16 July, 1597 - A French Comedy

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

Henslowe writes: 16 | tt at frenshe comodey ...  | 00 | 09

In modern English: 16^th [July, 1597] ... total at French Comedy ... 9 shillings

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

Today, for the last time on record, the Admiral's Men performed A French Comedy, a lost play. You can read more about this play in the entry for 18 April.

The company has waited a fortnight to revive A French Comedy and today's audience is once again tiny. And after eleven performances, this is the final appearance of the play in Henslowe's Diary. That doesn't necessarily mean the company will never perform it again (the Diary will come to an end later this year, but the Rose performances will not). But the play's box office has rarely been notable, and there are no records of any later revivals.

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 17th July was a Sunday in 1597 and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 18th, but for a week that will be abruptly truncated.

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!

v