At the end of the scene, Pericles sends one of the sailors out to prepare the “caulkt and bittumed” chest for the body, which we do not see removed, for the scene ends when Pericles says, “I’le bring the body presently.”
In the second scene, again on the deck of a ship, Lysimachus is told of Pericles’ trance out of which no one can stir him.
Helicanus. hee will not speake to any
Lysimachus. yet let me obtaine my wish [to see Pericles]
Helicanus. Behold him, this was a goodly person.
[V, i, 34-36. Q.]
Presumably a curtain is drawn to reveal Pericles on a couch. Subsequently, Marina is brought to rouse him, and little by little the two discover they are father and daughter. The lines indicate some shifting in and out of the enclosure during this scene.
Because of the stage direction in the Folio, “Enter Othello, and Desdemona in her bed,” this last scene of Othello probably employs the enclosure. If it is continued in the enclosure throughout, it is the only illustration that we have of extended action in this space. Only one other instance occurs in the Globe plays where “enter” precedes the discovery of a sleeping person (A Yorkshire Tragedy, scene v). As yet no one has explained convincingly the appearance of “enter” in such a context. In contemporary diction and common usage “enter” is not a synonym for “discover.” Yet such stage directions clearly intend “enter” to bear a special significance. Therefore, until further light can be thrown upon such usage, it is best for us to accept stage directions reading “Enter A in a bed” or “Enter B asleep” as evidence of discovery.
A similarity between the three Shakespearean scenes and the non-Shakespearean scenes will be seen immediately. Two of the Shakespearean scenes involve the display of sleepers, one of a seeming corpse. When we return to the remaining possible uses of the enclosure, we find that they include the discovery of a conference (Othello, I, iii: “Enter Duke and Senators set at a Table with lights and Attendants.” Q. 1622. The Folio s.d. is “Enter Duke, Senators, and Officers”); concealment of a sleeper (Lear, III, vi: “draw the curtains”); and the discovery of dead bodies (Timon, V, iii: a soldier finds Timon’s body, and Pericles, I, i). In Pericles, I, i, Antiochus seeks to dissuade Pericles from endeavoring to win the hand of Antiochus’ daughter by answering a fateful riddle. He points to the bodies of “sometimes famous Princes” who failed to answer the riddle and were put to death. These bodies may be discovered.
Once one puts all the evidence together, the degree of uniformity is amazing. Considering all these discoveries, in Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean plays, we find twenty-one examples, six of which involve sleepers, seven of which involve study or conference, five of which involve corpses. One, the devil as pope, is a slight variant of the last category. The final two variants appear in Jonson’s plays. In Volpone gold is displayed, the only time an object is the center of revelation. It is possible that a chest rather than the enclosure contains the wealth. In Every Man Out of His Humour, the evidence for the use of the enclosure is slight.[26]