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- dropping.[1] The presence of trees, banks, or herbs is often
required or suggested.[2] As a rule, the neighbourhood of a dwelling is implied, and from this personages may issue, or may hold discourse with those outside. Juliet's balcony, overlooking Capulet's orchard, is a typical instance.[3] A banquet may be brought out and served in the open.[4]
The next great group of scenes consists of those which pass in some public spot in a city—in a street, a marketplace, or a churchyard. Especially if the play is located in
- ↑ Looking-Glass, II. i; IV. iii (supra); Edw. III, II. i. 61, at Roxborough Castle, 'Then in the sommer arber sit by me'; 2 Hen. IV, V. iii (infra). In Sp. Trag. II. ii. 42 Horatio and Belimperia agree to meet in 'thy father's pleasant bower'. In II. iv they enter with 'let us to the bower' and set an attendant to 'watch without the gate'. While they sit 'within these leauy bowers' they are betrayed, and (s.d.) 'They hang him in the Arbor'. In II. v (not really a new scene) Hieronimo emerges from his house, where a woman's cry 'within this garden' has plucked him from his 'naked bed', finds Horatio hanging 'in my bower', and (s.d.) 'He cuts him downe'. In III. xii (an addition of the 1602 text) Hieronimo ranges 'this hidious orchard', where Horatio was murdered before 'this the very tree'. Finally, in IV. ii Isabella enters 'this garden plot', and (s.d.) 'She cuts downe the Arbour'.
- ↑ Sp. Trag. III. xii^a (supra); Shoemaker's Holiday, sc. ii, 'this flowry banke', sc. iv, 'these meddowes'; 1 Hen. VI, II. iv, 'From off this brier pluck a white rose with me', &c. In R. J. II. i (Q_{1}, but Q_{2} has apparently the same setting) Romeo enters, followed by friends, who say, 'He came this way, and leapt this orchard wall', and refer to 'those trees'. They go, and in II. ii (presumably the same scene) Romeo speaks under Juliet's window 'ouer my head'. She says 'The Orchard walles are high and hard to climb', and he, 'By loues light winges did I oreperch these wals', and later swears by the blessed moon, 'That tips with siluer all these fruit trees tops'.
- ↑ R. J. II. ii (supra); Sp. Trag. II. v (supra); Look About You, sc. v (a bowling green under Gloucester's chamber in the Fleet; 1 Oldcastle, I. iii, II. i (a grove before Cobham's gate and an inn); &c. In 1 Contention, sc. ii. 64, Elinor sends for a conjurer to do a spell 'on the backside of my orchard heere'. In sc. iv she enters with the conjurer, says 'I will stand upon this Tower here', and (s.d.) 'She goes vp to the Tower'. Then the conjurer will 'frame a cirkle here vpon the earth'. A spirit ascends; spies enter; and 'Exet Elnor aboue'. York calls 'Who's within there?' The setting of 2 Hen. VI, I. ii, is much the same, except that the references to the tower are replaced by the s.d. 'Enter Elianor aloft'. In 2 Hen. VI, II. ii, the scene is 'this close walke' at the Duke of York's. Similarly, scc. i, iv of Humourous Day's Mirth are before Labervele's house in a 'green', which is his wife's 'close walk', which is kept locked, and into which a visitor intrudes. But in sc. vii, also before Labervele's, the 'close walk' is referred to as distinct from the place of the scene.
- ↑ 2 Troublesome Raigne, sc. viii, 'Enter two Friars laying a Cloth'. One says, 'I meruaile why they dine heere in the Orchard'. We need not marvel; it was to avoid interior action. In 2 Hen. IV, V. iii, the scene is Shallow's orchard, 'where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of mine own graffing, with a dish of caraways, and so forth'.
