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a musical or literary reputation, and Banaster is said to have written an interlude in 1482.^[1] But until the end of this period only occasional traces of dramatic performances by the Chapel can be discerned. An alleged play by the Gentlemen at the Christmas of 1485 cannot be verified.^[2] The first recorded performance, therefore, is one of the disguisings at the wedding of Prince Arthur and Katharine of Spain in 1501, in which two of the children were concealed in mermaids 'singing right sweetly and with quaint hermony'.^[3]

Towards the end of Henry VII's reign begins a short series of plays given at the rate of one or two a year by the Gentlemen, which lasted through 1506-12.^[4] Thereafter there is no other play by the Gentlemen as such upon record until the Christmas of 1553, when they performed a morality of which

[Footnote: that for the confidence & trust that we haue in our trusty and welbeloued

seruant John Melyonek oon of ye gentilmen of our Chapell and knowing also his expert habilitie and connyng in ye science of Musique haue licenced him and by thise presentes licence and geue him auctorite that within all places in this our realme aswele Cathedral churges coliges chappells houses of relegion and al oyer franchised & exempt places as elliswhere our colege roial at Wyndesor reserued & except may take and sease for vs and in our name al suche singing men & childre being expart in the said science of Musique as he can finde and think sufficient and able to do vs seruice. Wherfor &c Yeuen &c at Nottingham the xvj^{th} day] of September A^o secundo [1484].'

Banaster did not die until 1487, but I think Melyonek must have replaced him, perhaps without a patent, under Richard III.]

↑ Cf. D. N. B. Songs by Banaster and Newark are in Addl. MS. 5465 (Chambers and Sidgwick, Early English Lyrics, 299).
↑ Collier, i. 46; cf. Wallace, i. 12. I am not sure that Collier meant 1485.
↑ Reyher, 504, from Harl. MS. 69, f. 34^v. Wallace, i. 13; ii. 69, citing the same MS., misdates '1490', and says that eight children took part. Four singing children who had appeared in another disguising a day or two before were probably also from the Chapel.
↑ Chamber Accounts in Wallace, i. 28, 38; Bernard Andrew, Annales Hen. VII (Gairdner, Memorials of Hen. VII), 104; Halle, i. 25; Professor Wallace seems to think that the annual Christmas rewards paid by the Treasurer of the Chamber to the Gentlemen, which went on to the end of the reign, were for plays. But these were of £13 6s. 8d., whereas the reward for a play was £6 13s. 4d. They were paid on Twelfth Night, and are sometimes said to be for 'payne taking' during Christmas. In 1510 they had an extra £6 13s. 4d. for praying for the Queen's good deliverance. The 'payne taking' was no doubt as singers. An order of Henry VII's time (H. O. 121) for the wassail on Twelfth Night has, 'Item, the chappell to stand on the one side of the hall, and when the steward cometh in at the hall doore with the wassell, he must crie three tymes, Wassell, wassell, wassell; and then the chappell to answere with a good songe'. The Gentlemen also had 40s. annually from the Treasurer of the Chamber 'to drink with their bucks' given them for a summer feast, which was still held in the seventeenth century (Rimbault, 122).

[1] Cf. D. N. B. Songs by Banaster and Newark are in Addl. MS. 5465 (Chambers and Sidgwick, Early English Lyrics, 299).

[2] Collier, i. 46; cf. Wallace, i. 12. I am not sure that Collier meant 1485.

[3] Reyher, 504, from Harl. MS. 69, f. 34^v. Wallace, i. 13; ii. 69, citing the same MS., misdates '1490', and says that eight children took part. Four singing children who had appeared in another disguising a day or two before were probably also from the Chapel.

[4] Chamber Accounts in Wallace, i. 28, 38; Bernard Andrew, Annales Hen. VII (Gairdner, Memorials of Hen. VII), 104; Halle, i. 25; Professor Wallace seems to think that the annual Christmas rewards paid by the Treasurer of the Chamber to the Gentlemen, which went on to the end of the reign, were for plays. But these were of £13 6s. 8d., whereas the reward for a play was £6 13s. 4d. They were paid on Twelfth Night, and are sometimes said to be for 'payne taking' during Christmas. In 1510 they had an extra £6 13s. 4d. for praying for the Queen's good deliverance. The 'payne taking' was no doubt as singers. An order of Henry VII's time (H. O. 121) for the wassail on Twelfth Night has, 'Item, the chappell to stand on the one side of the hall, and when the steward cometh in at the hall doore with the wassell, he must crie three tymes, Wassell, wassell, wassell; and then the chappell to answere with a good songe'. The Gentlemen also had 40s. annually from the Treasurer of the Chamber 'to drink with their bucks' given them for a summer feast, which was still held in the seventeenth century (Rimbault, 122).

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