Some Notes on Shakespeare's Stage and Play bV WILLIAM POEL rOUNBER AND DIRECTOR Ot THE ELIZ'T^ETHAN S ■ AGE SOCIETY Re[)rinted from "The B'd/etin of the J >hn Ky lands Librarv" April- Sept., 1916 MANCHESTER: THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 12 LIME GROVE, OXFORD ROAD. LONGMANS, GREEN spoken of could be left open. Again the length of the stage is expressly de- fined, 43 feet, which leaves it 6 feet too short at each side to form a juncrion with the ends of the galleries next the stage. I have no doubt, therefore," continues Mr. Skottowe, " of an error in the docu- ment, which 1 take to be the omission to calculate the space occupied by the passages and staircases. A passage of 6 feet wide behind the galleries added to this width would make a reducrion of 18^ feet from each side of the theatre, and leave a space between the front of one gallery to the front of the other of 43 feet, which is the exact width 8 THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY assigned to the platform." Here, then, it is obvious that Mr. Skot- towe failed to realize that in Shakespeare's time the actors performed at the public theatres on an open platform that projected as far as the middle of the pit. / It is evident, also, that on this open platform there vv^as no means / of erecting any scenery, otherwise the audience seated in the galleries i nearest to the stage would have had its view of the actors obstructed ; nor in Shakespeare's plays is there a hint in the stage directions that there must be any change made in the mechanical arrangement of the stage to indicate the " place where ". "What child is there," asks Sir Philip Sidney in his "Apology of Poetry" written about 1583, "that, coming to a play, and seeing 'Thebes ' written in great letters on an old door, doth believe that it is Thebes ? " Apparently, then, the name of the country, where the action of the play took place, was posted upon some door — perhaps the entrance door to the theatre ; — the bill of the play, with its title and author's name, was certainly so posted. " It is as dangerous to read his name at a play door as a printed bill on a plague door." These words appear in Marston's play, " Histriomastic " (1 598). When in the latter half of the seven- teenth century Davenant produced his " Siege of Rhodes," and for the first time a painted scene was used upon the stage, a label bearing the name of " Rhodes " was painted on the frieze. "Old Hieronimo," in the play within the play of "The Spanish Tragedy," directs the title to be hung up, and announces : " Our scene is Rhodes". But often the bill, posted upon the outer door, vnthin the theatre, was not hung up about the stage, but carried by Prologue, or one of the players would come forward with it before the play began. Thus in Brome's " City Wit " Sarpego — who delivers the prologue — speaking of the play, says : "I that bear its title ". Acting in this country began about the twelfth century when vagrants, who amused the villagers with their tumbling feats, were paid to assist the trade guilds in the presentation of their religious plays, impersonating the imps and devils who were expected to be very nimble in their movements. In course of time the actors of interludes and moral plays became attached to some nobleman who maintained a musical establishment for the service of his chapel and thus became ■ soo'-- SHAKESPEARE'S STAGE AND PLAYS 9 part of his household. When not required by their master these players strolled the country, calling themselves servants of the magnate whose pay they took, and whose badge they wore. Thus Burbage's company first became known as " Lord Leicester's Servants," then as " Lord Strange's Men," afterwards as the " Lord Chamberlain's Men," and finally in the reign of King James as " The King's Ser- vants". It is certain, however, that acting reached a high standard in the days of Burbage and Alleyn. The absence of theatrical machinery necessitated that dramatic poets should excel in their de- scriptive passages, and the actors' ability to impersonate stimulated literary genius to the creation of characters which the author knew beforehand would be finely and intelligently rendered. On all sides, the more we study its conditions, the better we perceive how work- manlike and businesslike a thing the drama was ; it had nothing amateurish about it. For instance, we read how Elizabethan " old stagers " discussed a raw hand. Burbage. Now, Will Kemp, if we can entertain these scholars at a low rate, it will be well ; they have oftentime a good conceit