14 CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL AT BLACKFRIARS 
or Shakespeare, or Wagner is greater than the collaborating 
world. 
The actors too enjoyed a similar freedom, and were not im- 
pecunious dependents. The conditions under which both author 
and actor worked were conducive to excellence of art in its kind. — 
It is noteworthy of the authors who wrote for both the chil- 
dren and the men’s companies, aside from Burbage’s,—namely 
Middleton, Webster, Dekker, Day,—that their plays for the chil- 
dren are better than those for the men. Of those who wrote 
exclusively for the unexcepted men’s companies,—as Wilkins, 
Smith, Rowley, Heywood, Chettle, Monday, Houghton, Wilson, 
and a few more,!—none rank with the chief authors of the chil- 
dren-actors, and most of them are little if any superior to the 
poorest,—those who wrote for the Children of the King’s Revels 
exclusively or mainly—Sharpham, Armin, Mason, Barry, and 
Markham. 
Besides several other excellent actors, two of the three Roscii 
of the time were fledged in this “aery” of “little eyases,’ and 
several others became famous. As will fully appear later, the 
boys of the children-companies, grown men, ultimately dominated 
the stage. Their members, after their own organizations closed, 
are found as leaders thereafter in every company but one, and for 
more than fifty years their influence was a factor in the theatre 
and drama. 
But the children-theatre was in no respect a primary school to 
the “common players.” . It was a lively competitor, both dra- 
matically and commercially. Shakespeare felt that the competi- 
tion was more on the latter than on the former side. It was, so 
far as immediate effects were concerned. But the perspective 
of history shows the same result that sharp competition, com- 
mercial or other, always has,—the putting forth of effort to su- 
perior excellence. It stimulated genius in the dramatist and in 
the actor, gave wider range of opportunity to each, and added 
vastly to the number as well as quality of plays produced. 
It is not possible to estimate exactly the tremendous stimulus 
to dramatic effort by this new elemert of competition in the field. 
We know from Henslowe’s Diary, which has to do only with 
Cf. infra, 1637. 
128 
