Philip Henslowe, Simon Forman, and the Theatrical Community of the 1590s

Abstract

FOLIOS 16V TO 18V OF PHILIP HENSLOWE S DIARY PUZZLE READERS. Sandwiched between the receipts and payments involving theatrical matters that typify his account book are five pages of oddities-medicinal recipes guaranteed to cure deafness, cataracts, and rabies; formulae for casting a child's horoscope; and magic spells, one of which, for the person in pursuit of a simple supper, promised to make a fowl fall down. It is in these pages that readers are especially reminded that much personal business actually informs the diary, and it is here that Henslowe comes to the fore of his account book as an individual cut wholly of Renaissance cloth. Astrological almanacs, as well as books of predictions, were common in Henslowe's day, when conjurers-in-earnest, side by side with quack psychics, attracted followings of workaday citizens who sought what wisdom could be derived from occult practices. At the time, perhaps the best-known astrologerconjurer was Simon Forman, whose surviving casebooks read like a social register of Renaissance London. The earl of Cumberland, the countess of Essex, and Lord Hunsdon (patron of the Lord Chamberlain's Men) all consulted Forman at one time or another. Not least of all, another of Forman's clients was Philip Henslowe, the owner of the Rose playhouse and the father-in-law of Edward Alleyn, the actor who immortalized his own version of a conjurer in the character of Doctor Faustus on the stage of the Rose playhouse in the early 1590s. Henslowe's association with Forman was suggested in 1976 when A. L. Rowse published The Case Books of Simon Forman. Rowse then noted in passing that Henslowe had visited Forman on two occasions, but Rowse did not follow up on these notations.' Probably because Rowse's interest centered upon the general connection between the doubtful reputation of theatrical personnel with Forman's own questionable reputation, he overlooked the full importance of the Henslowe entries for theater historians. These deserve much greater attention. Forman's notes provide new and unique insights into the rapidly growing group of theater entrepreneurs of the 1590s, including the Burbages. They allow scholars to understand in greater complexity Henslowe's place within the theatrical community and to date part of Henslowe's diary for the first time. Furthermore, examination of the connection between Forman and Henslowe suggests a link between Forman and the character of Doctor Faustus which seems to have become lost in the discussion of Forman's influence on Ben Jonson's Alchemist. In addition to all this, Forman's casebooks provide unique evidence illustrating how the community of players who performed at the Rose and the Globe playhouses were tied into the culture of the occult.