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will answer at your vttermoste perylles. In wytnes wherof &c. Geven vnder our privie seale at our Manor of St James the fourth daye of Decembre in the fourth yere of our Raigne.

R. Jones.

At Christmas 1564-5 the boys appeared at Court in a tragedy by Edwardes, which may have been his extant ''Damon and Pythias''. On 2 February 1565 and 2 February 1566 they gave performances before the lawyers at the Candlemas feasts of Lincoln's Inn. There is nothing to show that the Chapel had any concern with the successful play of ''Palamon and Arcite'', written and produced by Edwardes for Elizabeth's visit to Oxford in September 1566. Edwardes died on the following 31 October, and on 15 November William Hunnis was appointed Master of the Children. His formal patent of appointment is dated 22 April 1567, and the bill for his commission, which only differs from that of Edwardes in minor points of detail, on 18 April. Hunnis had been a Gentleman at least since about 1553, with an interval of disgrace under Mary, owing to his participation in Protestant plots. He was certainly himself a dramatist, but none of his plays are known to be extant, and a contemporary eulogy speaks of his 'enterludes' as if they dated from an earlier period than that of his Mastership. It is, however, natural to suppose that he may have had a hand in some at least of the pieces which his Children produced at Court. The first of these was a tragedy at Shrovetide 1568. In the following year is said to have been published a pamphlet entitled The Children of the Chapel Stript and Whipt, which apparently originated in some gross offence given by the dramatic activities of the Chapel to the growing Puritan sentiment. 'Plaies', said the writer, 'will never be supprest, while her maiesties unfledged minions flaunt it in silkes and sattens. They had as well be at their Popish service, in the deuils garments.' And again, 'Even in her maiesties chappel do these pretty upstart youthes profane the Lordes Day by the