the door of the same chamber, from which Imogen presently emerges.[1] But I do not think that the alcove was used for Gertrude's closet in Hamlet, the whole of which play seems to me to be set very continuously on the outer stage.[2] Hamlet does not enter the closet direct from in front, but goes off and comes on again. A little distance is required for the vision of the Ghost, who goes out at a visible 'portal'. When Hamlet has killed Polonius, he lugs the guts into the neighbour room, according to the ordinary device for clearing a dead body from the main stage, which is superfluous when the death has taken place in the alcove. There is an arras, behind which Polonius esconces himself, and on this, or perhaps on an inner arras disclosed by a slight parting of the ordinary one, hangs the picture of Hamlet's father. Nor do I think, although it is difficult to be certain, that the alcove held Desdemona's death-chamber in Othello.[3] True, there are curtains drawn here, but they may be only bed-curtains. A longish chamber, with an outer door, seems to be indicated. A good many persons, including Cassio 'in a chaire', have to be accommodated, and when Emilia enters, it is some time before her attention is drawn to Desdemona behind the curtains. If anything is in the alcove, it can only be just the bed itself. The best illustrations of my point, however, are to be found in The Devil's Charter, a singular play, with full and naïve stage-directions, which perhaps betray the hand of an inexperienced writer. Much of the action takes place in the palace of Alexander Borgia at Rome. The alcove seems to be reserved for Alexander's study. Other scenes of an intimately domestic character are staged in front, and the necessary furniture is very frankly carried on, in one case by a protagonist. This is a scene in a parlour by night, in which Lucrezia Borgia
- ↑ Cy. II. ii. 1, 'Enter Imogen, in her Bed, and a Lady' . . . (11) 'Iachimo from the Trunke', who says (47) 'To th' Truncke againe, and shut the spring of it' and (51) 'Exit'; cf. II. iii. 42, 'Attend you here the doore of our stern daughter?'; cf. Rape of Lucrece (Red Bull), p. 222 (ed. Pearson), 'Lucrece discovered in her bed'.
- ↑ Ham. III. iv; cf. p. 116. Most of the scenes are in some indefinite place in the castle, called in II. ii. 161 'here in the lobby' (Q_{2}, F_{1}) or 'here in the gallery' (Q_{1}). Possibly the audience for the play scene (III. ii) were in the alcove, as there is nothing to suggest that they were above; or they may have been to right and left, and the players in the alcove; it is guesswork.
- ↑ Oth. V. ii. 1, 'Enter Othello with a light' (Q_{1}), 'Enter Othello and Desdemona in her bed' (F_{1}). It is difficult to say whether Maid's Tragedy, V. i. 2 (continuous scene), where Evadne's entry and colloquy with a gentleman of the bedchamber is followed by s.d. 'King abed', implies a 'discovery' or not.
