In determining which scenes in Shakespeare’s Globe plays employed the enclosure, it is necessary to allow reasonable latitude. At least three instances are fairly certain, Pericles, III, i; V, i, and Othello, V, ii. I am inclined to believe that there may be four others: Pericles, I, i; Timon of Athens, V, iii; Lear, III, vi; Othello, I, iii. Let us examine the definite instances of discovery.
The two which occur in Pericles are similar in character. In the first (III, i), Pericles is on a storm-tossed ship’s deck. His newborn babe has just been placed in his arms. The sailors insist that the body of his queen, who has but now died in child-birth, be cast overboard. Pericles answers,
As you thinke meet; for she must over board straight:
Most wretched Queene.
Lychorida. Heere she lyes sir.
Pericles. A terrible Child-bed hast thou had my deare,
... nor have I time ... but straight,
Must cast thee scarcly Coffind.
[III, i, 54-61. Quarto copy]