ckfriars Theatre, became an assistant to Pierce in the management
of Paul's. In this capacity we find him in 1606 receiving the payment
for the two performances of the Boys at Court that year.[173]

[Footnote 173: Cunningham, _Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels_,
p. XXXVIII.]

Among the playwrights engaged by Pierce to write for Paul's were
Marston, Middleton, Chapman, Dekker, Webster, and Beaumont; and, as a
result, some of the most interesting dramas of the period were first
acted on the small stage of the singing-school. Details in the history
of the Children, however, are few. We find an occasional notice of
their appearance at Court, but our record of them is mainly secured
from the title-pages of their plays.

The last notice of a performance by them is as follows: "On the 30th
of July, 1606, the youths of Paul's, commonly called the Children of
Paul's, played before the two Kings [of England and of Denmark] a play
called _Abuses_, containing both a comedy and a tragedy, at which the
Kings seemed to take great delight and be much pleased."[174]

[Footnote 174: Nichols, _The Progresses of James_, IV, 1073.]

The reason why the Children ceased to act is made clear in the lawsuit
of Keysar _v._ Burbage _et al._, recently discovered and printed by
Mr. Wallace.[175] From this we learn that when Rosseter became manager
of the Children of the Queen's Revels at the private playhouse of
Whitefriars in 1609, he undertook to increase his profits by securing
a monopoly both of child-acting and of private theatres. Blackfriars
had been deserted, and the only other private theatre then in
existence was Paul's. So Rosseter agreed to pay Pierce a dead rent of
L20 a year to keep the Paul's playhouse closed:

One Mr. Rosseter, a partner of the said complainant, dealt
for and compounded with the said Mr. Pierce to the only
benefit of him, the said Mr. Rosseter, the now complainant,
the rest of their partners and Company [at the Whitefriars]
... that thereby they might ... advance their gains and
profit to be had and made in their said house in the
Whitefriars, that there might be a cessation of playing and
plays to be acted in the said house near St. Paul's Church
aforesaid, for which the said Rosseter compounded with the
said Pierce to give him the said Pierce twenty pounds per
annum.[176]

[Footnote 175: _Shakespeare and his London Associates_, p. 80.]

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