They were taken into the service of Prince Henry immediately after his father came to the Crown; and then the company consisted of these players, as their names stand in the Book of the Household Establishment of Prince Henry * :

* Harl. MSS., No. 252. Dr. Birch, in the Appendix to his Life of Prince Henry, p. 455, enumerates also Anthony Jeffes, but he does not quote his authority. Anthony Jeffes was, of course, one of the 'two Jeffes' mentioned by Henslowe in 1597. Chalmers only follows Dr. Birch, not having examined the original document quoted in the text above.

How it happens that the name of Edward Alleyn is not included it is not easy to explain, but we have the authority of Dekker for stating that he was one of the Prince's servants in 1603. In that rare tract by Dekker, describing the Magnificent Entertainment on the 15th

Another company was also at this period taken under the protection of the Queen; viz., those who had been the Children of the Chapel under Elizabeth, and who, after James I. came to the crown, were called the Children of her Majesty's Revels. On the 30th of January, 1603-4, a warrant was made out under the Privy Seal to appoint Edward Kirkham, Alexander Hawkins, Thomas Kendall, and Robert Payne,' to provide, keep, and bring up a convenient number of children,' for the purpose of exhibiting plays and shews' before the Queen; and they were farther authorized to perform at the Blackfriars Theatre, or any other convenient place*. The instrument contains an unusual provision at the close, referring to a poet of great celebrity, and certainly trenching on the

of March, 1603, and printed with the date of 1604, we meet with the following passage:

'Of all which personages Genius and Thamesis were the only speakers: Thamesis being represented by one of the Children of her Majesties Revels; Genius by M. Allin (servant to the young Prince) his gratu6 latory speech, which was delivered with excellent action, and a well 'tunde audible voice.'

Dekker also, in the same piece, mentions W. Bourne, or Borne, 'one of the servants of the young Prince,' by which name William Birde was sometimes known: he is included in the preceding list. It is a circumstance not elsewhere noticed, that Thomas Middleton was the writer of a long speech in this Magnificent Entertainment, an obligation which Dekker duly acknowledges.

*This, no doubt, as has before been remarked, is that 'eyry of children, little eyases that cry out on the top of question,' mentioned in Hamlet, Act II. sc. 2. and of whose superior popularity Shakespeare complains.

rights and powers of the Master of the Revels::-no 'plays or shews' were to be acted by the Children of the Queen's Revels, either before her Majesty or in public, which had not received the approbation and allowance of Samuel Daniel. This document, which is subjoined in a note*, is quite new in the history of

* It is deposited in the Chapter-house, Westminster.

'James by the grace of God, &c. To all Maiors, Sheriffs, Justices ' of Peace, Bailiffs, Constables, and to all other our officers, mynisters and loving subjects to whom these presents shall come, greeting. 'Whereas the Queene, our deerest wife, hath for her pleasure & recrea'tion, when she shall thinke it fitt to have any Playes or shewes, ap'pointed her servants, Edward Kirkham, Alexander Hawkins, Thomas 'Kendall, and Robert Payne to provide & bring up a convenient ' nomber of children, who shalbe called Children of her Revells. Know 'ye, that we have appointed and authorized, and by these presents doe ' authorize and appoint the said Edward Kirkham, Alexander Hawkins, 'Thomas Kendall, and Robert Payne from tyme to tyme to provide, 'keep, and bring up a convenient nomber of Children, and them to 'practise and exercise in the quallitie of playing, by the name of 'Children of the Revells to the Queene within the Blackfryers in our 'Cittie of London, or in any other convenient place where they shall 'thinck fitt for that purpose. Wherefore we will and commaund you, ' and every of you, to whom it shall apperteyne, to permitt her said servants to keepe a convenient nomber of children by the name of 'the Children of her Revells, and them to exercise in the quallitie of 'playing according to her pleasure. Provided always, that no such 6 Playes or Shewes shall be presented before the said Queene our 'wife by the said children, or by them any where publickly acted, but 'by the approbation and allowance of Samuel Daniell, whom her 'pleasure is to appoint for that purpose. And these our letters patents 'shalbe your sufficient warrant in this behalf. In witness whereof, &c. 'Given under our signet at our honor of Hampton Courte, the thirtieth day of January in the first yere of our raigne &c. Ex. per Lake.' VOL. I.

2 A

the Stage, and it shows how it happened that the Children of the Revels occasionally performed' at Blackfriars, a point which Malone was unable to explain.

This appointment of Daniel to be, as it were, Master of the Queen's Revels, may serve, perhaps, to solve the doubt that has hung over his nomination as Poet Laureat, a situation which Malone supposes him voluntarily to have filled. The selection of these four masters (of whom nothing further is known) may also account for the new constitution of the company of the children of the Revels, upon which Gifford observes, when speaking of Epicone which was acted by them in 1609*. Of course, this comedy must have gone through the hands of Daniel, for his allowance before it was represented, and at the date when it was brought out we have the evidence of the author himself, in the folio of 1616, that the following were among the members of the company, 'provided and kept,' by Kirkham, Hawkins, Kendall and Payne.

* Malone (Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. 61) says, that several of Ben Jonson's comedies were acted by the children of the Revels in the earlier part of King James's reign; but this is an oversight, from his confounding the plays by Ben Jonson performed by the children of the Chapel, in the reign of Elizabeth, with the only piece by him represented by the children of the Queen's Revels in the reign of James I. -Epicone.

'Joh. Smith,

'Will. Barksted,

'Will. Pen,

'Ric. Allin, and

'Joh. Blaney *?

How long the children of the Queen's Revels continued occasionally to perform at Blackfriars, we have no distinct evidence; but, on the title-page of Ben Jonson's Case is Altered, printed in 1609 †, they are

*When the children of the Chapel performed Ben Jonson's Poetaster in 1601, 'the principal comedians were,

'Nat. Field,

‹ Sal. Pavy,
'Tho. Day,

'Joh. Underwood,

'Will. Ostler,

Tho. Marton.'

Thus we see that Field was, probably, the only performer retained by the new masters, when they remodelled the company as the children of the Queen's Revels. Salathiel Pavy is supposed to have died before James came to the throne; Gifford conjectures in 1601. Ben Jonson's Works, viii. 230.

I may take this opportunity of correcting an error by Gifford, when he states, that 'had chronology only been consulted, The Case is Altered should have stood at the head of Jonson's works.' He has himself shewn (Memoirs, xxv. and xl.) that Every Man in his Humour was written in 1596, and it was unquestionably acted in 1598 by the Lord Chamberlain's servants. It is quite as clear, and Gifford adduces the evidence upon the point, (Ben Jonson's Works, vi, 327,) and relies upon it, that The Case is Altered was not written until after Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia, printed in 1598, had called Anthony Munday the best plotter.' Ben Jonson's ridicule of Munday depends upon this expression.