in a part. Kemp. It is true indeed, honest Dick ; but the slaves are some- what proud, and, besides, it is great sport in a part to see them ne'er speak in their walk, but at the end of the stage ; just as though, in walking with a fellow, we should never speak but at a stile, a gate, or a ditch, where a man can go no farther. I was once at a comedy at Cambridge, and there I saw a parasite make faces and mouths of all sorts in this fashion. Burbage. A little teaching will mend these faults. The wardrobe of the playhouse formed indisputably its most costly possession ; attention was so concentrated upon the actors that m their parts they were forced to be richly as well as appropriately attired ; cloth of gold and of silver, and copper lace, were lavishly used. Thus we read : — "Two huadred proud players jet in their silks." For, when not in their parts, the King's servants were allowed four yards of bastard scarlet for a cloak, and a quarter of a yard of velvet for the cape ; the attendants of the stage wearing the blue coats of serving- 10 THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY men ; the coat of the boys, whose duty it was to draw the curtains, set chairs and so forth, surviving with little modification in the dress of Christ's Hospital — the Bluecoat School. All bore the badge of their master in silver. From these, and from the audience, the actors in the costume of their parts stood out by glitter and magnificence, while spectacular effects were sometimes obtained by the display of a crowd of actors in brilliant costumes. Collier mentions that persons from twelve nations, owning the sway of the conqueror, came upon the stage, each being represented by two actors. Thus four and twenty persons seem to be required to represent the conquered nations, besides the characters in the play, also necessarily present. Crowds, too, with Veirying outcrys, were introduced ; thus in an old stage direction we read : Enter all the factions of noblemen, peasants, and citizens fighting. The ruder sort drive in the rest, and cry : ''A sacke / A sacke ! Havocke, havocke ! Burne the lawiers bookes ! Tear the silks out of the shops I " In that confusion, the scholler escaping from among them, they all go out, and leave him -upon the stage. Music there was, at all the houses, for incidental use in the play — the orchestra comprising viols, hautboys, flutes, horns, drums, and trumpets ; but evidently musical interludes breaking up the play were beneath the dignity of the " Globe," which maintained a high dramatic tone. Thus, Webster, in his induction to the " Malcontent " which he wrote on the transference of that play from the " Fortune" to the " Globe " in 1 604, gives the following dialogue : — W. Sly. What are your additions ? D. Burbage. Sooth, not greatly needful ; only as your sallet t o your great feast, to entertain a little more time, and to abridge the n ot received custom of music in our theatre. However, the boys of the Chapel Royal, in their scarlet, sang at the representations at the Blackfriar's playhouse where a concert usually preceded the play. The wealthy and fashionable spectators who went to the theatres to see and to be seen, sat on three-legged stools upon the stage. The tireman served out the stools, which were part of the furniture of the playhouse. Such gallants as were " spread upon the rushes " h ad SHAKESPEARE'S STAGE AND PLAYS 1 1 probably arrived after the supply of stools was exhausted, for it seems to have been first come first served throughout the house. It was amid such surroundings as this that the Elizabethan drama arose and Hounshed. Attention was concentrated on the actor with whose movement, boldly defined against a simple background, nothing interfered. The stage on which they played was narrow, project- ing into the yard, surrounded on all sides by spectators. Their action was dms broiugh't into prominent relief, placed close before the eye, deprived of all perspective ; it acquired a special kind of realism, which the vast distance and manifold artifices of our modern theatres have now rendered unattainable. This was the realism of an actual event, at which the audience assisted, not the realism of a scene to which the audience is transported by the painter's skill, and in which the actor plays a somewhat subordinate part. Here was a building so constructed that the remotest spectator was within a heariiig distance convejang the faintest modulation of the per- former's voice, at the same time that it demanded no inartistic effort in the more sonorous utterances. The