Martin Peerson and the Blackfriars

Summary

Since the Blackfriars playhouse was famous for its music, it is interesting to find a musician among the sharers in the Revels company early in the reign of James Ⅰ. Martin Peerson wrote music for the voice, and it is possible—though this is conjecture—that he may have helped train the boys’ voices and may have composed or arranged songs for the Blackfriars, as Marston, another sharer, wrote plays. The Children of the Chapel began to act at the Blackfriars in 1600, when Richard Burbage leased the theatre to Henry Evans. On Twelfth Night, 1600/1, the boys presented before Queen Elizabeth “a showe with musycke and speciall songes”. Songs star their plays, from Cynthia’s Revels and Poetaster to The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Their patent of 1610, after the boys had left the Blackfriars to the King’s Men, includes the name of another musician, Philip Rosseter.