ST. PAUL'S
As shown in the preceding chapter, not only were the Children of the
Chapel Royal and of Windsor called upon to entertain the Queen with
dramatic performances, but the Children of St. Paul's were also
expected to amuse their sovereign on occasion. And following the
example of the Children of the Chapel and of Windsor in giving
performances before the public in Blackfriars, the Paul's Boys soon
began to give such performances in a building near the Cathedral.[162]
The building so employed was doubtless one of the structures owned by
the Church. Burbage and Heminges refer to it as "the said house near
St. Paul's Church."[163] Richard Flecknoe, in _A Discourse of the
English Stage_ (1664), places it "behind the Convocation-house in
Paul's";[164] and Howes, in his continuation of Stow's _Annals_
(1631), says that it was the "singing-school" of the Cathedral.[165]
That the auditorium was small we may well believe. So was the stage.
Certain speakers in the Induction to _What You Will_, acted at Paul's
in 1600, say: "Let's place ourselves within the curtains, for, good
faith, the stage is so very little, we shall wrong the general eye
else very much." Both Fleay and Lawrence[166] contend that the
building was "round, like the Globe," and as evidence they cite the
Prologue to Marston's _Antonio's Revenge_, acted at Paul's in 1600, in
which the phrases "within this round" and "within this ring" are
applied to the theatre. The phrases, however, may have reference
merely to the circular disposition of the benches about the stage.
That high prices of admission to the little theatre were charged we
learn from a marginal note in _Pappe with an Hatchet_ (1589), which
states that if a tragedy "be showed at Paul's, it will cost you four
pence; at the Theatre two pence."[167] The Children, indeed, catered
to a very select public. Persons who went thither were gentle by birth
and by behavior as well; and playwrights, we are told, could always
feel sure there of the "calm attention of a choice audience."[168]
Lyly, in the Prologue to _Midas_, acted at Paul's in 1589, says: "Only
this doth encourage us, that presenting our studies before
_Gentlemen_, though they receive an inward dislike, we shall not be
hissed with an open disgrace." Things were quite otherwise in the
public theatres of Shoreditch and the Bankside.
[Footnote 162: Murray, _English Dramatic Companies_, I, 325,
erroneously says: "Their public place was, probably, from the first,
the courtyard of St. Paul's Cathedral."]
[Footnote 163: Wallace, _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p.
95.]
[Footnote 164: That is, in or near Pater Noster Row.]
[Footnote 165: _Annales, or A Generall Chronicle of England_, 1631,
signature liii 1, verso.]
[Footnote 166: F.G. Fleay, _A Biographical Chronicle of the English
Drama_, II, 76; W.J. Lawrence, _The Elizabethan Playhouse_, p. 17.]
[Footnote 167: R.W. Bond, _The Complete Works of John Lyly_, III, 408.
Higher prices of admission were charged to all the private
playhouses.]
[Footnote 168: John Marston, _Antonio's Revenge_, acted at Paul's in
1600.]
Under the direction of their master, Sebastian Westcott, the Boys
acted before the public at least as early as 1578,[169] for in
December of that year the Privy Council ordered the Lord Mayor to
permit them to "exercise plays" within the city;[170] and Stephen
Gosson, in his _Plays Confuted_, written soon afterwards, mentions
_Cupid and Psyche_ as having been recently "plaid at Paules."
[Footnote 169: There is a record of a play by the Paul's Boys in 1527
before ambassadors from France, dealing with the heretic Luther; but
exactly when they began to give public performances for money we do
not know.]
[Footnote 170: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 432.]
Westcott died in 1582, and was succeeded by Thomas Gyles. Shortly
after this we find the Children of Paul's acting publicly with the
Children of the Chapel Royal at the little theatre in Blackfriars. For
them John Lyly wrote his two earliest plays, _Campaspe_ and _Sapho and
Phao_, as the title-pages clearly state. But their stay at Blackfriars
was short. When in 1584 Sir William More closed up the theatre there,
they fell back upon their singing-school as the place for their public
performances.
At the same time the Queen became greatly interested in promoting
their dramatic activities. To their master, Thomas Gyles, she issued,
in April, 1585, a special commission "to take up apt and meet
children" wherever he could find them. It was customary for the Queen
to issue such a commission to the masters of her two private chapels,
but never before, or afterwards, had this power to impress children
been conferred upon a person not directly connected with the royal
choristers. Its issuance to Gyles in 1585 clearly indicates the
Queen's interest in the Paul's Boys as actors, and her expectation of
being frequently entertained by them. And to promote her plans still
further, she appointed the successful playwright John Lyly as their
vice-master, with the understanding, no doubt, that he was to keep
them--and her--supplied with plays. This he did, for all his comedies,
except the two just mentioned, were written for the Cathedral
Children, and were acted by them at Court, and in their little theatre
"behind the Convocation House."
