will answer at your vttermoste perylles. In wytnes wherof &c. Geven vnder our privie seale at our Manor of St James the fourth daye of Decembre in the fourth yere of our Raigne.
R. Jones.
At Christmas 1564-5 the boys appeared at Court in a tragedy
by Edwardes, which may have been his extant Damon
and Pythias.[1] On 2 February 1565 and 2 February 1566 they
gave performances before the lawyers at the Candlemas
feasts of Lincoln's Inn.[2] There is nothing to show that the
Chapel had any concern with the successful play of Palamon
and Arcite, written and produced by Edwardes for Elizabeth's
visit to Oxford in September 1566. Edwardes died on the
following 31 October, and on 15 November William Hunnis
was appointed Master of the Children.[3] His formal patent
of appointment is dated 22 April 1567, and the bill for his
commission, which only differs from that of Edwardes in
minor points of detail, on 18 April.[4] Hunnis had been a
Gentleman at least since about 1553, with an interval of
disgrace under Mary, owing to his participation in Protestant
plots. He was certainly himself a dramatist, but none of
his plays are known to be extant, and a contemporary
eulogy speaks of his 'enterludes' as if they dated from an
earlier period than that of his Mastership. It is, however,
natural to suppose that he may have had a hand in some at
least of the pieces which his Children produced at Court.
The first of these was a tragedy at Shrovetide 1568. In
the following year is said to have been published a pamphlet
entitled The Children of the Chapel Stript and Whipt, which
apparently originated in some gross offence given by the
dramatic activities of the Chapel to the growing Puritan
sentiment. 'Plaies', said the writer, 'will never be supprest,
while her maiesties unfledged minions flaunt it in silkes and
sattens. They had as well be at their Popish service, in the
deuils garments.' And again, 'Even in her maiesties chappel
do these pretty upstart youthes profane the Lordes Day by the
- ↑ This is recorded in a Revels document, and seems a clear case of a play given by the Chapel and not paid for by the T. of C.
- ↑ Cf. ch. vii, p. 223.
- ↑ Rimbault, 2. On Hunnis, cf. ch. xxiii.
- ↑ Stopes, 295, translates the patent of appointment from Auditors Patent Books, ix, f. 144^v; the Privy Seal is in Privy Seals, Series iii, 1175. Stopes also prints the patent and Wallace, ii. 66, the Signet Bill (misdescribing it as a Privy Seal) for the commission; it is enrolled on Patent Rolls, 9 Eliz. p. 10, m. 16 dorso. It is varied from the model of 1562 by the inclusion of power to the Master to take up lodging for the children in transit, and to fix 'reasonable prises' for carriage and necessaries at his discretion.
