It is not, I think, sitting on the stage that is satirized in J. Hall, Virgedemiarum (1597), i. 3, but a performance by illiterate amateurs on a ‘hired Stage’.
[1691] C. Revels (1601), ind. 138:
‘3. Child ... Here I enter.
1. What, vpon the stage too?
2. Yes: and I step forth like one of the children, and ask you, Would you have a Stool, Sir?
3. A Stoole Boy?
2. I Sir, if you’le giue me sixe Pence, I’le fetch you one.
3. For what I pray thee? what shall I doe with it?
2. O God Sir! will you betraye your Ignorance so much? why, throne your selfe in state on the stage, as other Gentlemen vse Sir’;
All Fools (c. 1604), prol. 30: