Henslowe's Diary Volume 2

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...and that no other company ever acted it. The entries in Strange's lists he takes to refer to the ' comedy.' This, however, cannot be allowed, for Henslowe is most careful to distinguish the two titles, and they were on several occasions performed on consecutive evenings, which was frequently the case with a first and second part, though there is hardly any instance of a play being repeated twice running. The most plausible theory is that the play belonged indeed to the Admiral's men from the beginning, but that, being a popular piece, Strange's men obtained temporary possession of it at a time when the two companies were more or less merged. When the Admiral's men revived the piece in 1597 it was performed as a new play. It had, therefore, no doubt, been revised and probably added to. But the editions show no change till 1602. The additions then printed have always been supposed to be those for which Jonson was paid in 1601-2. This is not impossible, though it has often been remarked that they are quite unlike any authenticated work of his. They may, however, equally well be the additions of 1597. Pavier, who printed the edition of 1602, did not enjoy a good reputation, and was more likely to pass off old work as new, than to get hold of the latest novelty. That Jonson had himself played the part of Jeronimo in the Spanish Tragedy in a children's company appears from Dekker's Satiromastix (1873, p. 202). It seems likely that the company in question was the Chapel Children, and that they stole the play sometime between the restraint of the Admiral's men in July 1597, and 1600, when Jonson, in the Induction to Cynthia's Revels, also performed by the Chapel Children, sneered at ' the old Hieronimo (as it was first acted).' It is possible that they also stole t...