of the stage, even in out-of-door scenes, is an arras or hanging, through which at Paul's spectators can watch a play.[1] At the Blackfriars, while the arras, even more clearly than in the public theatres, is of a decorative rather than a realistic kind, it can also be helped out by something in the nature of perspective.[2] There is action 'above', and interior action, some of which is recessed or 'discovered'. It must be added, however, that these formulae, taken by themselves, do not go very far towards determining the real character of the staging. They make their first appearance, for the most part, with the interludes in which the Court influence is paramount, and are handed down as a tradition to the public and the private plays alike. They would hardly have been sufficient, without the Swan drawing and other collateral evidence, to disclose even such a general conception of the various uses and interplay, at the Globe and elsewhere, of main stage, alcove, and gallery, as we believe ourselves to have succeeded in adumbrating. And it is quite possible that at Paul's and the Blackfriars they may not—at any rate it must not be taken for granted without inquiry that they do—mean just the same things. Thus, to take the doors alone, we infer with the help of the Swan drawing, that in the public
- [Footnote: is no indication that it descends. In Satiromastix, 2147, we get 'O thou
standst well, thou lean'st against a poast', but this is obviously inadequate evidence for a heavens supported by posts at Paul's.]
- ↑ C. and C. Errant, V. ix, 'He tooke the Bolle from behind the Arras'; Faery Pastoral, V. iv (wood scene), 'He tooke from behind the Arras a Peck of goodly Acornes pilld'; What You Will, ind. 97, 'Let's place ourselves within the curtains, for good faith the stage is so very little, we shall wrong the general eye else very much'; Northward Ho!, IV. i, 'Lie you in ambush, behind the hangings, and perhaps you shall hear the piece of a comedy'. In C. and C. Errant, V. viii. 1, the two actors left on the stage at the end of V. vii were joined by a troop from the inn, and yet others coming 'easily after them and stealingly, so as the whole Scene was insensibly and suddenly brought about in Catastrophe of the Comoedy. And the whole face of the Scene suddenly altered'. I think that Percy is only trying to describe the change from a nearly empty to a crowded stage, not a piece of scene-shifting.
- ↑ Cynthia's Revels (Q), ind. 149, 'Slid the Boy takes me for a peice of Prospective (I holde my life) or some silke Curtine, come to hang the Stage here: Sir Cracke I am none of your fresh Pictures, that use to beautifie the decay'd dead Arras, in a publique Theater'; K. B. P. II. 580, 'Wife. What story is that painted upon the cloth? the confutation of Saint Paul? Citizen. No lambe, that Ralph and Lucrece'. In Law Tricks, III. i, Emilia bids Lurdo 'Behind the Arras; scape behind the Arras'. Polymetes enters, praises the 'verie faire hangings' representing Venus and Adonis, makes a pass at Vulcan, and notices how the arras trembles and groans. Then comes the s.d. (which has got in error into Bullen's text, p. 42) 'Discouer Lurdo behind the Arras', and Emilia carries it off by pretending that it is only Lurdo's picture.
