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!