Page:The Elizabethan stage (Volume 3).pdf/76

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pointed to in certain open-country scenes, that some kind of representation of a river-side was feasible.[1] In Rome there are scenes in which the dialogue is partly amongst senators in the capitol and partly amongst citizens within ear-shot outside.[2] A street may provide a corner, again, whence passers-by can be overheard or waylaid.[3] And in it, just as well as in a garden, a lover may hold an assignation, or bring a serenade before the window of his mistress.[4] A churchyard,*

  1. Lord Cromwell, III. i. 41 (in Italy):

    Content thee, man; here set vp these two billes,
    And let us keep our standing on the bridge,

    followed by s.ds., 'One standes at one end, and one at tother', and 'Enter Friskiball, the Marchant, and reades the billes'. In V. ii. 1 (Westminster) Cromwell says, 'Is the Barge readie?' and (12) 'Set on before there, and away to Lambeth'. After an 'Exeunt', V. iii begins 'Halberts, stand close vnto the water-side', and (16) 'Enter Cromwell'.

  2. Cf. ch. xix, p. 44. Wounds of Civil War has several such scenes. In I. i. 1, 'Enter on the Capitoll Sulpitius Tribune . . . whom placed, and their Lictors before them with their Rods and Axes, Sulpitius beginneth' . . . (146) 'Here enter Scilla with Captaines and Souldiers'. Scilla's party are not in the Capitol; they 'braue the Capitoll' (149), are 'before the Capitoll' (218), but Scilla talks to the senators, and Marius trusts to see Scilla's head 'on highest top of all this Capitoll'. Presently Scilla bids (249) 'all that loue Scilla come downe to him', and (258) 'Here let them goe downe'. In II. i the action is in the open, but (417) 'yond Capitoll' is named; III. i seems to be in 'this Capitoll' (841). In IV. i Marius and his troops enter before the seated Senate. Octavius, the consul, 'sits commanding in his throne' (1390). From Marius' company, 'Cynna presseth vp' (s.d.) to 'yonder emptie seate' (1408), and presently Marius is called up and (1484) 'He takes his seate'. In V. v. 2231 'Scilla seated in his roabes of state is saluted by the Citizens'. Similarly in T. A. I. i, 'Enter the Tribunes and Senatours aloft: and then enter Saturninus and his followers at one doore, and Bassianus and his followers'. Saturninus bids the tribunes 'open the gates and let me in' (63) and 'They goe vp into the Senate house'. Titus enters and buries his sons in his family tomb, and (299) 'Enter aloft the Emperour' and speaks to Titus. There is a Venetian senate house in K. to K. an Honest Man, scc. iii, xvii, but I do not find a similar interplay with the outside citizens here.
  3. W. for Fair Women, II. 93 (Lombard Street), 'While Master Sanders and he are in busy talk one to the other, Browne steps to a corner. . . . Enter a Gentleman with a man with a torch before. Browne draws to strike'; Arden of F. II. ii. 41, 'Stand close, and take you fittest standing, And at his comming foorth speed him'.
  4. T. G. IV. ii (cf. IV. iii. 16, 'Now must we to her window', and III. i. 35, 114, where Valentine has a rope-ladder to scale Silvia's window 'in an upper tower' and 'aloft, far from the ground'); IV. iv. 91, 'That's her chamber'; R. J. (orchard scenes), II. ii; III. v, 'Enter Romeo and Juliet at the window' (Q_{1} where Q_{2} has 'aloft'; on the difficulty presented by Juliet's chamber, cf. p. 94); M. V. II. vi. 1, 'This is the penthouse vnder which Lorenzo Desired us to make a stand' . . . 'Jessica aboue' (s.d.) . . . 'Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer' . . . 'Enter Jessica' (having come down within from the casement forbidden her by Shylock and advised by Lancelot in II. v); Englishmen for my Money, sc. ix