Henslowe writes: ye 9 of novmbȝ 1596 ... R at the frenshe docter ... xiiijs
In modern English: 9th November, 1596 ... Received at The French Doctor ... 14 shillings
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| A French Physician by Matthew Darly, 1771 |
The French Doctor first appeared in the Diary two years ago, and may already have been an old play. In the past year, it has become a puzzling entity, often attracting very small audiences and yet still being revived, often with several months going by between individual performances. Today is the Diary's very last recording of a performance, but five years from now the company will expend money on buying the text from the actor Edward Alleyn, who seems to have owned it.
As Roslyn L. Knutson writes in her article for the Lost Plays Database, there must have been something valuable about The French Doctor despite its unimpressive box office. She suggests that its virtue may have been "playability" - that is, there was something about the play that made it easy for actors to perform even after an interval of several months between a performance.
But now, we must say farewell to The French Doctor and start wondering what new plays the company will create to replace it...
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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