dramatist's freedom with time and place was justified by con- ditions which left all to the imagination. The mind in this way can contemplate the farthest Ind as easily as the most familiar objects ; nor need it dread to traverse the longest tract of years, or the widest expanse of space, in following the course of an action. There ccin be no doubt that Shakespeare, in the composition of his plays, could not have contemplated the introduction of scenic ac- cessories. It is fortunate this should have been one of the conditions of his work. He could the more readily use his rare gifts both as poet and dramatist. He knew that the attention of his public would not be distracted by outward decoration which he must have felt was of no real help to the playwright except to conceal a poverty of language or of invention, or want of ability to create character. Shakespeare's plea for the exercise of the spectator's imagination, as expressed in the opening chorus to " Henry V," condemns in principle the most perfect modem scenic representation. This is an opinion which is supported by many writers and among them the following : — " It is a noble and just advantage that the things subjected to 12 THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY understanding have of those which are objected to sense ; that the one are but momentary and merely taking ; the other impressing and last- ing : 'else the glory of all these solemnities ^ had perished like a blaze, and gone out in the beholders' eyes, so short-lived are the bodies of things in comparison of their souls." — Ben Jonson. " Now for the difference between our Theatres and those of former times ; they^ were but plain and simple, with no other scenes nor de- corations of the stage, but only old Tapestry, and the stage strewed with Rushes, whereas ours for cost and ornament are arrived at the height of Magnificence, but that which makes our stage the better, ' makes our Playes the worse, perhaps through striving now to make them the more for sight than hearing, whence that solid joy of the in- terior is lost, and that benefit which men formerly received from Playes, from which they seldom or never went away but far better and wiser than when they came." — RiCHARD Flecknoe, "Dis- course of English Stage," 1 660. ^ " Shakespeare's plays are said to afford a curious proof how need- /less are scenic decorations. We are asked what plays could more need the whole art of the decorator than those, with their constant I interruptions and change of scene ; yet there was a time when the \ stages on which they were performed consisted of nothing but a curtain of poor coarse stuff, which, when it was drawn up, showed / either the walls bare or else hung with matting or tapestry. Here \ was nothing for the imagination, nothing to assist the comprehension 1 of the spectator, or to help the actor, and yet it is said that, notwith- ■standing, Shakespeare's plays were, at that time, more intelligible without scenery than they became afterwards wdth it." — Lessing. " What makes Shakespeare's greatness is his equal excellence in*! every portion of his art — in style, in character, and in dramatic in- vention. No one has ever been more skilful in the pla)rwright's craft. The interest begins at the first scene, it never slackens, and you can- not possibly put down the book before finishing it. . . , Hence it is that Shakespeare's pieces are so effective on the stage ; they were in- tended for it, and it is as acted plays that we must judge them. , . . They might succeed better still if the conditions of representation had not changed so much in the last century. We demand to-day a kind A masque at the Court of King James. SHAKESPEARE'S STAGE AND PLAYS 13 of scenic illusion to which Shakespeare's theatre does not lend itself." — M. Edmund Scherer, " I also saw ' The Tempest,' with really magical scenery ; but, unfortunately, Shakespeare vanished in the enjoyment of the eye. One forgot the Poet in the wonderful decorations, and returned home as empty as if one had been viewing a panorama." — Hans CHRISTIAN Andersen to the Grand Duke of Weimar, 9th August, 1 857. "The short space of time — from two hours to two hours and a half — in which an Elizabethan play was acted in Shakespeare's time, has excited much discussion among commentators. It can hardly be doubted that the dialogue, which often exceeds two thousand lines, was all spoken on the stage, for none of the dramatists wrote vrith a view to publication, and few of the plays were printed from the author's manuscript. Thib fact points