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the ftage there appears to have been a balcony, or upper ftage; the platform of which was probably eight or nine feet from the ground. I fuppofe it to have been fupported by pillars. From hence, in many of our old plays, part of the dialogue was fpoken; and in the front of it curtains likewife were hung, fo as occafionally to conceal the perfons in it from the view of the audience.

"Here gentlemen our anchor's fixt; and we,
"Difdaining Fortune's mutability,

"Expect your kind acceptance; then we'll fing,
"(Protected by your fmiles, our ever-fpring,)
"As pleafant as if we had ftill poffeft
"Our lawful portion out of Fortune's breast.
"Only we would request you to forbear
"Your wonted cuftom, banding tile and pear
"Against our curtains, to allure us forth ;-
"I pray, take notice, these are of more worth;
"Pure Naples fik, not worffed.—We have ne'er
"An actor here has mouth enough to tear
"Language by the ears. This forlorn hope fhall be
"By us refin'd from fuch grofs injury:

"And then let your judicious loves advance
"Us to our merits, them to their ignorance."
3 See Nabbes's Covent Garden, a comedy, 1639:
"Enter Dorothy and Sufan, in the balcone."

So, in The Virgin Martyr, by Maflinger and Decker, 1622: "They whispering below, Enter, above, Sapritius ;—with him Artemia the princefs, Theophilus, Spungius, and Hercius." And there five perfonages fpeak from this elevated fituation during the whole scene. Again, in Mariton's Farne, 1606:

"Whilft the act [i. e. the mufick between one act and another] is a playing, Hercules and Tiberio enters; Tiberio climbs the tree, and is received above by Dulcimel, Philocalia and a prieft: Hercules itays

beneath."

See alfo the early quarto edition of our author's Romeo and Juliet, where we meet "Enter Romeo and Juliet, aloft." So, in The Taming of a Shrew (not Shakspeare's play): "Enter aloft the drunkard.” -Almoft the whole of the dialogue in that play between the tinker and his attendants, appears to have been spoken in this balcony.

In Middleton's Family of Love 1608, fignat. B 2. b. it is called the upper stage.

This appears from a stage-direction in Maflinger's Emperor of the Eaft, 1632: The curtaines drawn above: Theodofius and his eunuchs difcovered." Again, in King Henry VIII.

"Let them alone, and draw the curtain close."

Henry here fpeaks from the balcony.

VOL. I. PART II.

*F .

At

At each fide of this balcony was a box, very incon veniently fituated, which fometimes was called the private box. In thefe boxes, which were at a lower price, some perfons fate, either from economy or fingularity'.

How little the imaginations of the audience were affift ed by fcenical deception, and how much neceffity our author had to call on them to " piece out imperfections with their thoughts," may be collected from Sir Philip Sidney, who, defcribing the ftate of the drama and the ftage, in his time, (about the year 1583,) fays, "Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must beleeve the ftage to be a garden. By and by we heare news of fhipwrack in the fame place; then we are to blame, if we accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that, comes out a hidious monfter with fire and fmoke; and then the miferable beholders are bound to take it for a cave; while in the mean time two

"Whether therefore the gatherers of the publique or private playhoufe ftand to receive the afternoons rent, let our gallant, having paid it, prefently advance himself to the throne of the ftage. I mean not into the lords' roome, which is now but the flages fuburbs. No, those boxes, by the iniquity of custom, confpiracy of waiting-women, and gentlemen-ufhers, that there fweat together, and the covetous sharers, are contemptibly thrust into the reare, and much new fatten is there dambd, by being fmother'd to death in darknefs." Decker's Guls Hernebooke, 1609. So, in the prologue to an old comedy, of which I have loft the title:

"The private box took up at a new play,

"For me and my retinue; a fresh habit
"Of a fashion never feen before, to draw

"The gallants' eyes, that fit upon the ftage."

See alfo Epigrams by Sir John Davies, no date, but printed at Middleburgh, about 1598:

"Rufus, the courtier, at the theatre,

"Leaving the best and most confpicuous place,
"Doth either to the ftage himself transfer,
"Or through a grate doth fhew bis double face,.
"For that the clamourous fry of innes of court,

Fills up the private roomes of greater price;
"And fuch a place where all may have refort,

"He in his fingularity doth defpife."

It is not very easy to ascertain the precise situation of thefe private boxes. A print prefixed to Kirkman's Drolls, 1673, induces me to think that they were at each fide of the stage-balcony.

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armies

armies fly in, reprefented with four fwords and bucklers, and then what hard hart wil not receive it for a pitched field."

The first notice that I have found of any thing like moveable scenes being ufed in England, is in the narrative of the entertainment given to king James at Oxford in Auguft 1605, when three plays were performed in the hall of Chrift Church, of which we have the following account by a contemporary writer. "The ftage" (he tells us)" was built clofe to the upper end of the hall, as it feemed at the firft fight: but indeed it was but a falfe wall faire painted, and adorned with stately pillars, which pillars would turn about; by reason whereof, with the help of other painted clothes, their ftage did vary three times in the acting of one tragedy:" that is, in other words, there were three fcenes employed in the exhibition of the piece. The scenery was contrived by Inigo Jones, who is defcribed as a great traveller, and who undertook to "further his employers much, and furnish them with rare devices, but produced very little to that which was expected"."

