This then is the practical problem, which the manager of an Elizabethan theatre had to solve—the provision of settings,
- [Footnote: 'Old Stukeley goes again to the study'. Then (244) 'Enter Stukeley at
the further end of the stage' and joins his father. Finally the boy is bid (335) 'lock the door'. In Downfall of R. Hood, ind., 'Enter Sir John Eltham and knocke at Skeltons doore'. He says, 'Howe, maister Skelton, what at studie hard?' and (s.d.) 'Opens the doore'. In 2 Edw. IV, IV. ii, 'Enter D. Shaw, pensiuely reading on his booke'. He is visited by a Ghost, who gives him a task, and adds, 'That done, return; and in thy study end Thy loathed life'.]house', who is called out. There is no difficulty in III. v or IV. i; cf. III. v. 164, 'let vs in'. But V. i, taken by itself, reads like a hall scene with a counting-house behind. Black Will and Shakebag are hidden in a 'counting house', which has a 'door' and a 'key' (113, 145, 153). A chair and stool are to be ready for Mosbie and Arden (130). Alice bids Michael (169) 'Fetch in the tables, And when thou hast done, stand before the countinghouse doore', and (179) 'When my husband is come in, lock the streete doore'. When Arden comes with Mosbie, they are (229) 'in my house'. They play at tables and the murderers creep out and kill Arden, and (261), 'Then they lay the body in the Countinghouse'. Susan says (267), 'The blood cleaueth to the ground', and Mosbie bids (275) 'strew rushes on it'. Presently, when guests have come and gone, (342) 'Then they open the countinghouse doore and looke vppon Arden', and (363) 'Then they beare the body into the fields'. Francklin enters, having found the body, with rushes in its shoe, 'Which argueth he was murthred in this roome', and looking about 'this chamber', they find blood 'in the place where he was wont to sit' (411-15).]*
