Giles's long-standing commission to
take up boys for the Chapel, and the issuance of a new commission to
him, November 7, 1606, with the distinct proviso that "none of the
said choristers or children of the Chapel so to be taken by force of
this commission shall be used or employed as commedians or stage
players." (The Malone Society's _Collections_, I, 357.)]

The Children, however, were soon allowed to resume playing, and they
continued for a time without mishap. But in the early spring of 1608
they committed the most serious offense of all by acting Chapman's
_Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron_. The French
Ambassador took umbrage at the uncomplimentary representation of the
contemporary French Court, and had an order made forbidding them to
act the play. But the Children, "voyant toute la Cour dehors, ne
laisserent de la faire, et non seulement cela, mais y introduiserent
la Reine et Madame de Verneuil, traitant celle-ci fort mal de
paroles, et lui donnant un soufflet." Whereupon the French Ambassador
made special complaint to Salisbury, who ordered the arrest of the
author and the actors. "Toutefois il ne s'en trouva que trois, qui
aussi-tot furent menes a la prison ou ils sont encore; mais le
principal, qui est le compositeur, echapa."[353] The Ambassador
observes also that a few days before the Children of the Revels had
given offense by a play on King James: "Un jour ou deux avant, ils
avoient depeche leur Roi, sa mine d'Ecosse, et tous ses Favoris d'une
etrange sorte; car apres lui avoir fait depiter le Ciel sur le vol
d'un oisseau, et fait battre un Gentilhomme pour avoir rompu ses
chiens, ils le depeignoient ivre pour le moins une fois le jour."[354]
As a result of these two offenses, coming as a climax to a long series
of such offenses, the King was "extremement irrite contre ces
marauds-la," and gave order for their immediate suppression. This
marked the end of the child-actors at Blackfriars.

[Footnote 353: From the report of the French Ambassador, M. de la
Boderie, to M. de Puisieux at Paris, _Ambassades de Monsieur de la
Boderie en Angleterre_, 1750, III, 196; quoted by E.K. Chambers in
_Modern Language Review_, IV, 158.]

[Footnote 354: The name of this play is not known; probably the King
was satirized in a comic scene foisted upon an otherwise innocent
piece. Mr. Wallace, in _The Century Magazine_ (September, 1910, p.
747), says: "From a document I have found in France the Blackfriar