curent. Quod si non prestiterint singuli quorum negligentia omittuntur decem solidis mulctentur.'
The statutes appear never to have been confirmed by the
Crown, and their practical adoption was subject to certain
exceptions. Thus, it is stated in the report of the Public
Schools Commission in 1864 (i. 159) that there is no reason
to believe that the provision giving a preference to choristers
in elections for the grammar school was ever attended to.
Of plays and the like, however, there are various records. The first since 1521 is at the Lord Mayor's Day of 1561, when the Merchant Taylors' expenses for their pageant included items 'to John Tayllour, master of the Children of the late monastere of Westminster, for his children that sung and played in the pageant', and 'to John Holt momer in reward for attendance given of the children in the pageant'. Similar payments were made to Taylor as 'M^r of the quirysters' for the services of the children on the Ironmongers' pageant of 1566.[1] In 1562 the choristers of Westminster Abbey performed a goodly play before the Society of Parish Clerks after their annual dinner.[2] In 1564-5 comes the first of a series of Court performances, which received assistance from the Revels office. To this occasion belongs a memorandum of 'Thexpenses of twoo playes viz. Heautontimoroumenos Terentii and Miles Gloriosus Plauti plaied by the children of the grammer schoole in the colledge of Westminster and before the Quenes maiestie anno 1564'.[3] The items include, 'At ye rehersing before Sir Thomas Benger for pinnes and suger candee vjd', 'For a lynke to bring thapparell from the reuells iiijd.', 'At the playing of Miles Glor: in M^r. Deanes howse for pinnes half a thousand vjd.', 'Geuen to M^r. Holte yeoman of the reuells xs.', 'To M^r. Taylor his man', 'For one Plautus geven to ye Queenes maiestie and fowre other vnto the nobilitie xjs.' It is not quite clear whether the Heautontimorumenus, as well as the Miles Gloriosus, was given before the Queen, but I think not. In 1565-6 Elizabeth was again present at the play of Sapientia Solomonis, and there were payments 'For drawing the city and temple of Jerusalem and paynting towers', 'To a woman that brawght her childe to the stadge and there attended uppon it', and for a copy of the play bound 'in vellum with the Queenes Ma^{tie} hir armes and sylke ribben strings', almost certainly that still extant as Addl. MS. 20061 (cf.