Unfortunately under Lyly's leadership the Boys became involved in the
bitter Martin Marprelate controversy, for which they were suppressed
near the end of 1590. The printer of Lyly's _Endimion_, in 1591, says
to the reader: "Since the plays in Paul's were dissolved, there are
certain comedies come to my hands by chance, which were presented
before Her Majesty at several times by the Children of Paul's."
Exactly how long the Children were restrained it is hard to determine.
In 1596 Thomas Nash, in _Have With You to Saffron Walden_, expressed
a desire to see "the plays at Paul's up again." Mr. Wallace thinks
they may have been allowed "up again" in 1598;[171] Fleay, in 1599 or
1600;[172] the evidence, however, points, I think, to the spring or
early summer of 1600. The Children began, naturally, with old plays,
"musty fopperies of antiquity"; the first, or one of the first, new
plays they presented was Marston's _Jack Drum's Entertainment_, the
date of which can be determined within narrow limits. References to
Kempe's Morris, which was danced in February, 1600, as being still a
common topic of conversation, and the entry of the play in the
Stationers' Registers on September 8, 1600, point to the spring or
early summer of 1600 as the date of composition. This makes very
significant the following passage in the play referring to the Paul's
Boys as just beginning to act again after their long inhibition:
_Sir Ed._ I saw the Children of Paul's last night,
And troth they pleas'd me pretty, pretty well.
The Apes in time will do it handsomely.
_Plan._ S'faith, I like the audience that frequenteth there
With much applause. A man shall not be choak't
With the stench of garlic, nor be pasted
To the barmy jacket of a beer-brewer.
_Bra. Ju._ 'Tis a good, gentle audience; and I hope the Boys
Will come one day into the Court of Requests.
[Footnote 171: _The Children of the Chapel_, p. 153.]
[Footnote 172: _A Chronicle History of the London Stage_, p. 152.]
Shortly after this the Boys were indeed called "into the Court of
Requests," for on New Year's Day, 1601, they were summoned to present
a play before Her Majesty.
Their master now was Edward Pierce, who had succeeded Thomas Gyles. In
1605 the experienced Edward Kirkham, driven from the management of the
Blackfriars Theatre, became an assistant to Pierce in the management
of Paul's. In this capacity we find him in 1606 receiving the payment
for the two performances of the Boys at Court that year.[173]
[Footnote 173: Cunningham, _Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels_,
p. XXXVIII.]
Among the playwrights engaged by Pierce to write for Paul's were
Marston, Middleton, Chapman, Dekker, Webster, and Beaumont; and, as a
result, some of the most interesting dramas of the period were first
acted on the small stage of the singing-school. Details in the history
of the Children, however, are few. We find an occasional notice of
their appearance at Court, but our record of them is mainly secured
from the title-pages of their plays.
The last notice of a performance by them is as follows: "On the 30th
of July, 1606, the youths of Paul's, commonly called the Children of
Paul's, played before the two Kings [of England and of Denmark] a play
called _Abuses_, containing both a comedy and a tragedy, at which the
Kings seemed to take great delight and be much pleased."[174]
[Footnote 174: Nichols, _The Progresses of James_, IV, 1073.]
The reason why the Children ceased to act is made clear in the lawsuit
of Keysar _v._ Burbage _et al._, recently discovered and printed by
Mr. Wallace.[175] From this we learn that when Rosseter became manager
of the Children of the Queen's Revels at the private playhouse of
Whitefriars in 1609, he undertook to increase his profits by securing
a monopoly both of child-acting and of private theatres. Blackfriars
had been deserted, and the only other private theatre then in
existence was Paul's. So Rosseter agreed to pay Pierce a dead rent of
L20 a year to keep the Paul's playhouse closed:
One Mr. Rosseter, a partner of the said complainant, dealt
for and compounded with the said Mr. Pierce to the only
benefit of him, the said Mr. Rosseter, the now complainant,
the rest of their partners and Company [at the Whitefriars]
... that thereby they might ... advance their gains and
profit to be had and made in their said house in the
Whitefriars, that there might be a cessation of playing and
plays to be acted in the said house near St. Paul's Church
aforesaid, for which the said Rosseter compounded with the
said Pierce to give him the said Pierce twenty pounds per
annum.[176]
[Footnote 175: _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p. 80.]
[Footnote 176: _Ibid._, p. 95.]
In this attempt to secure a monopoly in private playhouses Rosseter
was foiled by the coming of Shakespeare's troupe to the Blackfriars;
but the King's Men readily agreed to join in the payment of the dead
rent to Pierce, for it was to their advantage also to eliminate
competition.
The agreement which Rosseter secured from Pierce was binding "for one
whole year"; whether it was renewed we do not know, but the Children
never again acted in "their house near St. Paul's Church."