!

This site preserves a 5-year project to present in blog format the day-by-day records of an Elizabethan theatre. From 2016 to 2021, I posted the daily entries from Philip Henslowe's lists of performances at the Rose playhouse, as recorded in his so-called 'Diary', from 1592 to 1597. The project introduced readers to dozens of plays, some of which are still performed today, some of which have been forgotten, and some of which are lost. 

The site now remains as a record of the blog, and I hope it will be useful for researchers who are studying these plays or the Diary. However, please note that the site is not peer-reviewed and may contain errors; it should be treated as a starting point for research, not as an end point. I will periodically update or correct the entries if I find new information.

Click here for an introduction to the project.

Click here for the very first entry if you want to read the whole thing! 

Other information can be found in the links on the right.

What follows is an alphabetical list of the first entries on each play mentioned in the Diary. I encourage use of the 'Further Reading' sections of each entry for the most accurate information.

Extant plays

• The Battle of Alcazar by George Peele (as "Muly Molocco" and/or "Mahomet")
• The Blind Beggar of Alexandria by George Chapman
• Captain Thomas Stukeley by Thomas Heywood
• Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester (as "William the Conqueror")
• Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
• Edmund Ironside (as "The Tanner of Denmark")
• Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay by Robert Greene (as "Friar Bacon") 
• George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield
• Henry VI, Part One by William Shakespeare and others (as "Harry VI")
• Hieronimo, First Part (as "The Spanish Comedy of Don Horatio")
• Old Fortunatus by Thomas Dekker (as "Fortunatus")
• A Humorous Day's Mirth by George Chapman (as "The Comedy of Humours")
• The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe
• John of Bordeaux (as "Friar Bacon")
• King Leir and his Three Daughters
• A Knack to Know a Knave
• A Knack to Know an Honest Man
• A Looking Glass for London and England by Robert Greene and Thomas Lodge
• The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe
• Orlando Furioso by Robert Greene
• The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd (as "Hieronimo")
• Tamburlaine, Part One by Christopher Marlowe
• Tamburlaine, Part Two by Christopher Marlowe
• The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
• Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare and George Peele

Lost plays

• Abraham and Lot
• Alexander and Lodowick
• Barnardo and Philametta
• Belin Dun
• Bindo and Ricciardo
• Bourbon
• Brandimer
• Buckingham
• Caesar and Pompey
• Caesar, Part Two
• Chinon of England
• Cloris and Ergasto
• Constantine
• Cosmo
• Crack Me this Nut
• Cutlack
• Diocletian
• Disguises
• Esther and Ahasuerus
• The Fair Maid of Italy
• Five Plays in One
• Fortunatus
• Frederick and Basilea
• A French Comedy
• The French Comedy
• The French Doctor
• Friar Francis
• Friar Splendleton
• Galfrido and Bernardo (hoax entry)
• Galiaso
• Godfrey of Bouillon
• God Speed the Plough
• The Grecian Comedy
• Guido
• The 'Ur-Hamlet'
• Hardicanute
• Harry I
• Harry of Cornwall
• Hengist
• Hercules, Part One
• Hercules, Part Two
• Huon of Bordeaux
• The Jealous Comedy
• Jerusalem
• Julian the Apostate
• King Lud
• Long Meg of Westminster
• Longshanks
• The Love of an English Lady
• Machiavel
• The Mack
• Mahamet
• Martin Schwartz
• The Merchant of Emden
• Muly Molocco
• Nebuchadnezzar
• The New World's Tragedy
• Olympio and Eugenio
• Osric
• Palamon and Arcite
• Paradox
• Philippo and Hippolito
• Phocas
• Pope Joan
• Pythagoras
• The Ranger's Comedy
• Richard the Confessor
• Seleo and Olympo
• The Set at Maw
• The Seven Days of the Week and The Second Week
• The Siege of London
• Sir John Mandeville
• Tamar Cam, Parts One and Two
• The Tanner of Denmark
• Tasso's Melancholy
• That Will Be Shall Be
• Time's Triumph and Fortune's
• The Tinker of Totnes
• Titus and Vespasian
• A Toy to Please Chaste Ladies
• Troy
• Uther Pendragon
• Vallia and Antony
• The Venetian Comedy
• Vortigern
• Warlamchester
• The Welshman
• William the Conqueror
• The Wise Man of West Chester
• The Witch of Islington
• A Woman Hard to Please
• The Wonder of a Woman
• Zenobia

