PREFACE vii 
affair subordinate to conditions arising out of the establishment 
and maintenance of Blackfriars. The long-mooted custom of 
sitting on the stage has been traced from its origin in the Black- 
friars to its termination in France and Germany,—reported last 
- by Goethe,—in 1759. 
The Queen’s requirements for the training of the Blackfriars 
Boys in not only grammar-school subjects but in all arts, par- 
_ ticularly singing, instrumental music, dancing, and play-acting, 
gave rise to the masque within the play, exerting wide influence 
‘on Shakespeare as well as his contemporaries and successors. 
The right chronology of the plays, in some cases differing widely 
_ from the varied guesses and ratiocinative datings of the past, is 
established, the date of each play being fixed either exactly or 
within the narrow limits of one to two months. Unfortunately 
the full evidences must await a later volume. Incidentally the 
date of composition of Hamlet as in the latter half of 1601 and 
of its first acting as late 1601 to early 1602, probably at the Christ- 
- mas season of 1601-2, also establishes itself by final evidences,— 
_which has hitherto been impossible. The significance of certain 
known documents is made clear by assembling all evidences. 
Among these the Hamlet passage on the Children perhaps will 
claim chief interest. Every slightest detail of that much-debated 
passage now becomes clear and historically contributive, as pre- 
sented in a special chapter. Certain long-mooted Hamlet prob- 
lems not dealt with here must ultimately take account of data 
presented before they can be finally put beyond speculative de- 
ductions in the field of debate and established on the simple and 
final basis of pure history. 
In no instance is the reader asked to take my conclusion as his 
own, but in every case he is given the evidence from which the 
inevitable conclusion forces itself upon the judicial mind. If my 
own interpretations, therefore, agree with the reader’s, I shall 
merely have anticipated him by having had the first chance at the 
evidences offered. 
The materials for this work, as already indicated, were gath- 
ered with the primary desire to find the truth in the history of 
the children-companies. But they have led me far beyond. When 
I got my materials together and found the relations of facts to 
109 
