'revenged themselves upon the hangings, curtains, chairs, stooles, walles, and whatsoever came in their way'.[1] It is not, indeed, stated that these hangings and curtains were upon the stage, and possibly, although not very probably, they may have been in the auditorium. Apart, however, from the Swan, there is abundant evidence for the use of some kind of stage hangings in the public theatres of the sixteenth century generally. To the references in dialogue and stage-directions quoted in the foot-notes to this chapter may be added the testimony of Florio in 1598, of Ben Jonson in 1601, of Heywood in 1608, and of Flecknoe after the Restoration.[2] We can go further, and point to several passages which attest a well-defined practice, clearly going back to the sixteenth century, of using black hangings for the special purpose of providing an appropriate setting for a tragedy.[3] Where then were these hangings? For a front*
- ↑ Cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Vennor. The only extant Swan play is Middleton's Chaste Maid in Cheapside of 1611. Chamber scenes are III. i, ii, iii; IV. i; V. ii. Some of these would probably have been treated in a sixteenth-century play as threshold scenes. But III. ii, a child-bed scene, would have called for curtains. In Chaste Maid, however, the opening s.d. is 'A bed thrust out upon the stage; Allwit's wife in it'. We cannot therefore assume curtains; cf. p. 113. The room is above (ll. 102, 124) and is set with stools and rushes. In V. iv, two funeral processions meet in the street, and 'while all the company seem to weep and mourn, there is a sad song in the music room'.
- ↑ Florio, Dictionary, 'Scena . . . forepart of a theatre where players make them readie, being trimmed with hangings' (cf. vol. ii, p. 539); Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, ind. 151, 'I am none of your fresh Pictures, that use to beautifie the decay'd dead Arras, in a publique Theater'; Heywood, Apology, 18 (Melpomene loq.), 'Then did I tread on arras; cloth of tissue Hung round the forefront of my stage'; Flecknoe (cf. App. I), 'Theaters . . . of former times . . . were but plain and simple, with no other scenes, nor decorations of the stage, but onely old tapestry, and the stage strew'd with rushes'.
- ↑ 1 Hen. VI, I. i. 1, 'Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!'; Lucr. 766 (of night), 'Black stage for tragedies and murders fell'; Warning for Fair Women, ind. 74, 'The stage is hung with blacke, and I perceive The auditors prepar'd for tragedie'; II. 6, 'But now we come unto the dismal act, And in these sable curtains shut we up The comic entrance to our direful play'; Daniel, Civil Wars (Works, ii. 231), 'Let her be made the sable stage, whereon Shall first be acted bloody tragedies'; 2 Antonio and Mellida (Paul's, 1599), prol. 20, 'Hurry amain from our black-visaged shows'; Northward Hoe, IV. i (of court play), 'the stage hung all with black velvet'; Dekker (iii. 296), Lanthorne and Candle-light (1608), 'But now, when the stage of the world was hung with blacke, they jetted vppe and downe like proud tragedians'; Insatiate Countess, IV. v. 4 'The stage of heaven is hung with solemn black, A time best fitting to act tragedies'; Anon., Elegy on Burbage (Collier, Actors, 53), 'Since thou art gone, dear Dick, a tragic night Will wrap our black-hung stage'; cf. Malone in Variorum, iii. 103; Graves, Night Scenes in the Elizabethan Theatres (E. S. xlvii. 63); Lawrence, Night Performances in the Elizabethan