Letters

• 2 May, 1593: Edward Alleyn to Joan Alleyn
• 5 July, 1593: Philip Henslowe to Edward Alleyn
• 1 August, 1593: Edward Alleyn to Joan Alleyn
• Early August, 1593: Philip Henslowe to Edward Alleyn
• 14 August, 1593: Philip Henslowe to Edward Alleyn
• 28 September, 1593: Philip Henslowe to Edward Alleyn

 

Acknowledgments

This blog has traced the performances at the Rose playhouse from 1592 to 1597. Until recently, it would have been almost impossible to write, because most of the plays recorded in the Diary are lost and information about them is often scarce and uncertain. It was made possible by the work of some amazing scholars, to whom I would like to say thank you. 

One of the most important aids was Martin Wiggins' magisterial catalogue British Drama, 1533-1642, the relevant volume of which was published in 2013. It includes a detailed entry on every play of the period, including the lost ones. The 'Wiggilogue' is an extraordinary achievement, and my copy of volume 3 is now thoroughly battered and coffee-stained. 

Another amazing resource is the Lost Plays Database, an online resource created by Roslyn L. Knutson, David McInnis and Matthew Steggle; this ongoing project is attempting to create a detailed encyclopedic entry on every lost play of the period. It's not yet complete - but be the change you want to see. 

Also invaluable has been the burgeoning field of 'repertory study', which investigates the careers of individual playing companies and treats their plays as a body of work, much as a more traditional study might group plays according to their author. In the early days of the blog, I was using Lawrence Manley's and Sally-Beth Maclean's Lord Strange's Men and their Plays (2014), and in the latter stages two books about the Admiral's Men: Andrew Gurr's Shakespeare's Opposites (2009) and Tom Rutter's Shakespeare and the Admiral's Men (2017). Laurie Johnson's Shakespeare's Lost Playhouse (2018) wasn't published at a time when I could use it, but it's a brilliant study of the period in which Henslowe's Diary records performances at the Newington Butts playhouse.

And of course, there are the scholars who have worked to understand and explicate the huge and baffling document that is Henslowe's Diary. The standard editions are R.A. Foakes's (2002) and the online facsimile at the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitization Project. But they were built on the foundations of work by Edmund Malone in the 18th century, the complicated John Payne Collier in the 19th, and W.W. Greg in the early 20th. I also found extremely useful Carol Rutter's Documents of the Rose Playhouse (1984) and Neil Carson's Companion to Henslowe's Diary (1988). 

There is much more to learn about this fascinating document, as you can see, and we owe a great debt to the work of these heroes of scholarship.

What won the Diary?

We have completed our journey through Philip Henslowe's diary of performances at the Rose playhouse! On the way, we have seen a great many plays rise and fall in popularity. So, which were the greatest triumphs?

Well, it depends on how you define success. But we can identify a number of winners. I'll begin by considering the entire sweep of the Diary, which began back in 1592 when Lord Strange's Men were the residents at the Rose, and ended in 1597 with the Admiral's Men. Looking at the big picture, we can see that the most-performed plays were as follows:

• The Jew of Malta (36 performances between 1592 and 1596). This satirical tragedy by Christopher Marlowe has survived and is still performed today.
• The Wise Man of West Chester (31 performances between 1594 and 1597). This anonymous play is probably lost, although it might be an alternative title for John a Kent and John a Cumber.
• Hieronimo (29 performances between 1592 and 1597). This is probably an alternative title for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, which is still performed today.
• Belin Dun (25 performances between 1594 and 1597). This lost play was about a villainous highwayman in medieval England.
• The Seven Days of the Week (24 performances between 1595 and 1596), although this may include some performances of its sequel. The subject of this lost play is unknown.
• The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (22 performances between 1596 and 1597). This comedy of disguise by George Chapman still survives in print. 
• A Knack to Know an Honest Man (21 performances between 1594 and 1596). This anonymous comic morality play still survives in print.

A Grand Master of the Knights of
Malta, by Caravaggio (1607-8)

To judge from this list, the most impressive play is The Jew of Malta, not only for the sheer number of performances but also for its staying power. And during its time, its popularity did not dwindle as much as others; while other plays by Marlowe, such as Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine, often received box offices that indicate tiny audiences, The Jew of Malta rarely did. It was a play that the company could usually count on in tough times. 

