Abraham and Lot
Historical Records
Henslowe's Diary
F. 8v (Greg, I. 16)
| Res at abrame & lotte the 9 of Jenewarye 1595 | ………. | lijs |
| Res at abram & lotte the 17 of Jenewarye 1595 | ………. | xxxs |
| Res at abrame & lotte the 31 of Jenewarye 1595 | ………. | xijs |
Theatrical Provenance
Abraham and Lot was one of twelve plays performed by the earl of Sussex's players at the Rose playhouse in mid-winter, 1594. Ten of the twelve plays, including Abraham and Lot, were not marked with Henslowe's enigmatic "ne"; thus it and the other nine plays similarly unmarked were likely to have been in Sussex's repertory prior to their appearance at the Rose (hence the date assignment of 1593). Abraham and Lot disappears from theatrical records in England following its performance at the Rose on 31 January 1594.
Probable Genre(s)
Biblical History (Harbage)
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
The narratives of Abraham and Lot are linked from the beginning in that the men are kin (StudyLight). Lot was Abraham's nephew, and when Tarah took Abraham and his wife Sarah from Ur to Haran in Canaan, he took Lot also :
- Genesis 11:
- "These are the generations of Tarah: Tarah begat Abram, Nachor, and Haran: Haron begat Lot" (27). "And Tarah toke Abram his sonne, and Lot the sonne of Haran his sonnes sonne, and Sarai his daughter in lawe his sonne Abrams wyfe, and they departed together from Ur of the Chaldees, that they myght go into the land of Chanaan: and they came vnto Haran, and dwelt there" (31).
When God told Abraham to leave Haran for a new land to establish a great nation, Abraham, now aged seventy-five, took his family (Sarah) and Lot with their following with him. In this new place (Sichem), Abraham builds an altar where God had appeared to him. However, famine come. To find relief, Abraham travels to Egypt with Sarah and perhaps also Lot (the biblical narrator isn't clear on this). In Egypt, Abraham deceives the Pharaoh by presenting Sarah as his sister, not his wife; he does so to avoid being killed. When the Pharaoh, who had taken Sarah into his household, uncovered the deceit, he threw both Abraham and Sarah out of the kingdom. When Abraham and Sarah leave Egypt going southward to the site where Abraham had built the altar, Lot is with them then. Without explaining exactly how, the biblical narrator says that now Abraham and Lot were very rich with livestock silver, gold, and tents.
And it came to passe, that when God destroyed the cities of that region, he thought vpon Abraham, and sent Lot out from the middest of the ouerthrow, when he ouerthrewe the cities, in one of the whiche Lot dwelled.
References to the Play
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Critical Commentary
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For What It's Worth
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Works Cited
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