to a skilled and rapid delivery on the part of the actor. Artists of the French school, w;hose voices are highly trained, and capable of a varied and subtle modulation, will run through a speech of fifty lines with the utmost ease and rapidity, and there is good reason to suppose that the blank verse of the Eliza- bethan dramatists was spoken ' trippingly on the tongue '. In the 'Stage Player's Complaynt,' a pamphlet that appeared in 1641, we find an actor making use of the expression : ' Oh, the times when my tongue have ranne as fast upon the Scoeane as a Windebankes pen over the Ocean ! ' As the plays, moreover, were not divided into acts, no pause was necessary in the representation ; they were, be- sides, so constructed as to allow the opening of every scene to be spoken by characters who had not appeared in the close of the pre- ceding one, this being done, presumably, to avoid unnecessary delay. So with an efficient elocution, and no ' waits,' the Elizabethan actors would have got through one-half of a play before our Victorian actors could cover a third."- — "Transactions of the New Shakespeare Society." In dramatic construction Shakespeare excelled all his contempor- aries. With the management of the verse he was throughout his professional career making experiments, and only in his latest plays does it become a facile instrument for dramatic expression. But as regards, the constructive form of the play he seems from the first to have pre- ferred the method of continuity in vogue on the public stages to the more artificial plan of the classicalplay which consisted of five episodes. 14 THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY more or less complete in themselvesj with a chorus or dumb show between each of them. It is impossible that' Shakespeare could have been ignorant of the existence of the Latin plays which were acted (sometimes in English) at the Universities and at the Inns of Court, but the internal evidence of the plays themselves shows that he was very sparing in the use of chorus, avoiding the dumb show and the unnecessary introduction of incidental music. Shakespeare wished the story of his plays to develop easily and rapidly from the opening to the crisis which was not reached until about two-thirds of the play had been written. And then came the catastrophe in the concluding incidents. An examination of the first collected edition of his plays, in the 1 623 folio, confirms this view. Of the thirty-six plays which appear in that volume six of them have no divisions into acts and scenes, and of these six " Romeo and Juliet " is one of the earliest written plays, and " Antony and Cleopatra " is one of the latest. Ten of the plays are divided into acts but without any further divisions for scenes, and among these ten is " Titus Andronicus," a very early play, and ' ' Coriolanus," a very late one. Twelve of the plays are irregular in their divisions ; one has an act omitted altogether as in " The Taming of the Shrew " ; some of the acts are divided into scenes, and not others, as in " Henry VI, Part I " ; once the opening of the play is cKvided into acts and scenes and then the division is not further continued, as in " Hamlet ". Out of the whole thirty-six plays in this first folio there are only eight in the volume which have the same divisions — in acts and scenes — that are in use for our printed editions to-day ; and these eight include " The Two Gentlemen of Verona," together with " The Tempest," a comedy written twenty years later. Now it seems incredible that this wide divergence of treatment of divisions in Shakespeare's plays, collected under one cover, should have been accidentally overlooked by the editors,, or sanctioned by the publishers without comment. The explanation would seem to be that the editors probably looked upon the inserted acts and scenes divisions as matters of little importance since they were aware that twenty-one of the plays had already appeared in print wdthout them, many of which were still being acted at the "Globe," also, it may be presumed, without regular intervals. Then if the editors realized that the divisions they were adding to the plays in the folio failed to show the conclusion of definite incidents, or to mark the changes SHAKESPEARE'S STAGE AND PLAYS 15 of locality, they doubtless abandoned the task without attempting to complete it. This seems the only way to account {or the meaningless eonfusbn in wldch these divisicms have been left ia the volume. For instance, to take the comedy of " Twelfth Night," one of the plays having its