However, studying the entire run of the Diary can be unfair to some of the plays introduced later into the Rose repertory. For example, the 22 performances of The Blind Beggar of Alexandria are more impressive when one notices that they all took place in less than a year.

For this reason, it may be fairer to study the performances by just one company, the Admiral's Men, who began working at the Rose in 1594 and were still there when the Diary ended three years later. Luckily for me, Holger Syme has already crunched the numbers in his article "The Meaning of Success". And in Syme's list of the most popular Admiral's Men plays, The Jew of Malta does not even appear, because the number of performances dwindled in the last few years of the Diary.

A man, who might possibly be
wise, carved on the choir
stalls of Chester Cathedral

Instead, Syme identifies The Wise Man of West Chester as the top play of the Admiral's Men, with its 29 performances. But he also looks at other data, including the average box office per performance; measured that way, the winner is The Comedy of Humours (almost certainly another name for George Chapman's A Humorous Day's Mirth), which had only 13 performances over a single year but scored a remarkable 49 shilling average; as Syme says, "this may have been the most successful play the company ever staged, but since Henslowe's daily receipts break off in early November, 1597 ... we will never know" (510). 

However one looks at it, the most remarkable conclusion is that so many of these immensely popular plays are now either lost or forgotten. While there are some famous plays in there, it is startling to see the success of complete enigmas like The Seven Days of the Week and of hard-to-find and rarely staged plays like The Blind Beggar of Alexandria. Despite its vivid evocation of the workings of an Elizabethan playhouse, Henslowe's Diary reminds us of how little we really know about what people loved to see on the stage. 

Watch this space for some final thoughts!

FURTHER READING

• Holger Schott Syme, "The Meaning of Success: Stories of 1594 and its Aftermath", Shakespeare Quarterly 61.4 (2010), 506-10.

Comments?

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

Where are they now?

Edward Alleyn (portrait
of unknown date)

Henslowe's list of performances at the Rose may be over, but that does not mean that his story is done. He will continue to make Diary entries of different kinds, and he will support theatre for many more years.

So too will his son-in-law, the actor Edward Alleyn, who had played the lead roles in many performances recorded in the Diary. Alleyn seems to have retired from acting at around the same time Henslowe ceased to record the names of the plays performed at the Rose; it is almost as if Henslowe no longer cared once his son-in-law was no longer in them. The two men will continue their business partnership for the rest of their lives.

In 1599, a new rival will appear close to the Rose in their Bankside vicinity: the Globe theatre, built by the Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare's company. But by that time, Henslowe and Alleyn will already have decided to move to a new theatre north of the river: the Fortune playhouse in the suburb of Clerkenwell, completed in 1600. The Admiral's Men will perform there, albeit under different names, until 1631; they will sometimes revive old plays that we have seen in the Diary, such as Doctor Faustus. 

As for the Rose, it will cease to be used in the early 1600s and will ultimately be torn down. Its foundations, however, will survive to be rediscovered in the 1980s, and can now be visited thanks to the Rose Theatre Trust. 

Christ's Chapel of God's Gift, one of the original
buildings of Dulwich College

Henslowe will die in 1616 at the age of about 60, having apparently suffered from a stroke. Alleyn will live longer. Immensely rich, he will become concerned about his legacy. Having bought a manorial estate in the village of Dulwich, he will use his wealth to endow a charitable establishment there for 'poor scholars'; he will name it the College of God's Gift, but it will ultimately become known as Dulwich College, and will survive to the present day as a school, an almshouse, a chapel and a picture gallery.

Alleyn will bequeath many things to the College, including a chest containing old documents. Among those documents will be Henslowe's Diary, which will sit there quietly until scholars begin to investigate it in the late 18th century, and will remain there to this day. You can now study this amazing document from the comfort of your own home, thanks to the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitization Project. 

Stay tuned for some further reflections on the end of the Diary!

FURTHER READING

• R.A. Foakes (ed.), Henslowe's Diary, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press,. 2002), xv-xvi.
• S.P. Cerasano, "Henslowe, Philip (c. 1555–1616), theatre financier." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), accessed November 2021.
• Cerasano, S. P. "Alleyn, Edward (1566–1626), actor, theatre entrepreneur, and founder of Dulwich College." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), accessed November 2021.
• "The Henslowe-Alleyn Papers, Past, Present and Future", The Henslowe-Alleyn Digitization Project (2021), accessed November 2021. 

