Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1907-09-26
ELizABETHAR STAGE SCENERY.
Properties and Mechanical Devices in
Early English Theaters.

Early English Theaters.
We have some idea OF the appear
ance of the stage Of the Swan theater
by drawing taken by John De Witt
about 1896, copied into Arend Van
8uchers Commonplace Book, pre-
served in the University library OF
Utrecht, published by DR.. Gaedertz in
pamphlet in 1888 and reproduced in
Mr.. T. F. Ordish's Early London
Theater's" 1891 and in other works
since then, says the Fortnightly Re
view. This precious sketch shows
the proscenium supported on
frame, the turned columns" the act
or's 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. NThe heavens" are
not represented at all. 1t is evident,
however, that at some parts of the
back Of the stage there was arras Oh
tapestry and some hangings. 1t may
be remembered that Shakespeare
makes Hamlet kill the spy Polonius
when listening behind the arras" and
the trick upon Malvolio could hardly
be played without some curtains or
shrubbery for the conspirators to hide
in.
Ben Jonson in 'The New Inn," pub
lished in 1929, definitely mentions the
tapestry called arras, cloths and faces
Fa in "a
drama revived after the hiatus in the
development through the common
wealth this use of tapestry is remem-
bered. Flecknoe, in his Short Dis
course on the Stage" in 1864, by
which time scenery was fairly intro
duced, says: Now for the difference
between our theaters and those of
former years, they were but plain ana
simple, with no other scenes or decor
atoms but only old tapestry and the
stage strewed with rushes." Cory said
in the prologue to THE Generous
Enemies" 1872:
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 therefor jot down tapestry"
and the players house" as perman-
ent parts of scenery. The frequent
occasions 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 "All for
Money" 1878, it is directed: Pleasure
rises from beneath the stage" In
Lodges and Green's Looking Glass
for London and England" 1894, there
is the stage direstion, 1.-THE Magi
with their rods beat the ground, and
from under the same riseth a brave
arbour;" and later in the same play
"a flame of fire appeareth from be-
meath, and Radagon is swallowed"
In Ben Jonson's 'Poetaster," 1901,
Envy rises from the ground. Marston
in his "Antonios Revenge" 1902, uses
the same device, and doubtless
GHOSTS" entered in this way from be-
meath the stage. There were also
mechanical contrivances by ropes and
pulleys to raise gods and spirits to
the heavens" sometimes the chariot
of Phaethon and other similar proper.
ties are stated thus to have been ele-
waited. Ben Jonson girds against the
practices of the romantic dramatists
In general when he puts forward his