not to part with 'the said younge men or ladds' during their apprenticeship except on the consent of his fellow sharers.
The theatrical experience of the syndicate presumably rested with Slater and Drayton. Of Trevell, Cooke, and Sibthorpe I know nothing, except that Trevell, like Woodford, seems still to have had an interest in the lease of the Whitefriars (cf. ch. xvii) in 1621. But Mason and Barry were the authors respectively of The Turk (1610, S. R. 10 March 1609), and Ram Alley (1611, S. R. 9 November 1610), the title-pages of which ascribe them to the children of the King's Revels, and thereby enable us to give a more definite title to the boys, who are only described in the Chancery pleadings as 'the Children of the revells there beinge', that is to say, at the Whitefriars. And we can trace the King's Revels a little farther back than February 1608 with the aid of the earliest of similar entries on the title-pages of other plays, which are, in the chronological order of publication, Sharpham's Cupid's Whirligig (1607, S. R. 29 June 1607), Middleton's Family of Love (1608, S. R. 12 October 1607), Day's Humour Out Of Breath (1608, S. R. 12 April 1608), Markham's (and Machin's) The Dumb Knight (1608, S. R. 6 October 1608), and Armin's Two Maids of More-clack (1609). If Lewis Machin was the author of the anonymous Every Woman In Her Humour (1609), it is possible that this ought to be added to the list. Clearly the boys were playing at least as early as the first half of 1607 and the agreement of 1608 must represent a reconstruction of the original business organization. I do not find anything in the plays to prove an earlier date than 1607, but it is quite conceivable that the King's Revels may have come into existence as early as 1606, perhaps with the idea of replacing the Queen's Revels after their disgrace over The Isle of Gulls. But if so, the Queen's Revels managed to hold together under another name, and in fact proved more enduring than their rivals. Mr. Fleay, however, suggests that the King's Revels were a continuation of the Paul's boys, and played at the singing-school, and apparently also that they were themselves continued as the Duke of York's men (H. of S. 152, 188, 202, 206). He did not, I think, know of Androwes v. Slater, but Androwes v. Slater does not indicate that the King's Revels were at Whitefriars before 1608; rather the contrary.[1] The dates render Mr. Fleay's conjectures tempting, although it must be admitted that there is not much evidence. But The Family of Love was played in a round theatre and the Paul's house was round.
- ↑ Presumably, however, the 'Gerry' buried out of the Whitefriars playhouse (q.v.) on 29 Sept. 1607 was of the company.