Comments?

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

5 November, 1597 - Friar Spendleton and the end of the Diary!

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

Henslowe writes: 5 | tt at fryer splendelton |  00 | 14

In modern English: 5^th [November, 1597] ... total at Friar Spendleton ... 14 shillings

Portrait of a Camaldulense
Friar by Moroni (1560s)

And so, with an under-attended performance of a lost play about which we know absolutely nothing, Henslowe's Diary comes to an end! That's all, folks.

It's an anticlimax, to be sure. But it's worth stressing that this isn't the end of the Diary as such; rather, it's simply the last entry in Henslowe's lists of named performances. Henslowe will continue to record box office information; however, he will no longer give the names of the plays, so the lists become less interesting: pure accountancy without any attention to what is happening on stage. (To be strictly accurate, two performances will inexplicably be named in 1599, but I decided not to trouble with them!)

No-one knows why Henslowe stopped naming the plays. But this shift in the Diary seems to correspond with the retirement of Edward Alleyn as actor, which must have felt like the end of an era.  

That, then, is the end of Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! But stay tuned, because over the next few days I will tell some tales about what happened next, and I will sum up the highs and lows of six years 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?

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

4 November, 1597 - A Humorous Day's Mirth

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

Henslowe writes: 4| tt at vmers... | 00 | 16

In modern English: 4^th [November, 1597] ... total at Humours ... 16 shillings

Today, the Admiral's Men revived their 

A classic image of a
melancholic, from
Robert Burton's Anatomy
of Melancholy (1622)

Comedy of Humours, which is almost certainly another name for George Chapman's A Humorous Day's Mirth. You can read more about this eccentric comedy in the entry for 11 May. 

A Humorous Day's Mirth  has been a stupendous success this year, but today's box office is less impressive, being no better than some of the other plays staged this week. Perhaps it is gradually becoming shopworn. 

This is the last recorded performance of A Humorous Day's Mirth, but that doesn't mean the company will never perform it again (the Diary will come to an end tomorrow, but the Rose performances will not).

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!

3 November, 1597 - Hardicanute

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

Henslowe writes: 3 | tt at knewtus | 00 | 10

In modern English: 3^rd [November, 1597] ... total at Canutus ... 10 shillings

Today, the players performed a play called

Hardicanute as depicted in the Genealogical
Roll of the Kings of England (14th century)

Canutus, which is most likely the same play as the Hardicanute staged recently. If so, it was about the young Danish prince who becomes a despotic king of England; you can read more about this play in the entry for 20 October. 

The introduction of Hardicanute to the Rose has not been a successful one; today's box office is very small. This is its last appearance in the Diary but that doesn't mean anything; the Diary will end soon but the Rose performances will not.

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!

2 November, 1597 - Bourbon

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

Henslowe writes: novembȝ 1597 | 2 |  burbon | 00 | 16

In modern English: 2^nd November, 1597 ... total at Bourbon ... 16 shillings

Today, the players performed a play that has not previously appeared in the Diary! Bourbon is yet another lost play, but its title indicates that it told a story from French history. Henslowe does not mark it as new, so it is probably an old play from the archives, or one brought to the Rose by the new arrivals, Pembroke's Men.

Charles III, Duke of Bourbon

In his catalogue of British drama, Martin Wiggins proposes that the likeliest subject was Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (1490-1527). Bourbon was a powerful feudal lord and a war hero, but Francis, the King of France, was wary of him and took steps to minimize his political power. Bourbon was infuriated when Francis prevented him from inheriting the estate of his own deceased wife and awarded it to the Queen Mother instead, who then rubbed salt in the wound by proposing that Bourbon marry her to get it back. 

Bourbon schemed with the Holy Roman Emperor and King Henry VIII of England to overthrow Francis, but the plot was discovered and he was forced to flee to Italy. He became a military leader for the Emperor, who was challenging the power of the Pope, and he led an international force against the Papal States in Italy. 

Bourbon's army ended up besieging Rome, and it was outside its walls that he died, allegedly shot by the sculptor Cellini. In the aftermath, Bourbon's army invaded the city. This resulted in the 1527 Sack of Rome, which caused a shift of European power away from the Pope and toward the Holy Roman Emperor.

