The Children of the Chapel (later known as the Children of the Queen's Revels) was a troupe of child actors in Elizabethan England. Edward Kynaston, one of the last boy players (1889 engraving of a contemporary portrait) Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by English Renaissance acting companies. ... Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq...

Sometime in the 12th century, a Royal Chapel was created as a distinct institution of the English Royal Court. By the accession of James I in 1603, the Chapel was staffed by a dean, a sub-dean, and 32 gentlemen (both priests and laymen); it also had a choir of 12 boys. William Cornish, who was Master of the Children from 1509 to 1523, first began the practice of having the boys' choir perform interludes at Court. William Hunnis was Master of the Children of the Chapel from 1566 to 1597; under his stewardship the boys played repeatedly at Court until 1584. James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Ireland (Charles James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland and was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. ...

In 1576 (the same year James Burbage built The Theatre and began the era of popular Elizabethn drama), Hunnis's deputy Richard Farrant rented space in the old Blackfriars priory, and began public performances by the boys. For unknown reasons, the troupe did not act at Court after 1584 (though they did give some performances outside of London). When the Children of Paul's were suppressed in 1590, due to their playwright John Lyly's role in the Marprelate controversy, the fashion for troupes of child actors went into abeyance for the next decade—inevitably effecting the Children of the Chapel. James Burbage (d. ... This article is about one specific theatre in London; for information on theatres in general, see Theater. ... The Children of Pauls was the name of a troupe of boy actors in Elizabethan and Jacobean London. ... John Lyly (Lilly or Lylie) (c. ... The Marprelate Controversy was a war of pamphlets waged in England and Wales in 1588 and 1589, between a puritan writer who employed the pseudonym Martin Marprelate, and defenders of the Established Church. ...

In 1600 the Children of the Chapel returned to the public stage. Nathaniel Giles, their Master from 1597 to 1634, became one of the lessees (with Hugh Evans) of the Blackfriars Theatre that James Burbage built in 1596, and brought the Children to play there. The boys performed at Court on Jan. 6 and Feb. 22, 1601. They had a big hit that year with Ben Jonson's Poetaster. Nathaniel Field, John Underwood, and William Ostler, all of whom would later join the King's Men, were in the cast. Blackfriars Theatre was the name of two separate theatres in the City of London, built on grounds previously belonging to a Dominican monastery. ... James Burbage (d. ... Benjamin Jonson (circa June 11, 1572 – August 6, 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. ... Nathaniel Field (1587 - 1620), was an English dramatist and actor; his father was the Puritan preacher John Field and his brother became the Bishop of Llandaff. ... It has been suggested that Lord Chamberlains Men be merged into this article or section. ...

Even in the early years of this period, the Children of the Chapel were mired in controversy: Giles drafted, and sometimes nearly kidnapped, boys that he wanted in his troupe. (Incredibly enough, he had a legal right to use such techniques—but only for the boys' choir, not for acting.) Solomon Pavy, the young actor eulogized by Ben Jonson upon his premature death in 1603, was one boy "pressed" into service in this high-handed way. So, reportedly, was Nathaniel Field. In one notorious instance, a man named Henry Clifton brought a complaint before the Star Chamber in Dec. 1601, maintaining that Giles had in fact kidnapped Clifton's young son Thomas while the boy was walking home from grammar school. (Giles was censured; Clifton got his son back.)

The Children of the Chapel performed plays by Jonson, George Chapman, John Marston, Thomas Middleton, and others during the next several years; they specialized in the satirical comedy that appealed to Court wits and a "Gentle" audience, in contrast to the more popularly-oriented drama of William Shakespeare, Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker, and similar writers. The company experienced popularity and success in the first years of the century; when the House of Stuart inherited the monarchy, the the Children of the Chapel, like other troupes of actors, received royal favor—they became the Children of the Queen's Revels (1603-5). This article is about George Chapman the English literary figure; see George Chapman (murderer) for the Victorian poisoner of the same name. ... John Marston (October 7, 1576 - June 25, 1634) was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. ... Thomas Middleton (baptized April 18, 1580, died 1627) was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Thomas Heywood (died approx. ... Thomas Dekker, (c. ... The Coat of Arms of King James I, the first British monarch of the House of Stuart The House of Stuart or Stewart was a royal house of the Kingdom of Scotland, later of the Kingdom of England, and finally of the Kingdom of Great Britain. ...

Yet they also experienced the downside of this brand of drama: when the play Eastward Hoe (1605) won official censure and landed two of its authors, Jonson and Chapman, in jail, the actors earned a share of the disapproval. They lost their Royal patent, and became simply the Children of the Revels (1605-6). They were then known as the Children of the Blackfriars—until 1608, when the King's Men took over the lease of the theatre, effectively evicting the previous tenants. The children's company moved to the new Whitefriars Theatre, and became, perforce, the Children of the Whitefriars (1609). In 1610, however, they regained royal favor, due to the influence of Philip Rosseter, lutenist to the Royal household and their new manager; they were the Children of the Queen's Revels one again. Eastward Hoe or Eastward Ho, is a play written by George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston, printed in 1605. ... Philip Rosseter (1567/8–May 5, 1623) was an English composer and musician, as well as a theatrical manager. ...

The company performed Jonson's Epicene in 1609; in 1611 they acted Nathaniel Field's A Woman is a Weathercock, both at Whitefriars and at Court. Field was in the cast of both productions. They played at Court four times in 1612-13, performing plays by Beaumont and Fletcher. The company continued for some years, with the vicissitudes that often visited the acting companies of the age. After losing their Whitefriars lease at the end of 1614, they moved to Rosseter's short-lived Porter's Hall theatre (1615-17). The last play they are known to have acted was Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady. The company apparently collapsed around 1616. Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I. It is still uncertain how many plays were their joint work. ...

References

• E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
• F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
• Lucy Munro, Children of the Queen's Revels: A Jacobean Theatre Repertory, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.