18 April, 1597 - A French Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: 18 | ne | tt at a frenshe comedie ...  | 02 | 00

In modern English: 18^th [April, 1597] | New | Total at A French Comedy |  £2 [i.e. 40 shillings]

Antoine Watteau, Actors of the
Comédie-Française (1710s)

Today, the Admiral's Men premiered a new play! But A French Comedy is unfortunately lost. Confusingly enough, it has (almost) the same title as The French Comedy, a play that the company performed a few times back in 1595. I assume that this is a different play, as Henslowe marks it "ne" for "new".

As with the previous lost French comedy, we do not know what the content of this one was. No doubt it mocked the French, but in what way?

The play's debut is inauspicious, with an audience much smaller than what might be expected for a premiere.

FURTHER READING

A French Comedy information

• Andrew Gurr, Shakespeare's Opposites: The Admiral's Company, 1594-1625 (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 228.
• Rosyln L. Knutson, "French Comedy, A", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed April, 2021. 
• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1066.

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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