Bourbon's story certainly has the makings of a typical Rose play. Being an enemy of both France and the Pope, it would be easy to portray Bourbon as a tragic hero whom an Protestant Englishman could admire, and sieges were always popular at the Rose. Perhaps Edward Alleyn took on the role of Bourbon and made it one of his classic bombastic heroes. 

All of this sounds exciting, but the theatreogers of London don't seem to agree; the audience today is unexceptional. 

FURTHER READING

Bourbon information

• Roslyn L. Knutson, "Burbon (i.e. Bourbon)", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed August, 2021. 
• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1076.

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!

31 October, 1597 - Friar Spendleton

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

Henslowe writes: octobȝ | 31 | ne | tt at fryer splendelton |  02 | 00

In modern English: October 31^st, [1597] ... total at Friar Spendleton ... £2 [i.e. 40 shillings]

Welcome back! After another mysterious gap in performances, the Rose is open for business again with a new play! But the end of the Diary approaches: Henslowe's box office records will cease, without fanfare or spectacle, on 5 November. Prepare a handkerchief.

Portrait of a Camaldulense
Friar by Moroni (1560s)

Today was the premiere of Friar Spendleton, a new play, now lost.  Unfortunately, there is nothing more we can say about it. No character of that name appears elsewhere, and it is thus impossible to know the story was about. Perhaps, given the attitudes of Protestant England, the friar was a figure of fun, or of evil. But who can say?

The box office is unimpressive for a premiere, suggesting that London's theatregoers are not very excited about plays about friars.

What's next?

There will be no entry tomorrow, for reasons unknown. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on 2 November. See you then!

FURTHER READING

Friar Spendleton information

• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1046.
• Christopher Matusiak and Roslyn L. Knutson, "Friar Spendleton", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed August 2021. 

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!

20 October, 1597 - Hardicanute and another short hiatus

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

Henslowe writes: tt at hardwute | 00 | 16

In modern English: [20^th October, 1597] ... total at Hardicanute ... 16 shillings

Today, the players performed a play we have not previously seen at the Rose!  The exact date of this performance is unclear, by the way; Henslowe does not identify the day, merely placing the entry between 19th and 31st October, so my choice of the 20th is merely a guess.

Henslowe calls this play Hardwute, which scholars have interpreted as a garbled form of Hardicanute, one of the Danish kings of England. They thus assume it to be the same play as the Canute that will appear in the Diary in a few days time. The play is now lost, but its title tells us something of its content. 

Henslowe does not mark Hardicanute as "new", so it may be an older play that has been resuscitated after a spell in the archives. One reason for its earlier absence from Henslowe's Diary may be that it belonged to Pembroke's Men, whose actors have recently begun to perform at the Rose. 

The play

Hardicanute as depicted in the Genealogical
Roll of the Kings of England (14th century)

'Hardicanute' is an anglicization of Harthacnut, the ill-fated son of Canute, a Danish Viking who ruled England in the early eleventh century. When Canute died, Hardicanute, still in his early twenties, became King of Denmark, but his half-brother Harold Harefoot assumed power in England. 

Hardicanute's mother, Queen Emma, was determined that he should be king of England, especially because Harold had murdered one of her sons by a previous husband. When Harold unexpectedly died, she and Hardicanute sailed for England and assumed power. 

But Hardicanute was a despotic ruler. He also became known as an oath-breaker when he had Earl Eadwulf of Bernicia assassinated after promising him safe conduct. There may then have been few tears when Hardicanute died after only two years on the throne, apparently as a result of drinking too much at a wedding, although poison has been suspected. 

Emma depicted in The Encomium
of Queen Emma (c. 1050)

Hardicanute was succeeded by his half-brother (another of Emma's sons), Edward the Confessor, who would reign far more successfully. 

The bare facts of Hardicanute's short reign do not suggest much of a story, but a talented dramatist could no doubt spin something interesting out of it. The youthful monarch who becomes a hated tyrant could have been an exciting role for an actor, and the role of the formidable Queen Emma could have been a striking one.

The below average box office does not, however, suggest that London's theatregoers are excited by the staging of Hardicanute. The players will need to rummage deeper in the archives!

What's next?

There will now be another unexplained hiatus in the entries, and Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will return on Hallowe'en. See you then!

FURTHER READING

Hardicanute information

• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1069.
• Roslyn L. Knutson, "Hardicanute (Canute)", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed August 2021. 

