nt on their way unchecked. {213a}

The strife between adult and boy actors.

More calamitous was a temporary reverse of fortune which Shakespeare's
company, in common with the other companies of adult actors, suffered
soon afterwards at the hands, not of fanatical enemies of the drama, but
of playgoers who were its avowed supporters. The company of boy-actors,
chiefly recruited from the choristers of the Chapel Royal, and known as
'the Children of the Chapel,' had since 1597 been installed at the new
theatre in Blackfriars, and after 1600 the fortunes of the veterans, who
occupied rival stages, were put in jeopardy by the extravagant outburst
of public favour that the boys' performances evoked. In 'Hamlet,' the
play which followed 'Julius Caesar,' Shakespeare pointed out the perils
of the situation. {213b} The adult actors, Shakespeare asserted, were
prevented from performing in London through no falling off in their
efficiency, but by the 'late innovation' of the children's vogue. {214a}
They were compelled to go on tour in the provinces, at the expense of
their revenues and reputation, because 'an aery [_i.e._ nest] of
children, little eyases [_i.e._ young hawks],' dominated the theatrical
world, and monopolised public applause. 'These are now the fashion,' the
dramatist lamented, {214b} and he made the topic the text of a reflection
on the fickleness of public taste:

HAMLET. Do the boys carry it away?

ROSENCRANTZ. Ay, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load too.

HAMLET. It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and
those that would make mows at him while my father lived, give twenty,
forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little.

Jealousies in the ranks of the dramatists accentuated the actors'
difficulties. Ben Jonson was, at the end of the sixteenth century,
engaged in a fierce personal quarrel with two of his fellow dramatists,
Marston and Dekker. The adult actors generally avowed sympathy with
Jonson's foes. Jonson, by way of revenge, sought an offensive alliance
with 'the Children of the Chapel.' Under careful tuition the boys proved
capable of performing much the same pieces as the men. To 'the children'
Jonson offered in 1600 his comical satire of 'Cynthia's Revels,' in which
he held up to ridicule Dekker, Marston, and their actor-friends. The
play, when acted by 'the children' at the Blackfriars Theatre, was warmly
welcomed