David Drew-smythe

Salomon Pavey - Prince of Players David Drew-smythe

 London. Elizabeth Tudor is on the throne of a prosperous, yet religiously insecure, England. At the same time, a popular demand for plays, for music and for spectacular entertainments has spread throughout her realm. Nowhere is this more so than at the Royal Court itself. Thus, the world of the Private Theatre is born. Groups, such as the "Pigeons" of St. Paul's Singing School and the Children of The Chapel Royal, have become the favourites of an aging "Queen Bess". Here, inside the walls of the city, their entertainments can take place in dry, comfortable, candle-lit surroundings. As a result, the children are beginning to ruffle the feathers of the adult companies, the so-called "common players". They, on the other hand, are permitted to operate only outside the city walls, during daylight hours and in all weathers! In fact, it was no less a common player than William Shakespeare himself who wrote of the children, "... there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapped for't..." (Hamlet: II.ii.337ff).

This book tells the story of many of these children. Notably, it traces the fate and the fortunes of one of them, Salomon Pavey, who becomes an outstanding young actor at The Chapel Royal - ironically, with a flair for playing the characters of old men. Unwittingly, however, he also becomes enmeshed in the politics of the Court and by the intrigues of his choirmasters - with tragic results; a victim, not only of his enemies, but also of his own success. Salomon was a real person, as were many of the characters in this story. The storyline itself does not necessarily match up with the chronological reality of the era. It is, after all - and above all - a fiction; but it is liberally suffused with facts. Set during the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st, the Chapel Children are nearing the end of a remarkable twenty-five years in their history.