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!

13 October, 1597 - Doctor Faustus and a short hiatus

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

Henslowe writes: tt at docter fostes ... 0

In modern English: [13 October, 1597]  ... total at Doctor Faustus ... 0

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 this play in the entry for 2 October, 1594. But no box office figure is recorded, and Henslowe will list no more performances for a week.

Dr Faustus is one of the most famous plays of the English Renaissance, but its box office as recorded in Henslowe's Diary has generally been unremarkable. Although the zero in today's entry surely does not mean that no-one came at all (more likely it is an error of some kind), it is a sadly appropriate grave-marker for the play's last appearance in Henslowe's Diary.

That does not mean that this is the end of the line for Dr Faustus. There are records of it being performed in other playhouses decades later, and it will live on in the cultural memory (see here for examples). But for us, it's a rather awkward goodbye to a legend.

What's next?

For unknown reasons, no more performances are listed until 20 October. 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!

12 October, 1597 - A Humorous Day's Mirth

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

Henslowe writes: tt at the comodey of vmers... | 02 | 00

In modern English: [12 October, 1597] ... total at Comedy of Humours ... £2 [i.e. 40 shillings]

Today, the Admiral's Men revived their 

A classic image of a
melancholic, from
Robert Burton's Anatomy
of Melancholy (1622)

Comedy of Humours, which is almost certainly another name for George Chapman's A Humorous Day's Mirth. You can read more about this eccentric comedy in the entry for 11 May. 

A Humorous Day's Mirth  was the a smash hit of this year, and it makes sense for the company to return it swiftly to the stage. However, today's box office, though nothing to sneeze at, has not equaled the heights of its earlier popularity. 

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!

11 October, 1597 - Hieronimo and a new beginning

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

Henslowe writes: In the name of god amen the xj of octobe begane my lord admerals & my lord of penbrockes men to playe at my howse 1597

11 |  tt at Joroneymo | 02 | 00

In modern English: In the name of god, Amen; 11 October began my Lord Admiral's and my Lord of Pembroke's Men to play at my house, 1597 

11^th [October, 1597] ... total at Hieronimo ... £2

Welcome back! Today, the Rose playhouse has re-opened its doors after London's theatres were closed back in July. If you recall, the authorities had demanded that the playhouse cease performances until "Allhallowtide next", which would indicate the end of October, but the players have returned early, for reasons unknown.

As you can see from Henslowe's note at the top of today's entry, there are some changes at the Rose. The Admiral's Men, who have been performing here for many years, are now apparently joined by the Earl of Pembroke's Men. This is the company that had previously been performing at the Swan playhouse down the road, and whose production of the scandalous Isle of Dogs play may have been the cause of the shutdown of the theatres. Pembroke's Men were apparently no longer able to perform at the Swan, and it is not clear whether some of the members have merged with the Admiral's, or whether the two companies are remaining separate, perhaps taking turns at the Rose. 

Woodcut from the 1615 edition of The Spanish Tragedy.

To mark their return to the Rose, the players have revived Hieronimo, which is almost certainly an alternate title for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, a famous and much-loved old play about the revenge of a grieving father for his son's death. You can read more about it in the entry for 14th March, 1592. London's theatregoers seem surprisingly unexcited by the return of playing to the Bankside, however, with the theatre only about half full. 

This is the last performance of The Spanish Tragedy recorded in Henslowe's diary. The old classic is one of the most frequently-performed plays in the Diary, and has been seen 29 times since its first appearance five years ago (when it was already no spring chicken).  But a last entry in the Diary doesn't mean its stage life is over. We are now in the final batch of Henslowe's records of performances, and the end of this blog is thus nigh! I should warn you that the last entries are not a spectacular climax; they are puzzling and intermittent, with several hiatuses, and ultimately, they will fizzle out unceremoniously in mid-November. Don't say I didn't warn you.

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!

28 July, 1597 - The Witch of Islington, The Isle of Dogs, and the closure of the theatres

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

Henslowe writes: 28 | tt at the wiche of Jselyngton | 01 | 08

In modern English: 28^th [July, 1597] ... total at The Witch of Islington ... £1 and 8 shillings [i.e. 28 shillings]

London seen from Islington in 1665,
by Wenceslas Hollar

Today, the Admiral's Men performed The Witch of Islington, a mysterious lost play about which you can read more in the entry for 14 July. But Henslowe has something far more important to worry about: the government has ordered that the theatres of London be closed down and destroyed! 

