newes of shipwracke in the same place, and then wee are to blame if we accept it not for a Rock. Vpon the backe of that, comes out a hidious Monster, with fire and smoke, and then the miserable beholders are bounde to take it for a Caue. While in the meantime two Armies flye in, represented with foure swords and bucklers, and then what harde heart will not receiue it for a pitched fielde?'
It is evident that the plays which Sidney has mostly in
mind, the 'al the rest' of his antithesis with Gorboduc, are
precisely those romantic histories which the noblemen's
players in particular were bringing to Court in his day, and of
which Clyomon and Clamydes and Common Conditions may
reasonably be taken as the characteristic débris. He hints at
what we might have guessed that, where changes of scene
were numerous, the actual visualization of the different
scenes left much to the imagination. He lays his finger
upon the foreshortening, which permits the two ends of the
stage to stand for localities separated by a considerable
distance, and upon the obligation which the players were
under to let the opening phrases of their dialogue make it
clear where they were supposed to be situated. And it certainly
seems from the shorter passage, as if he was also
familiar with an alternative or supplementary device of
indicating locality by great letters on a door. The whole
business remains rather obscure. What happened if the
distinct localities were more numerous than the doors?
Were the labels shifted, or were the players then driven, as
Sidney seems to suggest, to rely entirely upon the method of
spoken hints? The labelling of special doors with great
letters must be distinguished from the analogous use of great
letters, as at the Phormio of 1528, to publish the title of a play.[1]
That this practice also survived in Court drama may be
inferred from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, in which Hieronimo
gives a Court play, and bids his assistant (IV. iii. 17) 'hang
up the Title: Our scene is Rhodes'. Even if the 'scene'
formed part of the title in such cases, it would only name
a generalized locality or localities for the play, and would
not serve as a clue to the localization of individual episodes.[2]*
- ↑ Cf. p. 20.
- ↑ Gibson had used written titles to name his pageant buildings; cf. Brewer, ii. 1501; Halle, i. 40, 54. The Westminster accounts c. 1566 (cf. ch. xii) include an item for 'drawing the tytle of the comedee'. The Revels officers paid 'for the garnyshinge of xiiij titles' in 1579-80, and for the 'painting of ix. titles with copartmentes' in 1580-1 (Feuillerat, Eliz. 328, 338). The latter number agrees with that of the plays and tilt challenges for the year; the former is above that of the nine plays recorded, and Lawrence thinks that the balance was for locality-titles. But titles were also sometimes used in the course of action. Thus Tide Tarrieth
