So I’ve been poking around Henslowe’s diary because I think my kids would find it cool that part of their inventory included an invisibility cloak (“a robe for to goo invisibell”). Along the way I spotted this:
Which, if I translate it correctly, says that Henslowe lent money to Thomas Dowton (on May 2) to buy a robe to play “the lyfe of arthure.” As in King Arthur?
We had a discussion once upon a time about why Shakespeare never wrote about King Arthur, and who else might have been writing about that legend at the time. I don’t see this play (or playwright?) mentioned.
Just thought it curious. This excerpt has even more detail about that particular play:
I just noticed that right before the “lyfe of arthure” payment there is a full payment to Mr. Hathaway for the “booke of Kyng Arthore”. Neat stuff!
Cool.
According to Wikipedia, not much is known about Mr. Hathawaye, although it seems we have a pretty good list of plays he worked on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hathwaye