Documents of the Rose Playhouse

by Carol Chillington Rutter (Editor)

Philip Henslowe's Rose was Elizabethan London's first south bank playhouse. Its tenants were a succession of companies of high prestige: Lord Strange's Men, the Queen's Men, the Admiral's Men. Its repertoire was stocked with plays that audiences clamored for--Henry VI, Sir John Oldcastle --and classics that they paid to see again and again--The Spanish Tragedy, The Jew of Malta, Doctor Faustus. For a decade, the Rose dominated the bankside until, in 1599, a rival appeared--the Globe. By 1606 the Rose was in ruins. This book uses first-hand sources to compile a biography, a 'documentary life' of Henslowe's accounts, players letters, Privy Council warrants, Court of Aldermen appeals, plots, parts, inventories, commissions, bonds, playing schedules and contracts. Arranged chronologically and linked by explanatory headnotes, the documents narrate the story of the Rose.

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988