example of the traditional Italian comic manner. The action comes and goes, rapidly for Lyly, in an open place, surrounded by no less than seven houses, the doors of which are freely used.
Two other Chapel plays furnish sufficient evidence that the type of staging just described was not Lyly's and Lyly's alone.[1] Peele's Arraignment of Paris is tout en pastoralle. A poplar-tree dominates the stage throughout, and the only house is a bower of Diana, large enough to hold the council of gods (381, 915). A trap is required for the rising and sinking of a golden tree (489) and the ascent of Pluto (902). Marlowe's Dido has proved rather a puzzle to editors who have not fully appreciated the principles on which the Chapel plays were produced. I think that one side of the stage was arranged en pastoralle, and represented the wood between the sea-shore and Carthage, where the shipwrecked Trojans land and where later Aeneas and Dido hunt. Here was the cave where they take shelter from the storm.[2] Here too must have been the curtained-off domus of Jupiter.[3] This is only used in a kind of prelude. Of course it ought to have been in heaven, but the Gods are omnipresent, and it is quite clear that when the curtain is drawn on Jupiter, Venus, who has been discoursing with him, is left in the wood, where she then meets
- ↑ Possibly The Cobler's Prophecy is also a Chapel or Paul's play; it was given before an audience who 'sit and see', and to whom the presenters 'cast comfets' (39). The domus required for a background are (a) Ralph's, (b) Mars's court, (c) Venus's court, (d) the Duke's court, (e) the cabin of Contempt. From (a) to (b) is 'not farre hence' (138) and 'a flight shoot vp the hill' (578); between are a wood and a spot near Charon's ferry. From (b) to (c) leads 'Adowne the hill' (776). At the end (e) is burnt, and foreshortening of space is suggested by the s.d. (1564), 'Enter the Duke . . . then compasse the stage, from one part let a smoke arise: at which place they all stay'. At the beginning (3) 'on the stage Mercurie from one end Ceres from another meete'. Summer's Last Will and Testament, which cannot be definitely assigned either to the Chapel or to Paul's, continues the manner of the old interlude; it has a stage (1570), but the abstract action requires no setting beyond the tiled hall (205, 359, 932, 974) in which the performance was given. The Wars of Cyrus is a Chapel play, but must be classed, from the point of view of staging, with the plays given in public theatres (cf. p. 48).
- ↑ Act III has the s.d., 'The storme. Enter Æneas and Dido in the Caue at seuerall times' (996). . . . 'Exeunt to the Caue' (1059). They are supposed to remain in the cave during the interval between Acts III and IV, after which, 'Anna. Behold where both of them come forth the Caue' (1075).
- ↑ 'Here the Curtaines draw, there is discouered Iupiter dandling Ganimed vpon his knee' (1). . . . 'Exeunt Iupiter cum Ganimed' (120). But as Jupiter first says, 'Come Ganimed, we must about this gear', it may be that they walk off. If so, perhaps they are merely 'discouered' in the wood, and the curtains are front curtains.
