beginning in the alcove is gradually extended so as to take the whole of the stage into its ambit.[1] This might perhaps serve for a court of justice, with the judges in the alcove, the 'bar' drawn across the aperture, and the prisoners brought in before it. A scene in which the arras is drawn in Sir Thomas More points to such a setting.[2] But a scene in which a royal 'state' is the dominating feature would be singularly ineffective if the state were wedged in under the low roof of the alcove; and if I am right in thinking that the 'state' normally creaked down into its position from the heavens, it would clearly land, not within the alcove, but upon the open stage in front of it. Indeed, if it could be placed into position behind a curtain, there would be no reason for bringing it from the heavens at all. Then, again, hall scenes are regularly served by two or more doors, which one certainly would not suppose from the stage-directions to be any other than the doors similarly used to approach out-of-door scenes; and they frequently end with injunctions to 'come in', which would be superfluous if the personages on the stage could be withdrawn from sight by the closing of the curtain. Occasionally, moreover, the gallery over the stage comes into play in a hall scene, in a way which would not be possible if the personages were disposed in the alcove, over which, of course, this gallery projected.[3] Some of these considerations tell more directly against the exclusive use of the alcove for hall scenes, than against its use in combination with the outer stage; and this combined use, where suitable, I am quite prepared to allow. But ordinarily, I think, the hall scenes were wholly on the outer stage; and this must necessarily have been the case where two rooms were employed, of which one opens out behind the other.[4]
It may be said that the main object of the curtain is to allow of the furniture and decorations of a 'set' scene, which is usually an interior scene, being put in place behind it, without any interruption to the continuous progress of an
- ↑ Prölss, 96; Reynolds, i. 24, 31; Albright, 111.
- ↑ Cf. p. 63, n. 4.
- ↑ Dr. Faustus, 1007 sqq., is apparently a hall scene, but in 1030 (an addition of 1616 text), 'Enter Benuolio aboue at a window', whence he views the scene with a state. On the play scene, with a gallery for the court, in Sp. Trag. IV. ii, cf. p. 93.
- ↑ Famous Victories, sc. viii; 2 Hen. IV, IV. iv, v; 1 Contention, scc. x, xi; 2 Hen. VI, III. ii, iii (cf. p. 65, n. 3); Edw. II, 2448-2565; 1 Tr. Raigne, xii; K. J. IV. i (cf. p. 66, n. 1); Lord Cromwell, III. ii (cf. p. 67, n. 1); Downfall of R. Hood, ind. (cf. p. 68, n. 1); Arden of Feversham, V. i (cf. p. 68, n. 2); 1 Hen. IV, II. iv; Humorous Day's Mirth, viii (cf. p. 68, n. 3).
