Star Chamber, the Crown v Howe et al: The bill of complaint Agnes Howe, a London heiress, promised marriage to three men, but then married a fourth. John Flaskett, one of her scorned suitors, commissioned George Chapman to write a scurrilous play about the scandal as a means of pressuring Howe into honouring her promise to him. The play was bought for and produced at St Paul's; its performance sparked a series of lawsuits. The Crown charges that George Chapman made a play concerning the affair of Agnes Howe, based on a plot given to him, which was sold to Thomas Woodford and Edward Pearce, Master of the Choir at St Paul's, for twenty marks. The play was a device of her father's to persuade her to marry John Flaskett, who would be willing to forgo her marriage portion, rather than have her name publicized in the various playhouses around London. The play was performed throughout Hilary term until the day on which sentence was to be given on the suit.