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the principal character was Genus Humanum.[1] This had been originally planned for the coronation on the previous 1 October, and as a warrant then issued states that a coronation play had customarily been given 'by the gentlemen of the chappell of our progenitoures', it may perhaps be inferred that Edward VI's coronation play of 'the story of Orpheus' on 22 February 1547 was also by the Gentlemen.[2] In the meantime the regular series of Chapel plays at Court had been broken after 1512, and when it was taken up again in 1517 it was not by the Gentlemen, but by the Children.[3] This is, of course, characteristic of the Renaissance.[4] But an immediate cause is probably to be found in the personality of William Cornish, a talented and energetic Master of the Children, who succeeded William Newark in the autumn of 1509, and held office until his death in 1523.[5] Cornish appears to have come of a musical family.[6] He took part*

  1. ↑ Stopes, Shakespeare's Environment, 238; Feuillerat, Ed. and Mary, 149, 289. Professor Feuillerat says that one of the documents relating to the play refers to the 'Children of the Chapel', and doubts whether there is a real distinction between the 'Gentlemen' and the 'Children' as actors.
  2. ↑ Feuillerat, Ed. and Mary, 3, 255. The conjecture is supported by the fact that garments belonging to the Revels were in possession of two Gentlemen of the Chapel in April 1547 (ibid., 12, 13).
  3. ↑ Chamber Accounts in Wallace, i. 38, 65, 70; Brewer, xiv. 2. 284; Kempe, 69; Collier, i. 78; Feuillerat, Ed. and Mary, 266, 288. The 'iiij Children y^t played afore y^e king' on 14 Jan. 1508 were not necessarily of the Chapel.
  4. ↑ Cf. ch. viii and Mediaeval Stage, ii. 192, 215.
  5. ↑ Wallace, i. 33. No patent is cited, but the privy seal for the payment to Cornish of the Exchequer annuity was dated 1 April 1510, and he was shortly afterwards paid for the Christmas and Easter quarters. Newark had died in Nov. 1509. It is therefore a little puzzling to find in a list of Exchequer fees payable during the year ended Michaelmas 1508 (R. Henry, Hist. of Great Britain^3, xii. 457) the item 'Willelmo Cornysshe magistro puerorum capellae regis pro excubitione eorundem puerorum 26^{li}. 13^s. 4^d.' Probably the list was prepared retrospectively in Henry VIII's reign (cf. the analogous list in Brewer, ii. 873), and the name rather than the date is an error.
  6. ↑ The data are: (a) Exchequer Payments (Wallace, i. 34), Mich. 1493, 'Willelmo Cornysshe de Rege', 100s.; (b) T. C. Accounts, 'to one Cornysshe for a prophecy in rewarde', 13s. 4d. (12 Nov. 1493); 'to Cornishe of the Kings Chapell', 26s. 8d. (1 Sept. 1496); 'to Cornysshe for 3 pagents' (26 Oct. 1501); 'm^r kyte Cornisshe and other of the Chapell y^t played affore ye king at Richemounte', £6 13s. 4d. (25 Dec. 1508); (c) Household Book of Q. Elizabeth, 25 Dec. 1502, 'to Cornisshe for setting of a Carrall vpon Cristmas Day in reward', 13s. 4d.; (d) John Cornysh in list of Gent. of Chapel 23 Feb. 1504, and William Cornysh in similar lists c. 1509 and 22 Feb. 1511 (Lafontaine, 2, from Ld. Ch. Records); (e) Songs by 'W. Cornishe, jun.' in Addl. MS. 5465, by 'John Cornish' in Addl. MS. 5665, by 'W. Cornish' in Addl. MS. 31922 (Early English Lyrics, 299); (f) A Treatise betweene Trouthe and Enformacon, by
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