[168] Cf. ch. xix, p. 11. The introduction of a meal goes rather beyond the neo-classic analogy, but presents no great difficulty. If a banquet can be brought into a garden or orchard, it can be brought into a porch or courtyard. It is not always possible to determine whether a meal is in a threshold scene or a hall scene (cf. p. 64), but in 1 Edw. IV, III. ii, ‘Enter Nell and Dudgeon, with a table couered’ is pretty clearly at the door of the Tanner’s cottage.
[169] In the theatre usage personages go ‘in’, even where they merely go ‘off’ without entering a house (cf. e.g. p. 53, n. 2). The interlude usage is less regular, and sometimes personages go ‘out’, as they would appear to the audience to do.
[170] Soliman and Perseda, II. i. 227, ‘Sound vp the Drum to Lucinaes doore’ (s.d.). Doors are conspicuous in K. to K. Honest Man; thus sc. ii. 82, ‘Enter Lelio with his sword drawen, hee knockes at his doore’; sc. v. 395, ’tis time to knocke vp Lelios householde traine. He knockes’ ... ‘What mean this troup of armed men about my dore?’; sc. v. 519 (Bristeo’s), ‘Come breake vp the doore’; sc. vii. 662, ‘Enter Annetta and Lucida with their worke in their handes.... Here let vs sit awhile’ ... (738) ‘Get you in ... Here put them in at doore’; sc. vii. 894 (Lelio’s), ‘Underneath this wall, watch all this night: If any man shall attempt to breake your sisters doore, Be stout, assaile him’; sc. vii. 828 (a Senator’s), ‘What make you lingering here about my doores?’; sc. ix. 1034 (Lelio’s), ‘Heaue me the doores from of the hinges straight’; sc. xv. 1385 (Lelio’s), ‘my door doth ope’ (cf. p. 62, on the courtyard scene in the same play).
[171] Thus Humorous Day’s Mirth, sc. v (Moren’s), 111, ‘We’ll draw thee out of the house by the heels’ ... 143, ‘Thrust this ass out of the doors’ ... 188, ‘Get you out of my house!’, but 190, ‘Well, come in, sweet bird’; Shoemaker’s Holiday, sc. xii (Lord Mayor’s), ‘Get you in’, but ‘The Earl of Lincoln at the gate is newly lighted’.
[172] James IV, II. i, ‘Enter the Countesse of Arrain, with Ida, her daughter, in theyr porch, sitting at worke’ ... (753) ‘Come, will it please you enter, gentle sir? Offer to Exeunt’; cf. Arden of F. (vide infra) and the penthouse in M. V. II. vi. 1 (p. 58).
[173] Perhaps the best example is in Arden of Feversham. Arden’s house at Aldersgate is described by Michael to the murderers in II. ii. 189:
The dores Ile leaue unlockt against you come,
No sooner shall ye enter through the latch,
Ouer the thresholde to the inner court,
But on your left hand shall you see the staires