arras or tapestry hangings, which, when decayed, "Enter Pucelle on the top of the tower, thrufting out a torch burning." "Enter lord Scales upon the tower, walking. Then enter two or three citizens below." "Enter King and Queen and Somerfet on the terrace." "Enter three watchmen to guard the King's tent." In Coriolanus: "Matcius follows them to the gates, and is fhut in." In Timon': Enter Timon in the woods."* "Enter Timon from his cave." In Julius Cæfar: Enter Brutus in his orchard." &c. &c. - In fhort, without characteristick discriminations of place, the hiftorical dramas of Shakspeare in particular, would have been wrapped in tenfold confufion and obfcurity; nor could the fpectator have felt the poet's power, or accompanied his rapid tranfitions from one fituation to another, without fuch guides as painted canvas only could fupply. The audience would with difficulty have received the catastrophe of Romeo and Juliet as natural and affe&ing, unless the deception was confirmed to them by the appearance of a tomb. The managers who could raife ghofts, bid the cauldron fink into the earth, and then exhibit a train of royal phantoms in Macbeth, could with lefs difficulty fupply the flat paintings of a cavern or a grove. The artifs who can put the dragons of Medea in motion, can more eafily reprefent the clouds through which they are to pafs. But for thefe, or fuch affiftances, the fpectator, like Hamlet's mother, must have bent his gaze on mortifying vacancy; and with the gueft invited by the Barmecide, in the Arabian tale, muft have furnished from his own imagination the entertainment of which his eyes were folicited to partake. "It should likewife be remembered, that the intervention of civil war would eafily occafion many cuftoms of our carly theatres to be filently forgotten. The times when Apemantus must have pointed to the fcenes as he spoke the following lines: fhame not these woods, Again : By putting on the cunning of a carper." will thefe moift trees "That have outliv'd the eagle," &c. A piece of old tapestry must have been regarded as a poor fab fitute for thefe towering fhades. appear to have been fometimes ornamented with Wright and Downes produced their refpective narratives, were by no means times of exactnefs or curiofity. What they heard might have been heard imperfectly; it might have been unfkilfully related; or their own memories might have deceived them : Ad nos vix tenuis famæ perlabitur aura.'. * "One affèrtion made by the latter of these writers, is chronologically difproved. We may remark, likewife, that in private theatres, a part of the audience was admitted on the flage, but that this licence was refufed in the publick playhouses. To what circumftances fhall we impute this difference between the cufloms of the one and the other? Perhaps the private theatres had no fcenes, the publick had; and a crouded ftage would prevent them from being commodiously beheld, or conveniently fhifted. The fresh pictures mentioned by Ben Jonfon in the induction to his Cynthia's Revels might be properly introduced to cover old tapeftry; for to hang pictures over faded arras, was then and is ftill fufficiently common in antiquated manfions, fuch as thofe in which the fcenes of dramatick writers are often laid. That Shakspeare himself was no ftranger to the magick of theatrical ornaments, may be inferred from a paffage in which he alludes to the scenery of pageants, the fashionable fhows of his time: Sometimes we fee a cloud that's dragonish, A vapour fometimes like a lion, a bear, “A towred citadel, a pendent rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon't, that nod unto the world, *To Shift a Scene is at least a phrafe employed by Shakspeare himself in King Henry V: "Unto Southampton do we fhift our fcene." and by Ben Jonfon, yet more appofitely, in The Staple of News & Lic. Have you no news o'the stage? "Tho. O yes; "There is a legacy left to the king's players, "Both for their various fhifting of the Scenes, And dextrous change of their perfons to all fhapes « And all disguises," &c, pictures; and fome paffages in our old dramas incline me to think, that when tragedies were performed, the flage was hung with black. And mock our eyes with air; thefe thou haft feen, Antony and Cleopatra. "To conclude, the richest and most expensive scenes had been introduced to drefs up thofe fpurious children of the Mufe called Mafques; nor have we fufficient reafon for believing that Tragedy, her legitimate offspring, continued to be expofed in rags, while appendages more fuitable to her dignity were known to be within the reach of our ancient managers. Shakspeare, Burbage, and Condell, must have had frequent opportunities of being acquainted with the mode in which both mafques, tragedies, and comedies, were represented in the inns of court, the halls of noblemen, and in the palace itfelf. 