23 May, 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: 23 | tt at v playes in one | 01 | 00

In modern English: 23^rd [May, 1597] ... total at Five Plays in One ... £1 [i.e. 20 shillings]

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

Today, the Admiral's Men 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. 

The company seems to be following a rule of performing Five Plays in One every ten days or so. The box office has this time risen from awful to adequate; the play's fortunes seem hard to predict. 

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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