original divisions still retained on the modern stage, to its injury as drama. In the play the comic action culminates at the point where Sir Andrew, after the interrupted duel with Viola, runs oS the stage by one of the stage-doors to immediately re-enter by another, and assaults her twin brother Sebastian to his own infinite discomfort. How out of place it was to insert an act division be- tween Sir Andrew's exit and re-entrance seems to have struck the printer who, at the end. of this act, omits the words Pints Acttcs Tertius, the only act out of the five which does not receive this indication of finality. In the " Midsummer Night's Dream " the printer again shows his ingenuity in escaping from difficulties. As the Elizabethan stage had no drop-curtain the conclusion of a scene or act was apparent to the spectator by the return of all the actors to the tiring-house. \a the; Dream plaiy the division of Act III. leaves the pair of lovers asleep on the stage, and in order that the reader may not think the lovers have left the stage the words They sleep all the Act are inserted. Then when the play is continued in the next act and the defection Exetmt appears, the reader again is re- minded that this does not apply to the sleepers, for the words Sleepers Lye Still precede the word Exeunt. In the earlier quarto editions, where act and scene divisions, are not used, the stage direc- tions about the sleepers do not appear ; nor would they have been found in the prompt copies if the action of the play was continuous. Some scholars are of opinion that " The Tempest " was written originally as a masque for performance at Court and not for the public theatre. But the play reads very much like Shakespeare's farewell contribution to the repertory of the King's players. The action is continuous, except that the dramatist for the first and only time leaves the stage empty between the fourth and fifth Acts, unless something has been omitted from the original text. The play has the appearance of having been printed from the author's own manuscript, and it no doubt was inserted in the folio by the editors as the first play among 16 THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY the comedies because it was their latest acquisition from his hand. It is probable, too, that this was the only one of Shakespeare's plays which he himself divided into acts and scenes. Moreover, the stage directions are undoubtedly his own, and suggest that he was writing instructions for those whom he would not be able to personally re- hearse on the stage. Whatever background may have been used in the way of a scene, either at the Court performances or at the Black- friars, Shakespeare wrote " The Tempest," as he did all his other plays, without a hint that he visualized any scenic accessories as part of the representation. The men and women who take part in the performance, the costumes they wear, the properties they use, and the tapestried stage with its two doors, balcony, and alcove — these are the only adjuncts of which Shakespeare was cognisant in the writing of his plays. The table on the opposite page shows unquestionably that Shake- speare's plays were written to be acted and not only to be read. If they do not act well on the modern stage it is because our actor- managers no longer understand how to present them. But it is diffi- cult to believe that the plays would not recover their vitality in the theatre if they were produced on a stage similar to that of the Eliza- bethan period, when managers would be obliged to concentrate their attention on the characters and on the dialogue. To-day when it is asserted that a play of Shakespeare's has been given for 200 consecutive nights it means that it has been produced in the form of grand opera, and that while the claims of the author to just treatment have been entirely ignored those of the stage carpenter have been lavishly ac- knowledged and provided for. At the same time it must be increasingly recognized that in Eng- lish-speaking countries the legitimate art of the theatre is no longer considered necessary, and that classical plays are no longer wanted. Indeed they will soon cease altogether to appear in the theatre unless public opinion is aroused to the need for legislation in order to widen the use of the people's theatres by those who at present control them solely for the purpose of commercial speculation. The "THEATER". Shoreditch. A CHRONOLOGY OF SHAKESPEARES PLAY'S, SHOWING WHERE THEY WERE ACTED IN LONDON, 1591-1642. Built 1576. 