Category:Merchant Taylors' Boys

The Merchant Taylors school for boys, founded in 1561 and still in operation today, was an active participant in the theatrical world in the early modern period. Its first master, Richard Mulcaster, supervised their performances in the 1570s. Apparently, he brought the company to court initially on 3 February 1573. Records from the Revels Office do not record the title of the play offered at that time, but it might have been Chariclea. In subsequent years through 1583, the Merchant Taylors' Boys gave five performances, for three of which the title of the play given has been recorded. All of the plays are now lost. Mulcaster resigned from the school in 1586, and it appears that the school did not continue court performances under a subsequent master. Chambers, ES, 2.76 cites a remembrance of a schoolboy-player who subsequently became a judge and who looked back on his performances as a "means" of teaching the boys "good behaviour and audacitye."