27 January, 1593 - Sir John Mandeville

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

Henslowe writes: R at mandevell the 31 of Jenewary 1593 ... xiij^s

In modern English: Received at Mandeville, 27^th January, 1593 ... 13 shillings

Mandevillian monster from

the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)

Today, Lord Strange's Men revived Sir John Mandeville, a play that is now lost. Although Mandeville is today most famous for his fantastical travel narratives, scholars think this play was most likely a chivalric and comic romance, in which Sir John won the hand of a fair lady above his station. You can read more about it in the entry for 24th February, 1592.

Mandeville is simply not hitting the spot for the Rose audience and it continues to earn dismal box office. The company appear to have experimented with leaving it unperformed for a couple of weeks to drum up enthusiasm, but has had almost no effect on the box office, which remains in the doldrums. I remain baffled as to why the company keeps on performing this 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?

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