from Part II - Agents of Renewal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 May 2026
The book of accounts kept by Philip Henslowe at the Rose playhouse provides considerable evidence on the offerings of seven adult playing companies, 1592–1603. Theatre historians generally agree that the plays marked “ne” were considered by Henslowe to be in some sense new; those not so marked were considered in some sense old. In terms of categories, one kind of play could be called old because it was still in production following its debut performance, another kind could be old because it had been retired from the stage but was now being revived. This chapter examines the evidence in Henslowe’s “Diary” that revival was a routine feature of repertorial commerce practiced industry-wide by the adult companies. It argues that Henslowe’s accounts document the commercial viability not only of those plays scholars consider successes due to the literary and theatrical reputation of their authors but also of those anonymous to us now and/or lost.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.