16 June, 1595 - Warlamchester

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 16 of June 1595 ... R at warlamchester ... xxv^s 

In modern English: 16^th June, 1595 ... Received at Warlamchester ... 25 shillings

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th century
manuscript by Matthew Paris

Today, for the last time, the Admiral's Men performed again their lost play Warlamchester, which was probably about the martyrdom of St Alban during the Roman persecutions of Christians in England.You can read more about this play in the entry for 28 November.

The company last performed Warlamchester a week and  half ago, when it received atrocious box office, but they have brought it back regardless, and this time it has drawn a much larger crowd. Perhaps Warlamchester could have made a comeback, but this is its last appearance in Henslowe's Diary. Its revivals have been infrequent and never very popular, so it was probably time to say farewell.

Meanwhile, the troubles in London are continuing. Yesterday, a huge crowd of nearly two thousand apprentices gathered outside the Lord Mayor's house to protest against the imprisonment of some of their cohort during the riots last week. They supposedly set up a gallows with the aim of hanging him. And today, it will later be claimed, a group of apprentices, soldiers and 'masterless men' (that is, unemployed people) met at St Paul's, where they plotted to behead the Mayor. A fearful atmosphere of violence and rumour is descending upon the city.

FURTHER READING

On the apprentice riots

• Carol Chillington Rutter, Documents of the Rose Playhouse (Manchester University Press, 1984), 92.
• M.J. Power, "London and the Control of the 'Crisis' of the 1590s", History 70 (1985), 379.
• "Rebellion by London apprentices in 1595", British Library - Discovering Literature: Shakespeare & Renaissance

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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30 May, 1595 - Warlamchester

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 30 of maye 1595 ... R at warlamchester ... ix^s 

In modern English: 30^th May, 1595 ... Received at Warlamchester ... 9 shillings

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th century
manuscript by Matthew Paris

Today, the Admiral's Men performed again their lost play Warlamchester, which was probably about the martyrdom of St Alban during the Roman persecutions of Christians in England.You can read more about this play in the entry for 28 November.

The company last performed Warlamchester three weeks ago. Previously, they had seemed to be trying to make it a frequently-performed play, but they are now easing up on it, and today's box office shows that they were right to do so: this is a catastrophically tiny audience.

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!

10 May, 1595 - Warlamchester

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 10 of maye 1595 ... R at warlam chester ... xxix^s 

In modern English: 10^th May, 1595 ... Received at Warlamchester ... 29 shillings

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th century
manuscript by Matthew Paris

Today, the Admiral's Men performed again their lost play Warlamchester, which was probably about the martyrdom of St Alban during the Roman persecutions of Christians.You can read more about this play in the entry for 28 November.

The company last performed Warlamchester a week and a half ago; they seem to be pushing to make it a regularly revived play, and it has held on to the same size of audience that it received last time.

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 11th May was a Sunday in 1595 and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 12th for a week that will include a surprise at the end.

 

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!

28 April, 1595 - Warlamchester

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 29 of ap^rell 1595 ... R at warlamchester ... xxix^s 

In modern English: [28^th] April, 1595 ... Received at Warlamchester ... 29 shillings

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th century
manuscript by Matthew Paris

Today, the Admiral's Men performed again their lost play Warlamchester, which was probably about the martyrdom of St Alban during the Roman persecutions of Christians.You can read more about this play in the entry for 28 November.

The company had performed Warlamchester three times at the end of last year. It had never been especially successful but they are now trying it out again. The Easter holidays are over, though, and the audience sizes have returned to the average for the Rose, which is a half-full theatre.

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!

12 December, 1594 - Warlamchester

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

Henslowe writes: y^e 12 of desembȝ 1594 ... R at warlamchester ... xv^s 

In modern English: 12^th December, 1594 ... Received at Warlamchester ... 15 shillings

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th century
manuscript by Matthew Paris

Today, the Admiral's Men performed again their lost play Warlamchester, which was probably about the martyrdom of St Alban during the Roman persecutions of Christians.You can read more about this play in the entry for 28 November.

The company last performed Warlamchester nearly two weeks ago. Today's performance is yet another marked drop in box office, in a week that has seen small audiences likely caused by the holy season of Advent. Even a play about a saint does not seem to have persuaded the punters to abandon their morals.

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!

30 November, 1594 - Warlamchester

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

Henslowe writes: y^e  of 30 of novmbȝ 1594 ... R at warlamchester ... xxxviij^s 

In modern English: 30^th November, 1594 ... Received at Warlamchester ... 38 shillings

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th century
manuscript by Matthew Paris

Today, the Admiral's Men performed again their lost play Warlamchester, which was probably about the martyrdom of St Alban during the Roman persecutions of Christians.You can read more about this play in the entry for 28 November.

The company brought this old play back to the stage only two days ago, so it is a great surprise to see it back again so soon. Perhaps the company got a good vibe from the small audience that had showed up, and wanted to try the play again as soon as possible; if so, they were right to do so, because today's box office is almost twice as good; word of mouth may have spread.

What's next?

There will be no blog entry tomorrow because 1 December was a Sunday in 1594 and the players did not perform. Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! will thus return on the 2nd, for a week that will include a new play!

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!

28 November, 1594 - Warlamchester

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

Henslowe writes: y^e  of 28 of novmbȝ 1594 ... R at warlamchester ... xxiij^s 

In modern English: 28^th November, 1594 ... Received at Warlamchester ... 23 shillings

Today, the Admiral's Men performed a lost play that has not appeared in the Diary before. It was apparently an old play that they were restoring to the stage. The title, Warlamchester, is the Anglo-Saxon name for the town that would later be renamed St Albans after the saint who was martyred there.

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th century
manuscript by Matthew Paris

It seems likely that Warlamchester told the story of the martyrdom of St Alban. In Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, the go-to history book for English dramatists, we learn that this event took place during the persecutions of Christians by the Roman emperors Dioclesian and Maximian.

(Now, here we must pause for thought. These persecutions were also the subject of another Rose play, Diocletian, which premiered only a few days ago. And that play received only two performances, the last being a few days ago. It is not completely impossible that Warlamchester is simply an alternative name for Diocletian. The possibility is tantalizing but unprovable, so let's just assume it's a different play.)

According to Holinshed, one of the persecuted Christians was "Alban, a citizen of Warlamchester", who would become the first Briton martyr. Alban had been "converted to the faith by the zealous Christian Amphibalus". When Roman soldiers came to arrest his teacher, Alban disguised himself as Amphibalus, and was tried and arrested in his place. And when he "refused to do sacrifice to the false gods, he was beheaded on the top of an hill over against the town of Warlamchester".

Shrine of St Alban in the Abbey

Holinshed notes some details that would have been interesting, if challenging, to stage. He writes that the executioner was suddenly converted to Christianity and refused to behead Alban. Someone else stepped forward to do the deed and struck Alban down, but the killer's "eyes fell out of his head down to the ground, together with the head of that holy man which he had then cut off".

Alban was not forgotten. Holinshed records that "afterwards was builded a church and monastery in remembrance of his martyrdom" and the town of Warlamchester "took name of him, and so is unto this day called Saint Albans".


As for the box office, Warlamchester did not draw a large crowd, whatever its subject may have been.

FURTHER READING

Warlamchester information

• Tom Rutter, "Warlamchester", Lost Plays Database (2013). 
• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 860.

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!