We've seen closures before. At several points in the last few years the theatres have been shuttered in order to prevent the spread of plague, and more than once in response to riots and public unrest. Today's order is more extreme though. It's also mysterious, as the motivation is uncertain; however, circumstantial evidence suggests that a scandalous play at the Swan playhouse may have provoked a government crackdown on theatre. Let's look at what happened.

The closure of the theatres

The Privy Council in 1604. Detail
from The Somerset House Conference

Today, the Privy Council sent out a startling order to the justices of Middlesex. Instead of the usual demand that the theatres be closed for a specific reason, this one is more drastic. It begins by saying that the Queen has learned "that there are very great disorders committed in the common playhouses, both by lewd matters that are handled on the stages and by resort and confluence of bad people". It orders that "there be no more plays used in any public place within three miles of the City until Allhallowtide next" (that is, until the end of October).

But then it makes a far more extreme demand:

that you do send for the owners of the Curtain, Theatre, or any other common playhouse, and enjoin them by virtue hereof forthwith to pluck down quite the stages, galleries and rooms that are made for people to stand in, and so to deface the same as they may not be employed again to such use.

The theatre owners, in other words, must tear down and destroy their theatres. Although his own playhouse is not mentioned, Henslowe must be horrified. He could be looking at the end of his career as a theatre impresario. 

Spoiler alert: the theatres will indeed be closed until October, but they will not be destroyed. We don't know why, but we can at least explore one possible reason for this assault upon the players. 

The scandal of The Isle of Dogs

The most likely reason for the Privy Council's anger is that the players at the Swan playhouse, located close to Henslowe's Rose, performed a satirical play entitled The Isle of Dogs. Scholars have struggled to piece together the details because the evidence is fragmentary and because the forger John Payne Collier (whom we have met before) inserted fake references to the play into Henslowe's Diary. Once those are weeded out, we end up with the following information. 

On 10 August, Henslowe hired a new actor, contracting with him to begin performing as soon as the ongoing restraint on theatre is lifted. Henslowe mentions that the "restraint is by the means of playing The Isle of Dogs".

On the same day, a government inquisitor, Richard Topcliffe, wrote to the Secretary of State, Sir Robert Cecil, about an informant that he was working with, whom he describes as "the first man that discovered to me that seditious play called The Isle of Dogs", a play that was of "a venomous intent and a preparative to some far-fetched mischief". 

And on 15 August, the Privy Council wrote to Topcliffe that they had learned of "a lewd play that was played in one of the playhouses on the Bankside, containing very seditious and slanderous matter", and that they had thus "caused some of the players to be apprehended and committed to prison"; one of the players "was not only an actor but a maker of part of the said play". A different document reveals that the players in question were Gabriel Spencer, Robert Shaw and Ben Jonson, the latter of whom must have been the co-author as he was already a well-known playwright by 1597. 

The Council continued that Topcliffe must interrogate these men in order to find out "what is become of the rest of their fellows that either had their parts in the devising of that seditious matter or that were actors or players in the same, what copies they have given forth of the said play and to whom, and such other points as you shall think meet to be demanded of them". Decades later, William Drummond recorded the highlights of a conversation with Ben Jonson, who reminisced about his imprisonment, saying that "his judges could get nothing of him to all their demands but 'ay' and 'no'". 

The Council also ordered Topcliffe to examine "such papers as were found in Nashe's lodgings". This refers to another playwright, Thomas Nashe (whom we have earlier encountered as a possible co-author of The First Part of Henry VI), whose home had apparently been searched by the authorities. In 1599, Nashe wrote a book called Nashe's Lenten Stuff, which refers to "the strange turning of The Isle of Dogs from a comedy to a tragedy two summers past" and insists that he was an innocent party, having written only Act One : "the other four acts without my consent, or the least guess of my drift or scope, by the players were supplied, which bred both their trouble and mine too". It implies that he escaped to Great Yarmouth.

From these records, we can deduce that Jonson and Nashe wrote a play that was performed at the Swan and was perceived as seditious. It was reported to the authorities and the players ran away, save three who were captured and interrogated. The Isle of Dogs must have been quite a sensation, and there are many references to it in writings of the time. Unfortunately none of them tell us what the play was actually about (they seems to assume that their readers will know). The play's title refers to a swampy peninsula formed by a bend in the Thames east of London, but that is of no help in determining the subject matter. You can read various theories in Roslyn L. Knutson's article on the play for the Lost Plays Database.

