Jerusalem

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Historical Records

Performance Records (Henslowe's "diary")


Two records of performance survive in Henslowe’s accounts for early 1592:

Fol. 7 (Greg I, 13)
Res at (Q) Jerusallem the 22 of marche 1591 ...................... xviijs
Fol. 7 v (Greg I, 14)
Res at Jerusalem the 25 of aprell 1592 .................................. xxxxvjs



Theatrical Provenance


"Jerusalem" was the eighteenth of twenty-four plays performed by Lord Strange's men at the Rose from February to June, 1593. It was introduced in the fifth week of their run.


Probable Genre(s)

Harbage, basing his choice apparently on a scholarly tradition of association with the literature of the crusades, suggests that "Jerusalem" was an historical romance. Wiggins, Catalogue #892, also linking the play with source material from the crusades, abbreviates the generic label to "romance."


Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues


The scholarly commentary on "Jerusalem" is a product of guesswork about its subject matter:

Malone thought it was "[p]robably The Destruction of Jerusalem, by Dr. Thomas Legge (p. 291). Collier tactfully dismissed Malone's suggestion of lumping the play with Legge's (primarily because the latter was in Latin), but he did not dismiss the possibility of similar narratives. Fleay, BCED, 2. #110, repeated the link to Legge, but he was much more interested in possible connections to two later plays, the lost two-part "Godfrey of Bulloigne" in the repertory of the Admiral's men at the Rose starting in June and July 1594 (Fleay, 2.#152, as well as Thomas Heywood's Four Prentices of London.)

References to the Play

Critical Commentary

For What It's Worth

Works Cited