Sometimes, in a scene which employs the 'Let us in!' formula, or on other ground looks like a threshold scene, we are suddenly pulled up either by a suggestion of the host that we are 'in' his house or under his roof, or by an indication that persons outside are to be brought 'in'.[1] The first answer is, I think, that the threshold is not always a mere doorstep opening from the street; it may be something of the nature of a porch or even a lobby, and that you may fairly be said to be under a man's roof when you are in his porch.[2] The second is that in some threshold scenes the stage was certainly regarded as representing a courtyard, shut off from the street or road by an outer gate, through which strangers could quite properly be supposed to come 'in'.[3] Such courtyard scenes are not out of place, even
- [Footnote: (Bristeo's), 'Come breake vp the doore'; sc. vii. 662, 'Enter Annetta and Lucida with their worke in their handes. . . . Here let vs sit awhile' . . .
(738) 'Get you in . . . Here put them in at doore'; sc. vii. 894 (Lelio's), 'Underneath this wall, watch all this night: If any man shall attempt to breake your sisters doore, Be stout, assaile him'; sc. vii. 828 (a Senator's), 'What make you lingering here about my doores?'; sc. ix. 1034 (Lelio's), 'Heaue me the doores from of the hinges straight'; sc. xv. 1385 (Lelio's), 'my door doth ope' (cf. p. 62, on the courtyard scene in the same play).]*
- ↑ Thus Humorous Day's Mirth, sc. v (Moren's), 111, 'We'll draw thee out of the house by the heels' . . . 143, 'Thrust this ass out of the doors' . . . 188, 'Get you out of my house!', but 190, 'Well, come in, sweet bird'; Shoemaker's Holiday, sc. xii (Lord Mayor's), 'Get you in', but 'The Earl of Lincoln at the gate is newly lighted'.
- ↑ James IV, II. i, 'Enter the Countesse of Arrain, with Ida, her daughter, in theyr porch, sitting at worke' . . . (753) 'Come, will it please you enter, gentle sir? Offer to Exeunt'; cf. Arden of F. (vide infra) and the penthouse in M. V. II. vi. 1 (p. 58).
- ↑ Perhaps the best example is in Arden of Feversham. Arden's house
at Aldersgate is described by Michael to the murderers in II. ii. 189:
The dores Ile leaue unlockt against you come,
No sooner shall ye enter through the latch,
Ouer the thresholde to the inner court,
But on your left hand shall you see the staires
That leads directly to my M. Chamber.Here, then, is III. i. Arden and Francklin talk and go to bed. Michael, in remorse, alarms them with an outcry, and when they appear, explains that he 'fell asleepe, Vpon the thresholde leaning to the staires' and had a bad dream. Arden then finds that 'the dores were all unlockt'. Later (III. iv. 8) Michael lies about this to the murderers:
Francklin and my master
Were very late conferring in the porch,
And Francklin left his napkin where he sat
With certain gold knit in it, as he said.
Being in bed, he did bethinke himselfe,
And comming down he found the dores vnshut:
He lockt the gates, and brought away the keyes.When the murderers come in III. ii, Will bids Shakebag 'show me to this
