And I believe that this is in fact how Histriomastix was staged, more particularly as at one point (v. 259) the action appears to pass directly from the street to the hall without a clearance. Similarly The Maid's Metamorphosis is on strictly Lylyan lines. It is tout en pastoralle, in a wood, about whose paths the characters stray, while in various regions of it are located the cave of Somnus (II. i. 148), the cottage of Eurymine (IV. ii. 4), and a palace where 'Phoebus appeares' (V. ii. 25), possibly above. Wily Beguiled needs a stage of which part is a wood, and part a village hard by, with some suggestion of the doors of the houses of Gripe, Ploddall, Churms, and Mother Midnight. Somewhat less concentration is to be found in The Wisdom of Dr. Dodipoll. Here too, a space of open country, a green hill with a cave, the harbourage and a bank, is neighboured by the Court of Alphonso and the houses of Cassimere and of Flores, of which the last named is adapted for interior action.[1] All this is in Saxony, but there is also a single short scene (I. iii) of thirty-two lines, not necessarily requiring a background, in Brunswick. The plays of William Percy are still, it must be admitted, rather obscure, and one has an uneasy feeling that the manuscript may not yet have yielded up all its indications as to date and provenance. But on the assumption that the conditions contemplated are those of Paul's in 1599-1606, we learn some curious details of structure, and are face to face with a technique which is still closely reminiscent of the 'eighties. Percy, alone of the dramatists, prefixes to his books, for the guidance of the producer, a note of the equipment required to set them forth. Thus for Cuckqueans and Cuckolds Errant he writes:
'The Properties.
'Harwich, In Midde of the Stage Colchester with Image of Tarlton, Signe and Ghirlond under him also. The Raungers Lodge, Maldon, A Ladder of Roapes trussed up neare Harwich. Highest and Aloft the Title The Cuck-Queanes and Cuckolds Errants. A Long Fourme.'
The house at Colchester is the Tarlton Inn, and here the
ghost of Tarlton prologizes, 'standing at entrance of the doore
and right under the Beame'. That at Harwich is the
house of Floredin, and the ladder leads to the window of his
wife Arvania. Thus we have the concurrent representation
of three localities, in three distinct towns of Essex. To each
- ↑ Dr. Dodipoll, I. i. 1, 'A Curtaine drawne, Earl Lassingbergh is discovered (like a Painter) painting Lucilia, who sits working on a piece of cushion worke'. In III. ii a character is spoken of after his 'Exit' as 'going down the staires', which suggests action 'above'. But other indications place the scene before Cassimere's house.
