[A play by Plautus] (1520)

Original id: 
7677
Start date: 
7 March 1520
End date: 
7 March 1520
Degree of relationship to ancient play: 
unknown
Production notes: 
Smith has this as "the earliest recorded performance of a classical play at the English court", before Henry VIII. It was performed to entertain noble French hostages then in England. See also production ID 6268, as this is likely the same production: E.K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1923, repr. Oxford University Press 2009) vol. III p.19 says: ‘The earliest record of a classical performance in England was at Greenwich on 7 March 1519, when ‘there was a goodly commedy of Plautus plaied’, followed by a mask, in the great chamber’. This is the same as F.P. Wilson, The English Drama 1485-1585, cited for Production ID 6268: ‘Of Plautus the earliest record on an English stage is in the Great Chamber at Greenwich in 1519’. But it is also the same as the production referred to by Smith pp.117, 150, cited for Production ID 7677: (p.117) ‘Wolsey was likely responsible for the “goodly comedy of Plautus” that entertained Henry and his court on March 7, 1520 - the earliest recorded performance of a classical play at the English court.’ In this period, the English year began later in March, so what we think of as 7 March 1520 was at the time thought of as 7 March 1519. Chambers and Wilson are using the old dating system, Smith the modern one.
Media of production: 
Stage-play
Companies:
Ancient works:

How to cite this production

[A play by Plautus] (1520), accessed at http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/productions/production/7677 <25 April 2024>