in the open, 'march about the stage', while the scene changes to the hall of Capulet, which they then enter.[1]
I think, then, it must be taken that the background of a public stage could stand at need, not merely for a single domus, but for a 'city'. Presumably in such cases the central aperture and the gallery above it were reserved for any house in which interior action was to proceed, and for the others mere doors in the scenic wall were regarded as adequate. I do not find any sixteenth-century play which demands either interior action or action 'above' in more than one house.[2] But a question arises as to how, for a scene in which the scenic doors had to represent house doors, provision was made for external entrances and exits, which certainly cannot be excluded from such scenes. Possibly the answer is, although I feel very doubtful about it, that there were never more than two houses, and that therefore one door always remained available to lead on and off the main stage.[3] Possibly also entrances and exits by other avenues than the two scenic doors, which we infer from the Swan drawing, and the central aperture which we feel bound to add, are not inconceivable. We have already had some hint that three may not have been the maximum number of entrances. If the Elizabethan theatre limited itself to three, it would have been worse off than any of the early neo-classic theatres based upon Vitruvius, in which the porta regia and portae minores of the scenic wall were regularly supplemented by the viae ad forum in the versurae to right and left of the proscenium.[4] No doubt such wings could not be constructed at the Swan, where a space was left on the level of the 'yard' between the spectators' galleries and the right and left edges of a narrow stage. But they would be feasible in theatres with wider stages, and the arrangement, if it existed, would make the problem of seats on the stage easier.[5] It is no more than a conjecture. It has also been suggested that the heavy
- ↑ R. J. I. iv. 113, where, in Q_{1}, Romeo's 'on lustie Gentlemen' to the maskers is followed by 'Enter old Capulet with the Ladies', while in Q_{2}, Benvolio responds 'Strike drum', and then 'They march about the Stage, and Seruingmen come forth with Napkins', prepare the hall, and 'Exeunt', when 'Enter all the guests and gentlewomen to the Maskers'.
- ↑ In T. of The Shrew, V. i. 17, 'Pedant lookes out of the window', while the presenters are presumably occupying the gallery, but even if this is a sixteenth-century s.d., the window need not be an upper one.
- ↑ The s.d. to Sp. Trag. III. xi. 8, where 'He goeth in at one doore and comes out at another', is rather obscure, but the doors are probably those of a house which has just been under discussion, and if so, more than one door was sometimes supposed to belong to the same house.
- ↑ Cf. pp. 3, 4, 11.
- ↑ See my diagrams on pp. 84-5.
