Philip Henslowe - Henslowe's Diary

Henslowe's Diary

Henslowe's "diary" is a valuable source of information on the theatrical history of the period. It is a collection of memoranda and notes that record payments to writers, box office takings, and lists of money lent. Also of interest are records of the purchase of expensive costumes and of stage properties, like the dragon in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, which provide insight into the staging of plays in the Elizabethan theatre.

The diary is written on the reverse of pages of a book of accounts of his brother-in law Ralf Hogge’s ironworks, kept by his brother John Henslowe for the period 1576–1581. Hogge was the Queen’s Gunstonemaker, and produced both iron cannon and shot for the Royal Armouries at the Tower of London. John Henslowe seems to have acted as his agent, and Philip to have prudently reused his old account book. These entries are a valuable source for the early iron-making industry.

The diary begins covering Henslowe's theatrical activities for 1592. Entries continue, with varying degrees of thoroughness, until 1609; in the years before his death, Henslowe appears to have run his theatrical interests from a greater distance. At some time after his death, his papers, including the diary, were transferred to Dulwich College, which Alleyn had founded.

Henslowe recorded payments to twenty-seven Elizabethan playwrights. He variously commissioned, bought and produced plays by, or made loans to Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Middleton, Robert Greene, Henry Chettle, George Chapman, Thomas Dekker, John Webster, Anthony Munday, Henry Porter, John Day, John Marston and Michael Drayton. The diary shows the varying partnerships between writers, in an age when many plays were collaborations. It also shows Henslowe to have been a careful man of business, obtaining security in the form of rights to his authors' works, and holding their manuscripts, while tying them to him with loans and advances. If a play was successful, Henslowe would commission a sequel.

Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet, Henry VI, Part 1, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew and Titus Andronicus are mentioned in the diary. In 1599, Henslowe paid Dekker and Henry Chettle for a play called Troilus and Cressida. However, there is no mention of William Shakespeare in Henslowe's diary (despite the forgeries of John Payne Collier).