1587-1589. Thos. Kyd's (?) OU Play of Hamlet, and Marlowe's Doctor Faustus are mentiorted as having been acted here sometime before 15%. NewiDgton Butts. Lambeth. Feb. 26, 1591. Marlowe's Jew of Malta. Mai. 3, 1591. Hen. VI. Part I. {first performance). June 9, 1594. Old Play of Ham,let (revised). The " Rose ' Bankside. 1592-1594. Jan. 23, 1593. Titus Andronicus {first performance). Hen. VI. Part 11. Hen. VI. Part III. Eldward HI. (Countess Episode). Sept. 2b, 1601. Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, with additions by Ben Jonson. The Cross Keys, Inn Yard, Gracechurch Street. 1594. Burbage, with his players, and Shake- speare acted here some part o( this year. Place of Representa- tion not known. 1590-1596. Comedy of Errors. Love's Labour's Lost. Two Gentlemen of Verona. Midsummer-Night's Dream. Merchant of Venice. The Taming of the' Shrew. Richard ill. King John. Richard II. Some of these plays may have been acted at the " Theater." The "CURTAIN' Shoreditch. 15%- 1598. Romeo and Juliet. Ben Jonson's Comedy, 'Every Man In his Humour ' was acted in this theatre by Burbage'splayers, 1597-8. All's Well That Ends Well. Hamlet (rewritten by Shakespeare). Hen. IV. Part I. Troilus & Cressida. Hen. IV. Part II. Merry Wives of Windsor. The "GLOBE". Bankside. 1599-1613. Henry V. Much Ado About Nothing. As You Like It. Hamlet (final version). Twelfth Night. Julius Caesar. Measure for Measure. Othello. King Lear. Macbeth. Timon of Athens. Pericles. Antony & Cleopatra. Coriolanus. Cymbeline. Winter's Tale. Tempest. The "GLOBE". Bankside. 1599-1613. Revivals. Romeo and Juliet. Richard II. Richard III. Henry IV. Part I. Merry Wives. Henry V. Hamlet. 1614-1642. Romeo and Juliet. Richard II. Richard III. Merchant of Venice. Merry Wives. Henry V. Hamlet. Taming of Shrew. Othello. King Lear. Pericles. Blackfriars' Playhouse. At Court. 1597-1609. \ForQueenEUzaheth. Rented by the Chil- 1594 Comedy of dren of the Chapel] Errors. Royal who appeared} 1 598 Love's Labour's 1601, in Ben Jon- I Lost. y.on's Comedy, • The < 1599 Merry Wives (?) Poetaster.' 1603 Midsummer- Night's Dream (?) At Court. 1610-1642. Burbage's players were now acting at the " Globe " and at the "Blackfriars." Revivals. Merchant of Venice. Othello. Taming of Shrew. For King James. 1604 Othello. — Merry Wives. . — Measure for Measure. — Comedy of Errors. 1605 Love's Labour's Lost. — Henry V. — Merchant of Venice. (twice). 1606 Lear. 161 1 Tempest. — Winter's Tale. 1612 Much Ado. — Tempest. — Winter's Tale. — Merry Wives. — OtheUo. — Julius Caesar. 1613 Hen. IV. Pi. I. — Much Ado. 1618 Twelfth Night. — Winter's TaJe. 1622 Twelfth Night. 1624 Winter's Tale. 1625Hen. IV. Pt. I. For King Charles. 1633 Richard III. — Taming of Shrew. 1634 Cymbeline. — Winter's Tale. 1636 Odiello. 1637 Julius Caesar. At the Inns of Court. 1594. Comedy of Errors {in Oray's Irm Hail) (?) 1602. Twelfth Night. (in Middle Temple Hall). NOTE. — Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy and Hamlet, also Marlowe's Faustus and Jew of Malta, were the most popular plays in London when Shakespeare began writing for the Stage. The first time we hear of him is from the performance of Hen. VI. Part I. at Newington Butts. A year later his name is mentioned by Nash, the dramatist. There is no mention of the play Edward III. being acted at the Rose, but it was written about this time. Romeo and Juliet and Ben Jonson's Comedy were acted at the Curtain, and the other five plays were written at the period when Shakespeare's Company was there. The evidence for play-revivals at the Globe is found on the title-pages of the later editions of the quartos ; this applies only to plays separately printed. The names of the plays acted at Court are taken from Cunningham's Revels, and copied from Mr. J. T. Murray's English Dramatic Com,panies, 1558-1642. It is quite possible that other plays by Shakespeare were acted at Court. Mr. Ernest Law states (1913) that the performances of the dramatist's plays in the royal palaces during his lifetime must have numbered upwards of one hundred. The 36 plays of Shakespeare, named in columns 2 to 6, inclusive, are arranged approximately in the order in which they were written. — ^W. POEL. SOME RECENT AND FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS OF THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY. CATALOGUE OF THE GREEK PAPYRI IN THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY By Arthur S. Hunt, M.A., Litt.D., J. de M. Johnson, M.A., and Victor Martin, D. es L. Vol. I : Literary texts (Nos. 1-61). 1911. 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