Henslowe's Props

 

Inventory of Properties Belonging to the Admiral's Company

(From Philip Henslowe's papers. I have added the line division to turn the catalogue into a postmodernist poem, on the tiring-house of history and the props of human experience long after the audience has left).

One rock, one cage, one tomb, one Hell mouth.
One tomb of Guido, one tomb of Dido, one bedstead.
Eight lances, one pair of stairs for Phaeton.
Two steeples, and one chime of bells, and one beacon.
One heifer for the play of Phaeton, the limbs dead.
One globe, and one golden sceptre; three clubs.
Two marzipans, and the City of Rome.
One golden fleece, two rackets, one bay tree.
One wooden hatchet, one leather hatchet.
One wooden canopy; old Mahomet’s head.
One lion skin; one bear’s skin, and Phaeton’s
Limbs and Phaeton’s chariot; and Argus’ head.
Neptune’s fork and garland.
One ‘croser’s’ staff; Kent’s wooden leg.
Iris head, and rainbow; one little altar.
Eight vizards; Tamberlain’s bridle; one wooden mattock.
Cupid’s bow, and quiver; the cloth of the Sun and Moon.
One boar’s head and Cerberus’ three heads.
One Caduceus; two moss banks,
And one snake.
Two fans of feather; Bellendon stable;
One tree of golden apples; Tantalus’ tree, nine iron targets.
One copper target, and seventeen foils.
Four wooden targets; one greeve armour.
One sign for Mother Redcap; one buckler.
Mercury’s wings; Tasso’s picture; one helmet
With a dragon, one shield, with three lions,
One elm bow. One chain of dragons; one gilt spear.
Two coffins; one bull’s head; and one vulture.
Three timbrels; one dragon in Faustus.
One lion; two lion’s heads;
One great horse with his legs;
One sackbut. One wheel and frame
In the Siege of London. One pair of wrought gloves.
One Pope’s mitre. Three imperial crowns; one plain crown.
One ghost’s crown; one crown with a sun.
One frame for the beheading in Black Joan.

One black dog.

One cauldron for the Jew.

Christopher Marlowe

—oOo—