furnished the boys who played at Croydon, probably in the archbishop's palace, during the summers of 1592 and 1593, other than the fact that the author of the play produced in 1593, Summer's Last Will and Testament, was Thomas Nashe, who was also part author with Marlowe of Dido, one of two plays printed as Chapel plays in 1594. The extant text of the other play, The Wars of Cyrus, seems to be datable between 1587 and 1594. Hunnis died on 6 June 1597, and on 9 June 1597 Nathaniel Giles, 'being before extraordinary', was sworn as a regular Gentleman of the Chapel and Master of the Children. Giles, like Farrant, came 'from Winsore'. Born about 1559, he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and was appointed Clerk in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and Master of the Children on 1 October 1595. He earned a considerable reputation as a musician, and died in possession of both Masterships at the age of seventy-five on 24 January 1634.[1] His patent of appointment to the Chapel Royal is dated 14 July and his commission 15 July 1597.[2] They closely follow in terms those granted to Hunnis.[3]
Three years later the theatrical enterprise which had been dropped in 1584 was renewed by Giles, in co-operation with Henry Evans, who had been associated with its final stages. The locality chosen was again the Blackfriars, in the building reconstructed by James Burbadge in 1596, and then inhibited, on a petition of the inhabitants, from use as a public playhouse. Of this, being 'then or late in the tenure or occupacion of' Henry Evans, Richard Burbadge gave him on 2 September 1600 a lease for twenty-one years from the following Michael-*
- ↑ Ashmole, Antiquities of Berks (ed. 1723), iii. 172, from tombstone at St. George's, Windsor. The inscription gives him 49 years as Master at Windsor, in error for 39. A second stone described as also his by Ashmole is clearly his wife's.
- ↑ Wallace, ii. 59, prints both from the Privy Seals of 2 and 3 July in the R. O. The appointment is enrolled in Patent Rolls, 39 Eliz. p. 12, and the commission in Patent Rolls, 39 Eliz. p. 9, m. 7 dorso. The appointment is for life, the commission not so specified, and therefore during pleasure only.
- ↑ The operative words of the appointment are 'pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris damus et concedimus dilecto seruienti nostro Nathanieli Giles officium Magistri puerorum Capellae nostrae Regiae . . . habendum . . . durante vita sua naturali Damus etiam . . . praefato Nathanieli Giles vada siue feoda quadraginta librarum sterling percipienda annuatim . . . pro eruditione duodecem puerorum eiusdem Capellae nostrae ac pro eorum conveniente exhibitione vestiturae et lectuarii . . . vnacum omnibus et omnimodis aliis vadis feodis proficubus iurisdiccionibus aucthoritate priuilegiis commoditatibus regardis et aduantagiis quibuscunque eodem officio quoquo modo debitis . . . ac . . . praedicto Nathanieli Giles locum siue officium illud vnius generosorum nostrorum dictae Capellae nostrae Regiae . . . vnacum feodo seu annuali redditu triginta librarum. . .'
