The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-29
ELIzABETHAN STAGE SCENERY.
Properties and Mechanical Devices in
Early English Theaters.

We have some idea of the appearance
OF the stage of the Swan theater by a
drawing taken by John De Witt about
1896. copied into Arend Van Buchels
Commonplace Book" preserved in the
university library of Utrecht, published
by DR.. Gaedertz in pamphlet in 1888 and
reproduced in Mr. T. F. Ordish's Early
London Theaters,'' 1891, and in other
works since then. This precious sketch
shows the proscenium supported on a
frame, 1.-The turned columns the
actors house, with windows and doors
of entrance and exit. A portable bench
is all the furniture represented, and
there are three actors rehearsing to
empty galleries. THE heavens" are not
represented at all. 1t is evident, how
ever, that at some parts of the back of
the stage there was arras or tapestry
and some hangingS. 1t may be remem-
bered that Shakespeare makes Hamlet
kill the spy Polonius when listening be
hind the arraS;" and the trick upon NAL
volio could hardly be played without
some curtain or shrubbery for the con-
spirators to hide in.
Ben Jonson in THE New Inn,'' pub
lished in 1929, definitely mentions the
tapestry called arras cloths and faces
represented in the hangings. When the
drama revived after the hiatus in the
DEVELOPMENT through the commonwealth
F1ecknoe in his Short Discourse on the
Stage" in 1904, by which time scenery
was fairly introduced, says: Now for
the difference between our theaters and
those of former years, they were but
plain and simple, with no other scenes
or decorations but only old tapestry and
the stage strewed with rushes.' Cory
said in the prologue to THE Generous
Enemies 1922
Your aged fathers came to plays for wit,
And sat knee deep in nutshells in the pit,
Coarse hangings then instead of scenes
were worn,
And Kidderminster did the stage adorn.
We may therefore jot down tapestry
and the players house" as permanent
parts of scenery. The frequent occas-
ions in which characters are made to
speak from walls, battlements towers
and balconies show that they had some
contrivance for representing these by
utilizing the players house. Yet any
such representation might justly be
called further scenery. The stage was
also evidently furnished with trap doors
In Lupton's AL for Money" 1873, it is
the stage" In Lodges and Green's
Looking Glass for London and Eng
land" 1894, there is the stage direction,
THE Magi with their rods beat the
ground and from under the same diseth
a brave -arbour," and later in the same
Meath. and Radagon is swallowed
In Ben Johpson's "Poetaster," 1901,
Envy rises from the ground. Marston in
his "Antonio's Revenge" 1902 uses the
same device, and doubtless ghosts" en-
tered in this way from beneath the
stage. There were also mechanical con-
trivances by ropes and pulleys to raise
gods and spirits to the heavens" some
times the chariot of Phaethon and other
similar properties are stated thus to
have been elevated. Ben Jonson girds
against the practices of the romantic
dramatists in general when he puts for
ward his own play of Every man in
His Humor,'' 1898 Speaking in the char
acter of the poet:
He rather prays you will be pleased to
see
One such today. as other plays should be,
Where neither chorus watts you Ger the
seas, .
Nor creaking Throne comes down the
boys to please,
nor rolled bullet heard,
To say it thunders; nor tempestuous drum
come.
In .Henslowe's Diary" there is an in
ventory of stage property about 1896
which includes, beyond dresses, Rocks,
cages, tombs, Hellmouth, pair of stairs
for Phaethon, wooden Canopie and
the Cloth of the sun and the moon" We
know that the sudden fire which des-
troyed the Globe in June, 1913, was
caused by a salvo of cannon fired for
the rejoicings during the performance
of "All Is True; or, Henry VIII."-The
Fortnightly Review.