Page:The Elizabethan stage (Volume 3).pdf/165

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

May Day has four.[1] The Widow's Tears has four.[2] But in all cases there is a good deal of interplay of action between one house and another, and all the probabilities are in favour of continuous setting. The tragedies are perhaps another matter. The houses are still not numerous; but the action is in each play divided between two localities. The Conspiracy of Byron is partly at Paris and partly at Brussels; the Tragedy of Byron partly at Paris and partly at Dijon.[3] Jonson's Case is Altered has one open-country scene (V. iv) near Milan. The other scenes require two houses within the city. One is Farneze's palace, with a cortile where servants come and go, and a colonnade affording a private 'walk' for his daughters (II. iii; IV. i). Hard by, and probably in Italian fashion forming part of the structure of the palace itself, is the cobbler's shop of Farneze's retainer, Juniper.[4] Near, too, is the house of Jaques, with a little walled backside, and a tree in it.[5] A link with Paul's is provided by three Blackfriars plays from Marston. Of these, the Malcontent is in his characteristic Italian manner. There is a short hunting scene (III. ii) in the middle of the play. For nearly all the rest the scene is the 'great chamber' in the palace at Genoa, with a door to the apartment of the duchess at the back (II. i. 1) and the chamber of Malevole visible above.[6] Part

  1. ↑ May Day has (a) Quintiliano's, (b) Honorio's, (c) Lorenzo's, and (d) the Emperor's Head, with an arbour (III. iii. 203). The only interior action is in Honorio's hall (V). Windows above are used at Lorenzo's, with a rope ladder, over a terrace (III. iii), and at Quintiliano's (III. ii). The action, which is rather difficult to track, consists largely of dodging about the pales of gardens and backsides (II. i. 180; III. iii. 120, 185; IV. ii. 83, 168). Clearly (a), (c), and (d) are all used in the latter part of II. i, where a new scene may begin at 45; and similarly (b), (c), and (d) in III. iii, and (b) and (c) in IV. ii.
  2. ↑ Widow's Tears has (a) Lysander's (I. i; II. i; III. i); (b) Eudora's (I. ii; II. ii, iv; III. ii; IV. i); (c) Arsace's (II. iii); all of which are required in I. iii; and (d), a tomb (IV. ii, iii; V). There is interior action in a hall of (b), watched from a 'stand' (I. i. 157; I. iii. 1) without, and the tomb opens and shuts; no action above.
  3. ↑ In the Conspiracy the Paris scenes are all at Court, vaguely located, and mainly of hall type, except III. iii, which is at an astrologer's; the only Brussels scene is I. ii, at Court. The Tragedy is on the same lines, but for V. ii, in the Palace of Justice, with a 'bar', V. iii, iv, in and before the Bastille, with a scaffold, and I. ii and III. i at Dijon, in Byron's lodging. In II. i. 3 there is 'Music, and a song above', for a mask.
  4. ↑ C. Altered, I. i. 1, 'Iuniper a Cobler is discouered, sitting at worke in his shoppe and singing'; IV. v. 1, 'Enter Iuniper in his shop singing'.
  5. ↑ C. A. I. v. 212; II. i; III. ii, iii, v, 'Enter Iaques with his gold and a scuttle full of horse-dung'. 'Jaques. None is within. None ouerlookes my wall'; IV. vii. 62, 'Onion gets vp into a tree'; V. i. 42. In I. v action passes directly from the door of Farneze to that of Jaques.
  6. ↑ Malc. I. i. 11, 'The discord . . . is heard from . . . Malevole's chamber' . . . (19) 'Come down, thou rugged cur' . . . (43) 'Enter Malevole below'.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Page:The_Elizabethan_stage_(Volume_3).pdf/165&oldid=11815056"