It is obfervable that the writer of this account was not acquainted even with the term, fcene, having ufed painted clothes instead of it: nor indeed is this furprising, it not being then found in this fenfe in any dictionary or vocabulary, English or foreign, that I have met with. Had the common ftages been furnished with them, neither this writer, nor the makers of dictionaries, could have been ignorant of it. To effect even what was done at Chrift

2 Defence of Poefie, 1595. Signat. H 4.

3 Leland. Collec. Vol. II. pp. 631, 646. Edit. 1770. See alfo p. 639: "The fame day, August 28, after fupper, about nine of the clock they began to act the tragedy of Ajax Flagellifer, wherein the ftage varied three times. They had all goodly antique apparell, but for all that, it was not acted fo well by many degrees as I have feen it in Cambridge. The king was very wearie before he came thither, but much more wearied by it, and spoke many words of diflike."

4 Florio, who appears to have diligently ftudied our customs, illuftrating his explanations on many occafions by English proverbs, fayings, local defcriptions, &c. in his Italian Dictionary, 1598, defines Scena, in these words: "A fcene of a comedie, or tragedie. Also a ftage in a theatre, or playhouse, whereon they play; a skaffold, a

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Chrift-Church, the University found it neceffary to employ two of the king's carpenters, and to have the advice of the controller of his works. The Queen's Mafque, which was exhibited in the preceding January, was not much more fuccefsful, though above £.3000 was expended upon it. "At night," fays Sir Dudley

pavillion, or fore part of a theatre, where players make them readie, being trimmed with bangings, out of which they enter upon the stage. Ufed alfo for a comedie or a tragedie. Alfo a place where one doth fhew and fet forth himfelfe to the world." In his fecond edition, published in 1611, instead of the words, "A fcene of a comedic or tragedie," we find Any one fcene or entrance of a comedie or tragedie," which more precifely afcertains his meaning.

In Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary printed in 1611, the word frene is not found, and if it had existed either in France or England, (in the fenfe in which we are now confidering it,) it would proba bly have been found. From the word falot, the definition of which I fhall have occafion to quote hereafter, the writer feems to have been not unacquainted with the English ftage.

Bullokar, who was a phyfician, published an English Expofitor in the year in which Shakspeare died. From his definition likewife it appears, that a moveable painted fcene was then unknown in our theatres. He defines Scene, "A play, a comedy, a tragedy, or the divifion of a play into certain parts. In old time it fignified a place covered with boughes, or the room where the players made them readie." Minfheu's large English Dictionary, which he calls A Guide to the Tongues, was published in the following year, 1617, and there Scene is nothing more than a theatre." Nay, even fo late as in the year 1656, when Cockeram's English Dictionary, or Interpreter of bard English words was published, Scene is only faid to be the divifion of a play into certain parts."

Had our English theatres in the time of Shakspeare been furnished with moveable fcenes, painted in perfpective, can it be fuppofed that all these writers fhould have been ignorant of it?

It is obfervable that Coryate in his Crudities, 4to. 1611, when he is boafting of the fuperior fplendour of the English theatres, compared with thofe of Venice, makes no mention of fcenes. "I was at one of their playhouses, where I faw a comedie. The house is very beggarly and bafe in comparison of our flately playhouses in England: neither can their actors compare with us, for apparel, shows, and muficke." Crudities, p. 247.

It is alfo worthy of remark that Mr. Chamberlaine, when he is speaking of the fate of the performers at the Fortune theatre, when it was burnt down in 1621, laments that " their apparel and play-books were loft, whereby those poor companions were quite undone;" but fays not a word of scenes. See alfo Sir Henry Wotton's letter on the burning of the Globe in 1613, p. 54, n. 3•

Carleton,

Carleton, " we had the Queen's Make in the Banqueting-house, or rather her Pageant. There was a great engine at the lower end of the room, which had motion, and in it were the images of fea-horses, (with other terrible fishes,) which were ridden by the Moors. The indecorum was, that there was all fish, and no water. At the further end was a great fhell in form of a fkallop, wherein were four feats; on the loweft fat the queen with my lady Bedford, on the reft were placed the ladies Suffolk, Darby "," &c. Such were moft of the Mafques in the time of James the Firft: triumphal cars, caftles, rocks, caves, pillars, temples, clouds, rivers, tritons, &c. compofed the principal part of their decoration. In the courtly mafques given by his fucceffor during the first fifteen years of his reign, and in fome of the plays exhibited at court, the art of fcenery

5 Letter from Sir Dudley Carleton to Mr. Winwood, London, Jan. 1504, (i. e. 1604-5,] Winwood's Memorials, II. 43. This letter contains fo curious a trait of our British Solomon, that I cannot forbear tranfcribing another paffage from it, though foreign to our prefent fubject. "On Saint John's day we had the marriage of Sir Philip Herbert and the Lady Sufan performed at Whitehall, with all the honour could be done a great favourite. The Court was great, and for that day put on the best bravery.-At night there was a Mafk in the hall, which for conceit and fashion was fuitable to the occafion. The prefents of plate and other things given by the noblemen [to the bride and bridegroom] were valued at 2500l.; but that which made it a good marriage, was a gift of the king's of 5col. land, for the bride's jointure. They were lodged in the council chamber, where the king in bis foirt and night-gown gave themea reveille-matin before they were up, and spent a good time in or upon the bed, choose which you will believe. No ceremony was omitted of bride-cakes, points, garters, and gloves, which have been ever fince the livery of the court; and at night there was fewing into the sheet, cafting of the bride's left hofe, with many other petty forceries."

Our poet has been, cenfured for indelicacy of language, particularly in Hamlet's converfation with Ophelia, during the reprefentation of the play before the Court of Denmark; but unjustly, for he undoubtedly reprefented the manners and converfation of his own day faithfully. What the decorum of thofe times was, even in the highest clafs, may be conjectured from another paffage in the fame letter: "The night's work [the night of the queen's mafque] was concluded with a banquet in the great chamber, which was fo furiously affaulted, that down went table and treffes, before one bit was touched."-Such was the court of King James the First.

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