Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/204

on four legs and protected by an awning in bad weather. But in 1576 a regular playhouse was established and called The Theatre. Here the stage literally was a stage—a platform erected against one end of the square building. On the other three sides stood the spectators in the pit or yard, while all round ran galleries, boxes, or rooms, like the galleries of an old inn-yard. There was no arrangement for scenery; everything was very simple, and much was left to the imagination. The locality was indicated by a ticket bearing one such word as "Garden," "Thebes," and the spectators pictured the scene according to experience. The coarseness of some of the early plays may be inferred from the stage directions, such as "Enter Anne in bed," &c. Sir Philip Sydney laughed openly at the inadequacy of scenic effect: "Now you shall see three ladies walk to gather flowers," he says, "and then we must believe the stage to be a garden. By and by we hear news of a shipwreck in the same place; then we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock; upon the back of that comes out a hideous monster with fire and smoke; then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave." A regular company of players was appointed, and on Sundays at one