ESTABLISHMENT OF BLACKFRIARS 71 
agreed with Gyles’s interpretation, and that he read it thus in 
carrying out the Queen’s wish. 
In this sense the commission required Gyles to provide children 
for the Chapel, but allowed him wide liberty. He could take up 
as many children as he pleased, although the Latin patent issued 
just the day before specifically provided that he should be re- 
quired to instruct but twelve for the Chapel Royal. He could 
remove them whither he wouid, if he could not at once make use 
of them at the Chapel, and could board them and lodge them at 
the royal expense. He might remove them to the Chapel when 
he thought them suitable for use there. There was no compul- 
sion for his ever taking them thither. The disposition of the 
children was left wholly within the discretion of Gyles. 
This wide liberty was used as follows: Gyles or his deputy 
took up numerous children, and delivered them to Henry Evans 
at the Blackfriars theatre. Here they were boarded and lodged 
by Evans at the roval charge. They were taught singing, play- 
acting, dancing, and other arts, besides grammar-school subjects. 
For this purpose, ‘“‘the Scholehouse” at the theatre was used and 
certain musict and praeceptores employed. The children acted 
plays publicly at least once a week. Their performances were 
attended by nobles, members of the Court, and the Queen herself. 
The following pages furnish the evidence of these conditions, 
and show that this liberal interpretation of the commission was 
not only in accordance with the Queen’s knowledge, but was the 
carrying out of her will. 
These powers to Gyles were supplemented by official conces- 
sions to Henry Evans that enabled him to rent the Blackfriars 
theatre and train the Queen’s Children of the Chapel there, with 
remunerative privileges. The documentary proof of this is con- 
nected with events occurring four years later, and is therefore 
taken up in subsequent pages.* 
Whether the concessions to Evans bore earlier or later date 
than the Commission to Gyles cannot yet be determined. The 
testimony of Clifton’s Complaint to the Queen? indicates the the- 
atre was established solely on the basis of the latter. But Clifton 
is making out a case against this commission, and, whether he 
* Infra, 81-82. *Infra, 73ff., 7'7fE. 
185 
