camps can be concurrently represented, and action may alternate between them.[1] Another kind of background is furnished, as in Orestes, by the walls of a besieged city. On these walls the defenders can appear and parley with the besieging host. They can descend and open the gates.[2] They can shoot, and be shot at from below.[3] The walls can be taken by assault and the defenders can leap from them.[4] Such scenes had an unfailing appeal, and are sometimes repeated, before different cities, in the same play.[5]
- [Footnote: and Cressida, plot (Henslowe Papers, 142), 'Enter . . . to them Achillis
in his Tent'; Trial of Chivalry, C_{4}^v, 'this is the Pauilion of the Princesse . . . Here is the key that opens to the Tent' . . . D, 'Discouer her sitting in a chayre asleepe' and a dialogue in the tent follows. The presence of a tent, not mentioned in dialogue or s.ds., can often be inferred in camp scenes, in which personages sit, or in those which end with a 'Come, let us in'; e.g. Locrine, 564, 1147.]*
- ↑ Richard III, V. iii, iv, v (a continuous scene); 1 Hen. IV, V. i, ii, iii, iv (probably similar); cf. p. 51, n. 8 (Trial of Chivalry).
- ↑ Edw. I, 900, 1082, 2303 (after a battle), 'Then make the proclamation vpon the walles' (s.d.); James IV, 2003 (after parley), 'They descend downe, open the gates, and humble them'; Soliman and Perseda, III. iv; V. iv. 16, 'The Drum sounds a parle. Perseda comes vpon the walls in mans apparell. Basilisco and Piston, vpon the walles. . . . Then Perseda comes down to Soliman, and Basilisco and Piston'; 2 Contention, sc. xviii, 'Enter the Lord Maire of Yorke vpon the wals' . . . (after parley) 'Exit Maire' . . . 'The Maire opens the dore, and brings the keies in his hand'; K. John, II. i. 201, 'Enter a Citizen vpon the walles' . . . 'Heere after excursions, Enter the Herald of France with Trumpets to the gates' . . . 'Enter the two kings with their powers at seuerall doores' . . . (after parley) 'Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates'; cf. 1 Troublesome Raigne, scc. ii-x; 2 Contention, sc. xxi; George a Greene, sc. v; Orlando Furioso, I. ii; 2 Tamburlaine, III. iii; Selimus, scc. xii, xxvii-xxxi; Wounds of Civil War, V. ii-iv; Edw. III, I. ii; Death of R. Hood, V. ii; Stukeley, II; Frederick and Basilea and 1 Troilus and Cressida plots (Henslowe Papers, 137, 142), &c. Wall scenes are not always siege scenes. Thus in 2 Troub. Raigne, sc. i, 'Enter yong Arthur on the walls. . . . He leapes' (cf. K. J. IV. iii); in 1 Contention, sc. xvi, 'Enter the Lord Skayles vpon the Tower walles walking. Enter three or four Citizens below' (cf. 2 Hen. VI, IV. v). Analogous is 2 Hen. VI, IV. ix (Kenilworth), 'Enter King, Queene, and Somerset on the Tarras. . . . Enter Multitudes with Halters about their neckes'.
- ↑ In Alarum for London, 203, a gun is fired at Antwerp from the walls of the castle; cf. 1 Hen. VI below.
- ↑ 2 Tamburlaine, V. i, 'Enter the Gouernour of Babylon vpon the walles' . . . (after parley) 'Alarme, and they scale the walles', after which the governor is hung in chains from the walls and shot at; Selimus, 1200, 'Alarum, Scale the walles', 2391, 'Allarum, beats them off the walles; cf. 1 Hen. VI below. Hen. V, III. i-iii (a continuous scene) opens with 'Alarum: Scaling Ladders at Harflew'. Henry says 'Once more vnto the breach', but later a parley is sounded from the town, and 'Enter the King and all his Traine before the Gates', where submission is made, and they 'enter the Towne'. Sometimes an assault appears to be on the gates rather than the walls; e.g. 1 Edw. IV, I. iv-vi; 1 Hen. VI, I. iii.
- ↑ Cf. p. 106, n. 6. The fullest use of walls is made in 1 Hen. VI,
