and the Players of Lanam,' or Lavenham, are also mentioned; and not among the least singular items is the entry of a covenant between the Duke of Norfolk and William Wastell of London, Harper, in which the latter undertakes to teach a boy (no doubt intended for the Duke's chapel) to sing and to play upon the harp. Disguisings, and rewards for minstrels are also noticed in this account-book, which seems to have been carefully inspected by Jocky of Norfolk' himself, whose handwriting is in several places to be found*.

* Malone makes no mention of 'players' (excepting in the case of the City Actors' in the reign of Edw. IV. spoken of by Stow) as a distinct and recognized occupation prior to the time of Henry VII., who, he justly remarks, had a royal company (Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. 43.) Richard III, when Duke of Glocester, had, as we see above, a company of players,' and in all probability, he kept up the establishment when he ascended the throne. The names of the Duke of Norfolk's 'players' were these: John Hobbis, Thomas Pout,

Burges and Richard Newman, and there are also entries for the cost of making doublets for them. The same MS. gives the following as the nomina puerorum Capella of Lord Oxford, who, we shall hereafter observe, very early in the reign of Henry VII., had a company of players,' and perhaps the boys of the chapel sometimes acted with them:-John Herbet, William Holcott, John Holme, Thomas Alderson, Roger Berton, James Hoggys, Jorge Cornere, John Feney, Ric. Robkyn, John Bendysh, Thomas Crowde and Thomas Ordell. The ensuing quotations from John Lord Howard's Household-book, from 22 Edw. IV. to 6 Hen. VII., will be read with interest.

'Itm on Crystemas day' [22 Edw. IV.] ' my lord gaff to 4 pleyeres ' of my lord of Gloucestres, 10s.

'Itm the same day my lord gaff to 4 pleyers of Cocksale, 3s. 4d. 'Itm the fyrst day of Jenever, & the 22 yere of the Kyng, my Lord 'gave to them of the Chapell be the hands of Bawdwyn, 13s. 4d.

The following minute regulations regarding the minstrels and children of the chapel of Edward IV., are from a MS. in the British Museum*.

'Mynstrells 14; whereof one is verger, that directeth 'them all in festivall daies to their stations, to blowings, pipings, to such officers as must be warned to 'prepare for the King and his household att meate ' and supper; to be the more readie on all services,

'Itm to the mynstrells the same day, 2s.

'Itm the same daye my Lord made covenaunt with William Wastell of London, Harper, he shall have the sone of John Orlet of Colches'ter, Harper, for a yere to teache hym how to harpe & to synge, for the 'which techynge my lord shall geve hym 13s. 4d. and a gown, wherof 6 my lord to hym in ernest, 6s. 8d. and at the ende of the yere he shall ' have the remnaunt & no gown, and he is bound be endenture to my 'lord to performe the covenaunts before wreten.

'Itm to an Arper that playde befor my lords grace, 20d.

'Itm payd to my lord of Arundels mynstrellys the 20 day of Sep'tembre Anno 6 R. H. VII., 10s.

'Itm payd for settyng of a pese on the organs the sayd day, 8d. 'Itm stuff for dysgysars on saynt Stevens day, Anno 6 Henry VII., 16d.

'Itm payd for 18 yards of lynen cloth that M. Wynthorpe had for 'dysgysyng, at 4d. the yard, the 20 day of December, 6s. 8d.

'Itm payd the second day of Januar, Ao. 6 H. VII. to John Long 'when he went to London for the dysgysing stuff, for his costs, 20d. 'Itm payd to the players at Chemsford the 20 day of December, 6s. 8d.

'Wages to the chyldren of the Chapell. Itm the same day my lord paied to Agnes Banyerd that she leid owt for 3 chyldren of the 'chapell to howsell them with all, that is to say gret Dyke,

Edward

" Cherry, 6d. Item to Holt, 4d. &c.

'Itm in reward to the players of Lanam

* MSS. Harl. No. 610.

18d.

40s.'

