1579.[1] Farrant, who is known as a musician, had been a Gentleman of the Chapel in 1553, and had left on 24 April 1564, doubtless to take up the post of Master of the Children of Windsor, in which capacity he annually presented a play at Court from 1566-7 to 1575-6.[2] But evidently the two offices were not regarded as incompatible, for on 5 November 1570, while still holding his Mastership, he was again sworn in as Gentleman of the Chapel 'from Winsore'.[3] A recent discovery by M. Feuillerat enables us to see that his taking over of the Chapel Children from Hunnis in 1576 was part of a somewhat considerable theatrical enterprise. Stimulated perhaps by the example of Burbadge's new-built Theatre, he took a lease of some of the old Priory buildings in the Blackfriars; and here, either for the first time, or in continuation of a similar use of the Chapel itself, which had provoked criticism, the Children appeared under his direction in performances open to the public.[4] The ambiguous relation of the Blackfriars precinct to the jurisdiction of the City Corporation probably explains the inclusion of the Chapel in the list of companies whose exercises the Privy Council instructed the City to tolerate on 24 December 1578. It is, I think, pretty clear that, although Farrant is described as Master of the Chapel Children by the Treasurer of the Chamber from 1577 to 1580, and by Hunnis himself in his petition of 1583,[5] he was never technically Master, but merely acted as deputy to Hunnis, probably even to the extent of taking all the financial risks off his hands. Farrant was paid for a comedy at Lincoln's Inn at Candlemas 1580 and is described in the entry as 'one of the Queen's chaplains'.[6] On 30 November 1580 he died and Hunnis then resumed his normal functions.[7] The Chapel played at Court on 5 February 1581, 31 December 1581, 27 February 1582, and 26 December
- ↑ W. Creizenach (Sh.-Jahrbuch, liv. 73) points out that the source must have been Livy, xxvi. 50.
- ↑ Cf. infra (Windsor).
- ↑ Rimbault, 2.
- ↑ Cf. ch. xvii (Blackfriars). The bare fact of this early use of the Blackfriars has, of course, long been known from the reference to comedies at the Blackfriars in Gosson, P. C. 188 (App. C, No. xxx), and the prologues to Lyly's Campaspe and Sapho and Phao. Fleay, 36, 39, 40, guessed that the early Blackfriars performances were at an inn, and by the Paul's boys, and that the euphuistic prose plays at the Bel Savage mentioned by Gosson, S. A. 39 (App. C, No. xxii), in 1579 were early Chapel versions of Lyly's above-named plays. But there is no evidence that either of the boy companies ever used an inn.
- ↑ Cf. p. 38.
- ↑ Cf. ch. vii, p. 223.
- ↑ Rimbault, 3. The Blackfriars correspondence shows that the date 1581 given in Rimbault, 56, is wrong. A warrant of 1582 for a lease in reversion to his widow Anne is in Hatfield MSS. ii. 539.
