The actors themselves were not wholly without protection from the elements. De Witt depicts two heavy classical columns, which stand on square bases rather farther back than the middle of the stage and a little way from each side of it. These support a pent-house roof, which starts from the level of the eaves of the 'tectum' over the top gallery, and descends in a steep slope to a level opposite to the middle of the second gallery, where it slightly projects beyond the supporting columns. Behind and above it rises a kind of hut, conspicuous above the 'tectum' and forming a superstructure to the tire-house. Its front has less width than that of the tire-house, and its side is shown in clumsy perspective, which is apparently followed round by the pent-house below it. The pent-house is the only thing in the drawing, that can represent the 'shadow' or 'heavens', which several allusions point to as a regular feature in the public theatres, and which certainly existed at the Rose, the Fortune—and therefore presumably the Globe—and the Hope.[1] But it must be admitted that this sharply sloping roof, coming down low and considerably impeding the vision of the spectators at any rate in the top gallery, does not agree very well with the notion of a heavens dominating the stage, elaborately decorated, and serving for the display of spectacular effects, which were surely meant to be visible to all. It is possible that De Witt's halting draughtsmanship has failed him in
- ↑ Nashe (iii. 329), epist. to Astrophel and Stella (1591), 'here you shal
find a paper stage streud with pearle, an artificial heau'n to ouershadow
the faire frame'; Wagnerbook (1594, cf. ch. xx), 'Now aboue all was
there the gay Clowdes vsque quaque adorned with the heavenly firmament,
and often spotted with golden teares which men callen Stars. There
was liuely portrayed the whole Imperiall Army of the faire heauenly
inhabitauntes'; Birth of Hercules (1597 <), i. 1, s. d., 'Ad comoediae magnificentiam
apprime conferet ut coelum Histrionium sit luna et stellis perspicue
distinctum'; Heywood, Apology (c. 1608), 34, of the Roman
theatre, 'the covering of the stage, which we call the heavens'; Cotgrave,
Dict. (1611), s.v. Volerie, 'a place over a stage, which we call the heavens'.
The same word was used for the state over a throne; cf. Cotgrave, s.v.
Dais, 'a cloth of estate, canopie, or Heaven, that stands over the heads
of Princes thrones'. Graves, 24, gives examples of heavens used in Tudor
pageants. It is to be noted that the 'heavens' and 'hell' (cf. p. 528)
of a theatre continue characteristic features of mediaeval staging (cf.
Mediaeval Stage, ii. 86, 137, 142); cf. All Fools, prol. 1:
The fortune of a stage (like Fortunes selfe)
Amazeth greatest judgments; and none knowes
The hidden causes of those strange effects
That rise from this Hell, or fall from this Heaven.The theory of J. Corbin in Century (1911), 267, that the heavens was a mere velarium or cloud of canvas thrown out from the hut, will not fit the evidence; cf. Lawrence, ii. 6.
