in 1613 'with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty, even to the matting of the stage'.
Circling the yard and raised above it are three tiers of galleries, each containing three rows of seats. Beneath the first gallery De Witt wrote 'orchestra', above its seats 'sedilia', and between the middle and upper galleries 'porticus'. In the classical theatre 'porticus' was the name for a covered gallery, and the classical analogy also makes it clear that by 'orchestra' De Witt meant to indicate the position occupied by the spectators of highest rank, corresponding to the seats of Roman senators, to which the name of the obsolete dancing place immediately in front of them had been transferred. It was not until the Restoration that the orchestra was allocated to the music.[1] The fronts of the galleries are supported by a number of turned posts. In the Fortune all the chief supports, presumably both in the auditorium and on the stage, were to be square and made 'palasterwise, with carved proporcions called Satiers'. Internal painting was contemplated, but was not covered by the contract. Other references to painted theatres suggest that the Elizabethan builders were not content with bare scaffolds, but aimed at a decorative effect.[2] Three seems to have been the regular number of galleries. Kiechel bears witness to it for the Theatre and Curtain in 1585; and there were three at the Fortune and at the Hope. The lowest gallery at the Fortune was 12 ft. high, the next 11 ft., and the uppermost 9 ft., and each of the two latter jutted out 10 in. beyond that below. This gives a total height of 32 ft., about three-fifths of the interior width of the house. The maps, therefore, make the buildings rather disproportionately high.
- [Footnote: II. i. 72, 'Enter Bassiolo with Servants, with rushes and a carpet', and
Bassiolo says,
lay me 'em thus,
In fine smooth threaves; look you, sir, thus, in threaves.
Perhaps some tender lady will squat here,
And if some standing rush should chance to prick her,
She'd squeak, and spoil the songs that must be sung.
]
- ↑ Lawrence, i. 39, 161.
- ↑ G. Harvey (1579, Letter Book, 67), 'sum maltconceivid comedye fitt for the Theater, or sum other paintid stage whereat thou and thy liuely copesmates in London may lawghe ther mouthes and bellyes full for pence or twoepence apeece'; Spenser, Tears of the Muses (1591), 176, 'That wont with comick sock to beautefie The painted Theaters'; cf. Graves, 68. Coryat, i. 386, in 1608, found a Venice playhouse 'very beggarly and base in comparison of our stately Play-houses in England: neyther can their Actors compare with us for apparell, shewes and musicke'. So in Case is Altered, II. vii. 30, the plays in Utopia (= England) are 'set foorth with as much state as can be imagined'.