7 "Sir Crack, I am none of your fresh pictures, that use to beautify the decayed old arras, in a publick theatre." Induction to Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonfon, 1601. In the Induction to an old tragedy called A warning for fair Women, 1599. three perfonages are introduced, under the names of Tragedy, Comedy, and Hiftory. After fome conteft for fuperiority, Tragedy prevails; and Hiftory and Comedy retire with thefe words: Hift. Look, Comedie, I mark'd it not till now, Com. Nay then, I fee fhe fhall be entertain’d. "Thefe ornaments befeem not thee and me; Then Tragedie, kill them to-day with forrow, We'll make them laugh with mirthful jefts to-morrow." So, in Marton's Infatiate Countess, 1613. The age of heaven is hung with folemn black, † After a pageant had paffed through the freets, the characters that compofed it were affembled in fome hall or other fpacious apartment, where they delivered their refpe&ive speeches, and were finally fet out to view with the advantages of proper fcenery and decoration. In the early part, at leaft, of our author's acquaintance with the theatre, the want of fcenery feems to have been supplied by the fimple expedient of writing the names of the different places where the fcene was laid in the progrefs of the play, which were difpofed in fuch a manner as to be vifible to the audience." Though the apparatus for theatrick exhibitions was thus fcanty, and the machinery of the fimpleft kind, the invention of trap-doors appears not to be modern; for in an old Morality, entitled, All for Money, we find a marginal direction, which implies that they were very early in use. 2 Again, in Daniel's Civil Warres, Book V. 1602. Again, in King Henry VI. Part I. Hung be the heavens with black," &c. Again, more appofitely, in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594. Black Stage for tragedies, and murthers fell.” 9 What child is there, that coming to a play and seeing Thebes written upon an old door, doth believe that it is Thebes?" Defence of Poefie, by Sir Philip Sidney. Signat. G. 1595. When D'Avenant introduced fcenes on the publick stage, this ancient practice was fill followed. See his Introduction to his Siege of Rhodes, 1656. "In the middle of the freefe was a compartment, wherein was written RHODES." 2 "Here with fome fine conveyance, Pleasure hall appeare from beneathe." All for Money, 1578. So, in Marlton's Antonio's Revenge, 1602.. Enter Balurdo from under the ftage." In the fourth act of Macbeth several apparitions arife from beneath the ftage, and again defcend. The cauldron likewife finks: 66 Why finks that cauldron, and what noife is this?" In The Roaring Girl, a comedy by Middleton and Decker, 1611. there is a character called Trap-door. 3 We learn from Heywood's Apology for Actors, that the covering, or internal roof, of the ftage, was anciently termed the heavens. It was probably painted of a sky-blue colour; or perhaps pieces of drapery tinged with blue were fufpended acrofs the flage, to reprefent the heavens. 4 It appears from the flage-directions given in The Spanish Tragedy, that when a play was exhibited within a play, (if I may fo exprefs myself,) as is the cafe in that piece and in Hamlet, the court or audience before whom the interlude was performed fat in the balcony, or upper flage already defcribed; and a curtain or traverfe being hung acrofs the flage for the nonce, the performers entered between that curtain and the general audience, and on its being drawn, began their piece, addreffing them 3 Apology for Alors, 1612. Signat. D. Enter Hieronimo. He knocks up the curtain. Caft. How now Hieronimo, where's your fellows, "That you take all this pains ? Hiero. O, fir, it is for the author's credit To look that all things may go well. But, good my lord, let me entreat your grace, To give the king the copy of the play. This is the argument of what we fhew. 66 Caft. I will, Hieronimo. Hiero., Let me entreat your grace, that when You would vouchfafe to throw me down the key. Enter Balthazar, with a chair. Hiero. Well done, Balthazar; hang up the tilt: Our fcene is Rhodes. What, is your beard on?", Afterwards the tragedy of Solyman and Perfeda is exhibited before the King of Spain, the Duke of Caftile, &c. |