rvices elsewhere.
Travelling companies, therefore, still continued to carry into every
part of England the delights of play-acting. It is a pleasing conjecture
that the genius of the boy, Shakespeare, was first quickened by seeing a
performance in his native town.

We have said that a few men and one or two boys would suffice for a
company. The boys, of course, were to take the female parts, as
women-actors were not seen on the stage until some time after
Shakespeare's death, and only came into general favour after the
Restoration. Although some plays included a large number of characters,
the author was generally careful so to arrange their exits and entrances
that not more than four or five were required on the stage at one time.
Thus, in the list of dramatis personae for _Like Will to Like_ the
twelve characters are distributed amongst five actors: four actors are
shown to be sufficient for the eleven characters of _New Custom_; and
the thirty-eight characters of _Cambyses_ are grouped to fit eight
players.

When on tour a company began its stay in any town with a visit to the
mayor (or his equivalent), before whom a first performance was given.
His approval secured for the company a fee and the right of acting. Thus
the practice of public control over the Guild 'Miracles' was extended to
these independent performances in the form of a mayoral censorship. This
control, in London, was placed in the hands of the Court Master of the
Revels, who thereby became the State dramatic censor with power to
prohibit the performance of any play that offended his taste.

In addition to these companies of men there were, in and near London,
companies of boys carefully trained to act. At the public schools of
Eton and Westminster histrionics was included amongst the subjects
taught. The singing school at St. Paul's studied the art with equal
industry. Most famous of all, the choir boys of the royal chapel took
rank as expert performers. It was doubtless for Eton, Westminster,
Merchant Taylors' and other schools that such plays as _The Disobedient
Child_ and _The Marriage of Wit and Science_ were written. It was, we
may remember, the head-master of Eton who wrote _Ralph Roister Doister_.
Lyly's plays, acted at Court, were all performed either by 'the children
of Paul's' or 'Her Majesty's children'. This may partly account for the
great number and prominence of his female characters as compared with
those found in the comedies of G