Shakespearean Playhouses: A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the RestorationAdams, Joseph Quincy
History
Shakespearean Playhouses: A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the Restoration
Adams, Joseph Quincy
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stage history -- To 1625; Theaters -- England -- London -- History
In such a commission Evans saw wonderful possibilities. He reasoned
that since the Queen had forced upon the Chapel Children the twofold
service of singing at royal worship and of acting plays for royal
entertainment, this twofold service should be met by a twofold
organization, the one part designed mainly to furnish sacred music,
the other designed mainly to furnish plays. Such a dual organization,
it seemed to him, was now more or less necessary, since the number of
boy choristers in the Chapel Royal was limited to twelve, whereas the
acting of plays demanded at least twice as many. Once the principle
that the Chapel Royal should supply the Queen with plays was granted,
the commission could be used to furnish the necessary actors; and the
old fiction, established by Farrant and Hunnis, of using a "private"
playhouse as a means of exercising or training the boys for Court
service, would enable the promoters to give public performances and
thus handsomely reimburse themselves for their trouble.
Such was Evans's scheme, based upon his former experience with the
Children at Farrant's Blackfriars, and suggested, perhaps, by the
existence of Burbage's Blackfriars now forbidden to the "common"
players. He presented his scheme to Giles, the Master of the Children;
and Giles, no doubt, presented it at Court; for he would hardly dare
thus abuse the Queen's commission, or thus make a public spectacle of
the royal choristers, without in some way first consulting Her
Majesty, and securing at least her tacit consent. That Giles and Evans
did secure royal permission to put their scheme into operation is
certain, although the exact nature of this permission is not clear.
Later, for misdemeanors on the part of the management, the Star
Chamber ordered "that all assurances made to the said Evans concerning
the said house, or plays, or interludes, should be utterly void, and
to be delivered up to be cancelled."[315]
[Footnote 315: Fleay, _A Chronicle History of the London Stage_, p.
248.]
Armed with these written "assurances," and with the royal commission
to take up children, Evans and Giles began to form their company. This
explains the language used by Heminges and Burbage: "let the said
playhouse unto Henry Evans ... who intended then presently to erect or
set up a company of boys."[316] Their method of recruiting players
may best be told by Henry Clifton, in his complaint to the Queen:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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