CHAPTER VII 
QUEEN ELIZABETH AT THE BLACKFRIARS 
Tue history of the Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars, with 
the influences under which they became a large factor in the lit- 
erary and social life of London and the conditions that made 
them the source of widely ramifying influences from late Eliza- 
beth to the Restoration, throws much of the stage and dramatic 
history of the period into a new perspective. This arises pri- 
_ marily out of the Queen’s attitude. 
From the fact that her Majesty’s Children of the Chapel were 
used at Blackfriars to present plays, every student of the drama 
has for a long time felt she extended to them special favor. But 
just what part she had in their establishment and maintenance 
and what interest she took in their’ performances has been made 
' possible for us to know only through a study of original records. 
plays, and other contemporary evidences. These I have attempted 
to assemble in the present work. Important testimony has al- 
ready been adduced. But valuable records and other materials 
are yet to be examined in the following eight chapters. 
The Queen’s attendance at Blackfriars theatre Tuesday, De- 
cember 29, 1601, has already been mentioned incidentally. On 
that date Sir Dudley Carleton in a gossipv letter of Court-news 
to John Chamberlain wrote: 
“The Q: dined this day priuatly at my L‘4 Chamberlains; I 
came euen now from the dlackfriers where I saw her at the play 
w' all her candidae auditrices.’”” 
*Supra, 26, 87. i _ There are five pages of the orig- 
*Transcribed from the original inal MS., gossipy, but nothing fur- 
MS. in the Public Record Office, ther on Blackfriars or Elizabeth’s 
_ State Papers, Domestic Series, Eliz- attendance there. The letter is 
abeth, CCLXXXIII, No. 48. [The dated at the close, “29 of deceb™ 
Calendar of State Papers, Dom. t6or.” On the back it is addressed 
Eliz., 1601-3, 136, prints this part “To my very louing frend John 
of the letter, but with incorrect Chamberlain these at Knebworth.” 
wording and spelling.] 
209 
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