6

and all thus sytting in the hall togeather, wherof some use trumpetts, some shalmes, some small pipes, some are stringemen, coming to the court at five 'feastes of the yeere &c. and clothyng with the house' hold, wynter and sommer, or 20s. a peece and lyverie at Court. They are to blowe to supper and other ' revells used at chaundry, and allwaie two of theis persons to continue in Court in wages, being pute to warne at the King's rideing, when he goeth to horseback, as it shall require. And likewise the King 'will not for his worshipp that his minstrells be too 'presumptious, nor too familiar to aske any reward, ' of the lord of the land. Children of the Chappell 8, founden by the King's Jewell Howse for all things that belong to their apparell, by the oversight of the Deane, or the Mr. of the songe assynde to 'teache them &c. ; & he to drawe theis children as • well in Schoole of facet, as in songe, organies or such ' other vertues &c. Allso when they be growen to the

6

age of 18 yeres, and then theire voyces be chaunged,

they cannot be preferred in this chappell, nor within this Court, the nomber being full, then yf they will 'absent, the King signeth onelie such child to a col'ledge of Oxford or Cambridge of the King's foun-`

dacion, there to be in findeinge and study sufficient

lie, till the King otherwise list to advance him*.’

* On the 4th of April, 1469, Edward IV. constituted the following minstrels attending the Court unum corpus et una communitas perpetua :-Walter Haliday (Marescallus), John Cliff, Robert Marshall, Thomas Grene, Thomas Calthorn, William Cliff, William Christean,

The Master of the song assigned to teach' the children of the Chapel in 1467, was Henry Abyndon; and in 1482, Gilbert Banastre *, who each had an annual salary of 40 marks. These facts appear by the Acts of Resumption of those years, from which the above musical instructors are excepted.

We learn also from Harl. MS. No. 610, that the. charge of the King's Garçons du Capell was 80l. per annum. In the reign of Edward IV. (the precise year is not mentioned,) Robert Grene, minstrel, and John Hawkyns, minstrel, each obtained grants of ten marks a year out of the Crown lands†; and we shall see that they continued in the same capacity in the early part of the reign of Henry VII.

Hitherto, there is no reason for supposing, that the musicians and singers employed by the court were foreigners, but in the reign of Richard III. a number of Austrian and Bavarian minstrels were in

William Eynesham; and the instrument recites the injury done to them by pretenders who travelled about the kingdom receiving rewards as the King's Minstrels. Rymer's Fœd., v. Part II. p. 169. Harl. MS. No. 642, a copy of the household regulations of Edw. IV., states that the wages of the minstrels was 44d. per day, and that they were allowed two servants to carry their instruments. Of the Children of the Chapel, it is said, that when journeying with the King on progress, they were to be allowed four-pence per day for horse-hire: six of them, with the master, were to accompany the King.

* Gilbert Banastre, or Banister, was a poet of some note in his day, and among other things wrote The Miracle of St. Thomas. Warton, H. E. P. ii. 449, edit. 8vo.

+ Harl. MSS., No. 433.

VOL. I.

D

this country. In October, 1483, Henryke Hes, Hans

A. D. Hes, and Mykell Yonger, minstrels,' had a 1483. letter of passage to return to the Duke of Austria, their master; and in March of the same year, a permission of the like kind was given for Conret Snyth and Peter Skeydell, minstrels,' to return to the Duke of Bavaria*.

Thus we see that Richard III., when Duke of Gloucester, entertained a company of players as his servants, and he probably gave great encouragement to the science of music. There exists a remarkable proof of his partiality to it; for, on the 16th of September, in the second year of his reign, he issued a most arbitrary order for impressing singing men and children, even from cathedrals, colleges, chapels, and houses of religion, for the purpose of affording him

amusement.

* Harl. MSS., No. 433.

† Subsequent monarchs were not reluctant to follow the precedent thus, perhaps, for the first time set. But vide Rym, Fœd., v. Pt. II. 66. The instrument itself, a warrant to John Melyonek, one of the Gentlemen of the Chapel, is extant in Harl. MS., No. 433. It is as follows:

'Ric. &c. To all and every our subjects, as well spirituell as tem" porell, thise letters hering or seeing, greeting. We let you wite, that 'for the confidence and trust we have in our trusty and welbeloved servaunt, John Melyonek, oon of the gentilmen of our chapell, and know'ing also his expert habilitie and connyng in the science of musique ' have licenced him, and by thise presents licence and give him aucto'ritie, that within all places in this our reame, as well cathedral churches, " coliges, chappells, houses of relegion, and all other franchised and exempt places, as elliswhere, our colege roial at Wyndesor reserved and 'exept, may take and sease for us and in our name al such singing