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 in a play given by the Gentlemen of the Chapel shortly before his appointment as Master. And although it was some years before he organized the Children into a definite company, he was the ruling spirit and chief organizer of the elaborate disguisings which glorified the youthful court of Henry VIII from the Shrovetide of 1511 to the visit of the Emperor Charles V in 1522, and hold an important place in the story, elsewhere dealt with, of the Court mask. In these revels both the Gentlemen and the Children of the Chapel, as well as the King and his lords and ladies took a part, and they were often designed so as to frame an interlude, which would call for the services of skilled performers.

In view of Cornish's importance in the history of the stage at Court, it is matter for regret that none of his dramatic writing has been preserved, for it is impossible to attach any value to the fantastic attributions of Professor Wallace, who credits him not only with the anonymous Calisto and Meliboea, Of Gentleness and Nobility, The Pardoner and the Frere, and Johan Johan, but also with The Four Elements and ''The Four P. P.'', for the authorship of which by John Rastell and John Heywood respectively there is good contemporary evidence.

Henry the VII^{th} his raigne the xix^{th} yere the moneth of July' [1504], doubtless the satirical ballad on Empson referred to by Stowe, Annales, 816 (B. M. Royal MS. 18, D. 11). I think they yield an older William and a John Cornish, of whom one, probably John, arranged the three pageants at Arthur's wedding, and a William 'jun.' who must have joined the Chapel in 1503 or 1504 and became Master of the Children. The older William may be identical with the Westminster (q.v.) choir-*master of 1479-80. A Christopher or 'Kit' Cornish, referred to by Stopes, 17, and elsewhere, had no existence. This is a ghost-name, due to the juxtaposition of 'kyte', i.e. Sir John Kite, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, and 'Cornisshe' in the 1508 record above.]*
 * [Footnote: 'William Cornysshe otherwise called Nyssewhete Chapelman with