Whatever The Isle of Dogs was about, it may have been the cause of today's closure of the theatres (although the two events may be unconnected). If it was the cause, Henslowe must be furious at the recklessness of his neighbours at the Swan. 

The Rose will thus be silent until October 11. See you then!

FURTHER READING

Information on The Isle of Dogs and the closure of the theatres

• Carol Chillington Rutter, Document of the Rose Playhouse (Manchester University Press, 1984), 113-18
• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1081.
• Roslyn L. Knutson and others, "Isle of Dogs, The", Lost Plays Database (2021), accessed July 2021. 

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!

27 July, 1597 - Five Plays in One

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

Henslowe writes: 27 | tt at v playes in one | 00 | 14

In modern English: 27^th [July, 1597] ... total at Five Plays in One .. 14 shillings

The number 5 in a
column of figures
in Henslowe's Diary

Welcome back! The Rose has been closed for a week, perhaps owing to the departure of actor Martin Slater, but performances have now restarted. 

For the re-opening, the Admiral's Men have revived their lost piece Five Plays in One, which was probably a collection of one-act plays, perhaps linked by a narrative device; you can read more about it in the entry for 7 April. This is the last appearance of Five Plays in One in the Diary.

Things may seem to be back to normal, but in fact the players are about to experience a nasty shock - tune in tomorrow to find out why! 

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!

19 July, 1597 - Hieronimo and a short hiatus

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

Henslowe writes: 19 | tt at Jeronemo ... | 01 | 00

In modern English: 19^th [July, 1597] ... total at Hieronimo ... £1 [i.e. 20 shillings]

Woodcut from the 1615 edition of The Spanish Tragedy.

Today, the Admiral's Men revived Hieronimo, which is almost certainly an alternate title for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, a famous and much-loved old play about the revenge of a grieving father for his son's death. You can read more about this play in the entry for 14th March, 1592.

Today's performance relatively good box office for the old play. However, it is all for naught. Tomorrow will begin a short pause in playing at the Rose, perhaps caused by the departure yesterday of actor Martin Slater. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 27th; 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!

18 July, 1597 - The Wise Man of West Chester and a departure

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

Henslowe writes:  

marten slather went for the company of my lord admeralles men the 18 July 1597 

18 | tt at wisman  | 01 | 10 

In modern English:

Martin Slater went for the company of my Lord Admiral's Men, 18 July, 1597 

18^th [July, 1597] ... total at Wise Man ... £1 and 10 shillings [i.e. 30 shillings]

A man, who might possibly be
wise, carved on the choir
stalls of Chester Cathedral

Today was an unusual day at the Rose, as we must say goodbye both to a play and to an actor.

On this day, the players performed The Wise Man of West Chester, a lost play that appears to have been about a wizard in the English city of Chester; you can read more about it in the entry for 3 December, 1594. But this is its final appearance in Henslowe's Diary after an extraordinary journey. With 32 performances in two and a half years, it is now the second most performed play in the Diary, beaten only by The Jew of Malta. The Wise Man of West Chester will probably return (the Diary will come to an end later this year, but the Rose performances will not), but for us, this is farewell to a lost icon of the stage. 

Curiously, Henslowe also notes that an actor has departed: Martin Slater "went for" the company, meaning that he left. We don't know much about Slater's role in the company up to this point, but he had belonged to it since at least 1594, and is mentioned in the surviving 'plot' of Frederick and Basilea. 

Slater appears to have taken with him some of the company's playbooks (that is, texts marked up for performance), because next year Henslowe will make notes in the Diary about trying to get them back. These playbooks include some retired plays - parts one and two of Hercules, Phocas, and Pythagoras - but also Alexander and Lodowick, which was on a stage only a few days ago.

It seems that Slater's departure absence is an unexpected problem, as there will soon be a hiatus in the company's output. Watch this space!

FURTHER READING

Martin Slater information

• Carol Chillington Rutter, Documents of the Rose Playhouse (Manchester University Press, 1984), 89, 106, 111, 141-3.
• Andrew Gurr, Shakespeare's Opposites (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 286

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!