from Alleyn at £2 each, Mahomet in August, The Wise Man of West Chester in September, Vortigern in November, and The French Doctor, The Massacre at Paris, and Crack Me this Nut in January. The first and the last three of these certainly were played, and the revival of The Massacre at Paris appears to have caused annoyance to Henri IV.[1] In addition, properties were bought for one of the Hercules plays in December, Dekker got 10s. for a prologue and epilogue to Pontius Pilate[2] in January, and Jonson wrote additions to The Spanish Tragedy, possibly those now extant, in September, although it may be doubted whether the further additions contemplated in the following June were ever made. There is nothing to show what was selected, other than Nick's tumbling, for the Admiral's only Court play of 1601-2, which took place on 27 December.
The season of 1602-3 was, of course, shortened by the death of Elizabeth and the outbreak of plague. The new plays numbered nine. They were:
Samson (Anon.).
Felmelanco (Chettle and Robinson).
Joshua (Rowley).
Randal Earl of Chester (Middleton).
Merry as May Be (Day, Hathway, and Smith).
The Set at Tennis (Munday).
1 The London Florentine (Chettle and Heywood).
Singer's Voluntary (Singer).
The Boss of Billingsgate (Day, Hathway, and another).[3]
It must be added that in September properties were bought for a 'new playe' called The Earl of Hertford, which it seems impossible to identify with any of the pieces bought. This looks like one of the rare cases in which payment did not pass through Henslowe's hands. This and Samson are the only new plays of the year, the actual performance of which can be verified; and none of these plays is extant.[4] I suspect, however, that Munday's Set at Tennis is the 2 Fortune's Tennis of which a 'plot' survives. The payment, of only £3, was 'in full', and it may, like 1 Fortune's Tennis, have been a short piece of some exceptional character, motived by the name of the theatre in which it was presented. Unfinished
- ↑ Cf. vol. i, p. 323. The Massacre was printed (N.D.) as an Admiral's play.
- ↑ The conjectural rendering of Henslowe's 'ponesciones pillet' finds support from the presence of garments for 'Caffes' or Caiaphas in the inventory of 1598; cf. p. 168.
- ↑ A payment to 'John Daye & his felowe poetes' implies at least three
collaborators. - ↑ For Samson cf. p. 367.
