doubt afforded a better view of the stage than could be obtained from the windows under the inn galleries; but the idea was the same; and the stage was separated from the audience by a wooden paling. The body of the house was lighted by large blazing iron cressets, when the performance took place at night, and of course players and playgoers were alike at the mercy of the elements. Such was the general aspect of the interior of the Globe and other theatres of Shakspeare's time. A curtain, which ran on rings along an iron rod, only opening in the middle to be drawn aside, shrouded the rush-strewn or sometimes matted stage. At a Court masque Inigo Jones is said to have introduced the roller with pulleys and cords, similar to those which are used to elevate and lower our modern "act drops;" and the curtain was sometimes of silk, but generally of wool. The first innovation we read of was that of a balcony being erected at the back of the stage, eight or nine feet from the ground, on each side of which was a box, sometimes called a "private box," for which a lower price was charged. Curtains were hung in front of the balcony, so as to screen it from view at pleasure, and it was occasionally used in the course of the representation by the actors. The engraving we have subjoined in the course of the previous chapter gives a fair idea of these contrivances as they existed at the Red Bull Theatre. During the performances of tragedy the hangings of the stage were black. Shakspeare himself, in one of his poems, speaks of "Black stage for tragedies and murthers fell;" and again, in the induction to "A Warning for Fair Women :" History. 66 'Look, Comedie, I mark'd it not till now, We learn from various passages in contemporary works that trap-doors were in use at the period of which we write. In Shakspeare's own "Macbeth," the cauldron sinks; in "All for Money," "a moral and pitieful comedie," by Thomas Lupton, 1578, there is the following passage:-" Here, with some fine conveyance, Pleasure shall arise from beneathe;" and in the "Roaring Girl," by Middleton and Dekker, there is actually a character called Trap Door. Before 1611 wax lights were used, and branches for candles stood on the stage, but as these were found to obstruct the view of the spectators, circular wooden frames, with sockets for candles, were suspended from above. Not until Garrick's return from France in 1765 do we hear of the present method of lighting by footlights, with shades to conceal the glare from the audience, being adopted. Once more referring to the engraving of the Red Bull, however, a row of lamps or candles. appears to be in use to illuminate the stage. It is impossible to decide whether any scenery, properly so called, was known to the dramatic world in Shakspeare's day. At the masques and pageants at gentlemen's houses something of the sort appears to have been an accessory of the show, and Steevens is of opinion that scenes in the sense of painted cloths, or "flats," as they are now called, were used as illustrations of the poet's meaning. Where (says he) machinery was discovered, the less complicated adjunct of scenes was scarcely wanting. Where a bed is introduced, the scene of a bed-chamber would of course be at hand. Macduff examines the outside of Inverness castle with such minuteness, that he distinguishes even the nests which the martins had built under the projecting parts of its roof. Romeo, standing moon. in a garden, points to the tops of fruit-trees gilded by the The prologue speaker to the second part of "King Henry IV." expressly shows the spectators “this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone" in which Northumberland was lodged. Iachimo takes the most exact inventory of every article in Imogen's bed-chamber, from the silk and silver of which her tapestry was wrought, down to the Cupids that support her andirons. Had not the inside of this apartment with its proper furniture, been represented, how ridiculous must the actions of Iachimo have appeared! He must have stood looking out of the room for the particulars supposed to be visible within it. In one of the parts of "King Henry VI.," a cannon is discharged against a tower; and conversations are held in almost every scene from different walls, turrets, and battlements. Nevertheless we think it more than probable that nothing but a hanging, perhaps of arras, usually formed the background of the stage, which when decayed was ornamented with pictures. However, there are many opinions. on the matter; Malone believing that moveable scenes were in use in England after 1605, when these plays were performed at Oxford before James I.; a contemporary writer thus describing the arrangements:-"The stage was built at the upper end of the halle, as it seemed at first sight, but indeed it was but a false wall faire painted, and adorned with stately pillars, which pillars would turn about, by reason whereof, with the help of other painted clothes, the stage did vary three times in one tragedy." Sir Philip Sidney says, "Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be a garden. By and by we heare news of shipwracke in the same place, and we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock." Again, however, Sir Philip says, "What child is there that coming to a play, and seeing Thebes written upon an old door, doth believe that it is Thebes?" Sir William Davenant also, in the Introduction to the "Siege of Rhodes," says, "In the middle of the freeze was a compartment wherein was written Rhodes." These two latter-named authorities lead us to believe that the locality of the scene of action was indicated by writing it up on a board or placard; and if the artless device served for the name of a city or town, a garden, a bed-chamber, might similarly be suggested, and possibly, at all events in Shakspeare's earlier days, this was all the scenic illusion provided. The profuse descriptions of landscapes, clouds, architecture, &c., which occur in Shakspeare and other writers, certainly go to prove nothing either way; they assisted |