At the same time the Queen became greatly interested in promoting their dramatic activities. To their master, Thomas Gyles, she issued, in April, 1585, a special commission "to take up apt and meet children" wherever he could find them. It was customary for the Queen to issue such a commission to the masters of her two private chapels, but never before, or afterwards, had this power to impress children been conferred upon a person not directly connected with the royal choristers. Its issuance to Gyles in 1585 clearly indicates the Queen's interest in the Paul's Boys as actors, and her expectation of being frequently entertained by them. And to promote her plans still further, she appointed the successful playwright John Lyly as their vice-master, with the understanding, no doubt, that he was to keep them--and her--supplied with plays. This he did, for all his comedies, except the two just mentioned, were written for the Cathedral Children, and were acted by them at Court, and in their little theatre "behind the Convocation House." Unfortunately under Lyly's leadership the Boys became involved in the bitter Martin Marprelate controversy, for which they were suppressed near the end of 1590. The printer of Lyly's _Endimion_, in 1591, says to the reader: "Since the plays in Paul's were dissolved, there are certain comedies come to my hands by chance, which were presented before Her Majesty at several times by the Children of Paul's." Exactly how long the Children were restrained it is hard to determine. In 1596 Thomas Nash, in _Have With You to Saffron Walden_, expressed a desire to see "the plays at Paul's up again." Mr. Wallace thinks they may have been allowed "up again" in 1598;[171] Fleay, in 1599 or 1600;[172] the evidence, however, points, I think, to the spring or early summer of 1600. The Children began, naturally, with old plays, "musty fopperies of antiquity"; the first, or one of the first, new plays they presented was Marston's _Jack Drum's Entertainment_, the date of which can be determined within narrow limits. References to Kempe's Morris, which was danced in February, 1600, as being still a common topic of conversation, and the entry of the play in the Stationers' Registers on September 8, 1600, point to the spring or early summer of 1600 as the date of composition. This makes very significant the following passage in the play referring to the Paul's Boys as just beginning to act again after their long inhibition: _Sir Ed._ I saw the Children of Paul's last night, And troth they pleas'd me pretty, pretty well. The Apes in time will do it handsomely. _Plan._ S'faith, I like the audience that frequenteth there With much applause. A man shall not be choak't With the stench of garlic, nor be pasted To the barmy jacket of a beer-brewer. _Bra. Ju._ 'Tis a good, gentle audience; and I hope the Boys Will come one day into the Court of Requests.