ΜΕΝΑ. VOL. 1. king Henry VIII. is to be discovered by the dukes of SufPROLEGO- folk and Norfolk, reading in his ftudy, the fcenical direc tion in the first folio, 1623, (which was printed apparently from play houfe copies) is," The king draws the curtaine, [i e. draws it open] and fits reading penfively;" for, befides the principal curtaines that hung in the front of the stage, they used others as fubftitutes for scenes y. If a bed-chamber is to be exhibited, no change of fcene is mentioned; but the property-man is fimply ordered to thrust forth a bed. When the fable requires the Roman capitol to be exhibited, we find two officers enter, "to lay cufhions, as it were in the capitol." So, in King Richard II. act iv. fc. i. "Bolingbroke, &c. enter as to the parliament." Again, in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600: "Enter Cambridge, Scroop, and Gray, as in a chamber." In Romeo and Juliet, I doubt much whether any exhibition of Juliet's monument was given on the stage. I imagine Romeo only opened with his mattock one of the ftage trap-doors, (which might have represented a tomb-ftone) by which he defcended to a vault NOTES. Rofcius Anglicanus, p. 20, 1708: "In fpring 1662, Sir William D'Avenant opened his house with the firth and second parts of The Siege of Rhodes; having new fcenes and decorations, being the first that were introduced in England." Downes the promp ter, who was the author of Rofcius Anglicanus, himself acted in The Siege of Rhodes, on the opening of Sir William D'Avenant's houfe. Scenes, however, we have already observed, had been before used in private exhibitions; he ought therefore to have added" on a publick theatre." They had been introduced by Sir William, probably in a lefs perfect itate, about four years before the period Downes fpeaks of, not indeed in a play, but in an entertainment, entitled, "The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, expreft by vocal and inftrumental Mufick, and by Art of perfpective in Scenes. Reprefented daily at the Cockpit in Drury Lane, 1658;" a performance, which Cromwell, from his hatred to the Spaniards, permitted, though he had prohibited all other theatrical exhibitions. y In The Devil's Charter, a tragedy, 1607, the following stagedirection is found: "Alexander draweth [that is, draws open] the curtaine of his fiudie, where he difcovereth the devill fitting in his pontificals." Again, in Satiromaftix, by Decker, 1602: "Horace fitting in his fudy, behind a curtaine, a candle by him burning, books lying confufedly, &c." See thefe feveral ftage-directions in the first folio, 1623. beneath beneath the stage, where Juliet was depofited; and this idea Vol. I. is countenanced by a paffage in the play, and by the poem PROLEGO® on which the drama was founded a. How little the imaginations of the audience were affifted by fcenical deception, and how much neceffity our author had to call on them to "piece out imperfections with their thoughts," may be alfo collected from Sir Philip Sidney, who, defcribing the state of the drama and the stage, in his time, fays, "Now you fhall fee three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe the ftage to be a garden. By and by we heare news of a shipwracke in the fame place; then we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that, comes out a hideous monster with fire and fmoke; then the miferable beholders are bound to take it for a cave; while in the mean time two armies fly in, reprefented with four fwords and bucklers, and then what hard heart will not receive it for a pitched field "." All these circumftances induce me to believe that our ancient theatres, in general, were only furnished with curtains, and a fingle fcene compofed of tapestry, which appears to 2 NOTES. have Why I defcend into this bed of death." Romeo and Juliet, act v. So, in The Tragical Hiftory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "And then our Romeus, the vault-ftone fet up-right, "Defcended downe, and in his hand he bore the can- Juliet, however, after her recovery, speaks and dies upon the ftage.-If therefore, the exhibition was fuch as has been now fuppofed, Romeo must have brought her up in his arms from the vault beneath the stage, after he had killed Paris, and then addreffed her- O my love, my wife, &c." Defence of Poefie, 1595. Sign. H. 4. After all, however, it is difficult to conceive how fome of our author's plays could have been exhibited without fome fpecies of fcenery. The fentiments of Mr. Steevens, who is of opinion that our ancient theatres were not unfurnished with scenes, appear fo weighty, that I shall add them in his own words: "It must be acknowledged that little more is advanced on this occafion, than is fairly fupported by the teftimony of contemporary writers. Were we, however, to reafon on fuch a part of the fubject as is now before us, fome fufpicions might arife, that where machinery was discovered, the lefs complicated adjunct of fcenes was fcarcely wanting. When the column is found standing, no one will fuppofe but that it was once accompanied by its C 2 ufual MENA. VOL. I. have been fometimes ornamented with pictures and PROLEGO. fome paflages in our old dramas incline one to think, that MENA. when NOTES. ufual entablature. If this inference be natural, little impro- What happy deceptions could be produced by the aid of framework and painted canvas, we may learn from Holinflied, and yet more ancient hiftorians. The pageants and tournaments at the beginning of Henry VIIIth's reign very frequently required that the cattles of imaginary beings fhould be exhibited. Of fuch contrivances fome deferiptions remain. Thefe extempore buildings afforded a natural introduction to fcenery on the stage. could when tragedies were performed, the flage was hung with VoL. I. black. 66 NOTES. In PROLEGO- could not have failed to render many of the deferiptions uttered "Mar • Apemantus must have pointed to the scenes as he spoke the following lines: "-shame not these woods, "By putting on the cunning of a carper." Again: "--will thefe moist trees "That have outliv'd the eagle, &c." A piece of old tapestry must have been regarded as a poor substi tuse for thefe towering shades. VOL. I. In the early part, at least, of our author's acquaintance PROLEGO- with the theatre, the want of scenery feems to have been fup MENA. NOTES. plied In Julius Cæfar: "Enter Brutus in his orchard," &c. &c.—In fhort, without characteristick difcriminations of place, the hiftorical dramas of Shakspeare in particular, would have been wrapped in tenfold contufion and obfcurity; nor could the fpectator have felt the poet's power, or accompanied his rapid tranfitions from one fituation to another, without fuch guides as painted canvas only could fupply. The audience would with dif ficulty have received the catastrophe of Romeo and Juliet as natural and affecting, unless the deception was confirmed to them by the appearance of a tomb. The managers who could raile ghofts, bid the cauldron fink into the earth, and then exhibit a train of royal phantoms in Macbeth, could with lefs difficulty fupply the flat paintings of a cavern or a grove. The artists who can put the dragons of Medea in motion, can more easily repre fent the clouds through which they are to pafs. But for thefe, or fuch affiftances, the fpectator, like Hamlet's mother, must have bent his gaze on mortifying vacancy; and with the guest invited by the Barmecide, in the Arabian tale, must have furnished from his own imagination the entertainment of which his eyes were folicited to partake. "It should likewife be remembered, that the intervention of civil war would eafily occafion many customs of our early theatres to be filently forgotten. The times when Wright and Downes produced their refpective narratives, were by no means times of exactnefs or curiosity. What they heard, might have been heard imperfectly; it might have been unfkilfully related; or their own memories might have deceived them :" "Ad nos vix tenuis famæ perlabitur aura. "One affertion made by the latter of these writers, is chronologically difproved. We may remark likewife, that in private theatres, a part of the audience was admitted on the ftage, but that this licence was refufed in the public play-houses. To what circumstance hall we impute this difference between the customs of the one and the other? Perhaps the private theatres had no fcenes, the public had; and a crowded stage would prevent them from being commodiously beheld, or conveniently shifted*. The fre pictures mentioned To fift a feene is at leaft a phrafe employed by Shakspeare himfelf in K. Hen. V. "--and not till then "Unto Southampton do we shift our scene." and by Ben Jonson, yet more appofitely, in The Staple of News: |