9 February, 1597 - Hieronimo

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

Henslowe writes: 9 | tt at Joronymo ... | 00 | 17

In modern English: 9^th [February, 1597] ... total at Hieronimo ... 17 shillings 

Woodcut from the 1615 edition of The Spanish Tragedy.

It's Ash Wednesday, a public holiday and the traditional beginning of the forty days of Lent. On this day, the Admiral's Men 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 this play in the entry for 14th March, 1592.

For the past two years, Ash Wednesday performances have attracted very large crowds to the Rose. But not this year; The Spanish Tragedy is doing worse than it did last week. This is a very flat holiday season for the Admiral's Men. 

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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