like 100 ft. long by 52 wide, we may guess that partitions had been put up to screen off a tiring-house behind it and a passage by which the tiring-house could be reached.[1] The entrance would be at the north end, where a great flight of stairs led up from a yard large enough for coaches to turn in. There were galleries, but not necessarily three distinct tiers of galleries, as in the public theatres, for which, indeed, there would hardly have been height enough.[2] And there was a 'middle region' in which the spectators sat, instead of standing as they did in the public 'yards'.[3] This, which was a feature also of the later private houses, came to be known as the 'pit', but as the derivation of this term is from 'cockpit', it may not be of earlier origin than the building of the Cockpit or Phoenix theatre in Drury Lane about 1617.[4] A roofed theatre would not require a specially constructed 'heavens', as descents could be worked through the ceiling from a room above. There is no clear evidence for a lord's room at any of the private houses.[5] But there were 'boxes', at any rate at the Whitefriars.[6] Evidence for seats on the stage has already been furnished. There is much to suggest that the audience was a more select one than that of the public theatres.[7] Elizabeth cannot be shown
- ↑ For the existence of tiring-houses in private theatres, cf. inductions to Jack Drum's Entertainment (Paul's) and C. Revels (Blackfriars).
- ↑ Cf. ch. xvii.
- ↑ Dutch Courtesan (c. 1603, Blackfriars), V. iii. 162, 'my very fine Heliconian gallants, and you my worshipful friends in the middle region'.
- ↑ Cf. Wright (App. I). For the origin of the term, cf. the c. v. of
L. Digges to Shakespeare's Poems (1640):
Let but Beatrice
And Benedicke be seene, loe in a trice
The cock-pit, galleries, boxes, are all full,
To hear Malvoglio that crosse-garterd gull. - ↑ Dekker, G. H. B. (cf. App. H), with its mingling of 'public' and 'private' features, cannot be relied on. The Roxana and Wits engravings show spectators 'over the stage', but cannot be treated as evidence for the private houses. The Messallina engraving only shows a window closed by curtains.
- ↑ Cf. p. 556, infra.
- ↑ 1 Ant. Mellida (Paul's), prol., 'select and most respected auditors';
What You Will (Paul's), ind., 'the female presence, the genteletza, the
women'; Jack Drum's Entertainment (Paul's), ind., 'this choise selected
influence'. But it was still mixed enough; cf. Jonson's c. v. to Faithful
Shepherdess (Revels, c. 1608-9):
The wise and many-headed bench that sits
Upon the life and death of plays and wits—
Composed of gamester, captain, knight, knight's man,
Lady or pusill that wears mask or fan,
Velvet or taffata cap, rank'd in the dark
With the shop's foreman, or some such brave spark,
That may judge for his sixpence.
