10 CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL AT BLACKFRIARS 
they have reached us brim with it. The songs are generally in- 
dicated and given in full. So prominent is this feature that a 
play of undeclared authorship containing many songs,—as His- 
triomastix,—can with practical certainty be assigned to a chil- 
dren’s company. 
The instrumental music naturally could not so well be recorded. 
Yet numerous plays of the children give stage-directions for it. 
From the testimony of Gerschow, secretary to the Duke of Stet- 
tin, in 1602 the music program introductory to the play at Black- 
friars was an hour long. But this custom is recorded in no pub- 
lished drama; nor is the modern custom today that has grown 
out of it. 
The public theatres had not yet in'1604 adopted the music in- 
troductions and interspersions of the private house.t’ But soon 
after the Burbage company took over the Blackfriars (1608),? 
they began to develop this side of their performance on the lines 
followed by the former Boys there.* The Blackfriars orchestra 
under their management became famous.* I have read that mu- 
sicians even paid for the privilege of playing in it, but know no- 
proof of the statement. 
1The Induction to The Malcon- 
tent as played by the King’s Men 
at the Globe in 1604 has the fol- 
lowing :— : 
“Sly. What are your additions? 
Burbage.  Sooth, not greatly 
needful; only as your salad to your 
feast, to entertain a little more time, 
and to abridge the not-received cus- 
tom of music in our theatre. I 
must leave you, sir.” 
Yet, Malone, of: cit, Ul, “1195 
_judges from a cited isolated exam- 
ple from Gammer Gurton’s Needle 
(acted ca. 1566; printed 1575) that 
music between acts characterized 
the theatre from its infancy. He 
adds, “In a copy of Romeo and 
Juliet. 1599. now before me, which 
certainly belonged to the playhouse, 
the endings of the acts are marked 
in the margin; and directions are 
given for musick to be played be- 
tween each act.” He believes these 
directions are of “very old date” 
because one of them is in ancient 
style and hand. But the handwrit- 
ing did not differ widely enough 
between 1599 and ten years later, 
when music became more general, 
for this evidence to amount to any- 
thing. And if only one direction 
is even probably that old the evi- 
dence is valueless. 
J. BP. Gollier; op: ct 2 Mil 2525 
while not declaring himself square- 
ly, seems to hold with Malone. 
* Infra, 44°. 
*Certain of the Boys were taken 
into the Burbage company at this 
time. Shakespeare’s The Tempest 
is probably his first play written 
for the Blackfriars. See infra, 167. 
“The fame of the Blackfriars or- 
chestra long endured as the fore- 
most music organization of Lon- 
don. Lord Commissioner Bulstrode 
Whitelocke (1605-75), writing an 
elaborate and clear account of the 
masque, with antimasques, of The 
Triumph of Peace by James Shirley 
(played at Whitehall, 7 Charles I 
124 
