[187] Bacon and Bungay, sc. ix. (vide supra); T. of a Shrew, sc. ix. 32, ‘They couer the bord and fetch in the meate’; 1 Edw. IV, IV. ii, ‘They bring forth a table and serue in the banquet’; Patient Grissell, 1899, ‘A Table is set’; Humorous Day’s Mirth, scc. viii, x-xii (Verone’s ordinary), on which cf. p. 70.
[188] 1 Rich. II, IV. ii; Death of R. Hood, II. ii; R. J. I. v, where a servant says, ‘Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard’, and Capulet ‘turn the tables up’; cf. ch. vi.
[189] M. N. D. v (cf. III. i. 58); Sir T. More, sc. ix; Sp. Tragedy, IV. iii, iv (a continuous scene), on which cf. p. 93, n. 1.
[190] 2 Tamburlaine, III. iii. 2969, ‘The Arras is drawen, and Zenocrate lies in her bed of state, Tamburlaine sitting by her: three Phisitians about her bed, tempering potions. Theridamas, Techelles, Vsumcasane, and the three sonnes’.... (3110, at end of sc.) ‘The Arras is drawen’; Selimus, sc. x. 861, ‘I needs must sleepe. Bassaes withdraw your selues from me awhile’.... ‘They stand aside while the curtins are drawne’ (s.d.) ... (952) ‘A Messenger enters, Baiazet awaketh’; Battle of Alcazar, d.s. 24, ‘Enter Muly Mahamet and his sonne, and his two young brethren, the Moore sheweth them the bed, and then takes his leaue of them, and they betake them to their rest’ ... (36) ‘Enter the Moore and two murdrers bringing in his unkle Abdelmunen, then they draw the curtains and smoother the yong princes in the bed. Which done in sight of the vnkle they strangle him in his Chaire, and then goe forth’; Edw. I, sc. xxv. 2668, ‘Elinor in child-bed with her daughter Ione, and other Ladies’; True Tragedy of Rich. III, sc. i, ‘Now Nobles, draw the Curtaines and depart ... (s.d.) The King dies in his bed’; sc. xiii, where murderers are called ‘vp’, and murder of princes in bed is visible; Famous Victories, sc. viii. 1, ‘Enter the King with his Lords’ ... (10), ‘Draw the Curtaines and depart my chamber a while’ ... ‘He sleepeth ... Enter the Prince’ (s.d.) ... ‘I wil goe, nay but why doo I not go to the Chamber of my sick father?’ ... (23) ‘Exit’ [having presumably taken the crown] ... (25) ‘King. Now my Lords ... Remoue my chaire a little backe, and set me right’ ... (47) ‘Prince [who has re-entered]. I came into your Chamber ... And after that, seeing the Crowne, I tooke it’ ... (87) ‘Draw the Curtaines, depart my Chamber, ... Exeunt omnes, The King dieth’. In the analogous 2 Hen. IV, IV. iv, v (a continuous scene divided, with unanimity in ill-doing, by modern editors in the middle of a speech), the King says (IV. iv. 131), ‘Beare me hence Into some other chamber’, Warwick (IV. v. 4), ‘Call for the Musick in the other Roome’, and the King ‘Set me the Crowne vpon my Pillow here’. The Prince enters and the Lords go to ‘the other roome’; he takes the crown and ‘Exit’. Later (56) the Lords say, ‘This doore is open, he is gone this way’, and ‘He came not through the chamber where we staide’. The Prince returns and the Lords are bidden ‘Depart the chamber’. Later (233) the King asks the name of ‘the lodging where I first did swound’, and bids ‘beare me to that Chamber’. Then the scene, and in F1 the act, ends. In 1 Contention, sc. x. 1, ‘Then the Curtaines being drawne, Duke Humphrey is discouered in his bed, and two men lying on his brest and smothering him in his bed. And then enter the Duke of Suffolke to them’. He bids ‘draw the Curtaines againe and get you gone’. The King enters and bids him call Gloucester. He goes out, and returns to say that Gloucester is dead. Warwick says, ‘Enter his priuie chamber my Lord and view the bodie’, and (50), ‘Warwicke drawes the curtaines and showes Duke Humphrey in his bed’. The analogous 2 Hen. VI, III. ii, omits the murder coram populo and begins ‘Enter two or three running ouer the Stage, from the Murther of Duke Humfrey’. It then follows the earlier model until (132) the King bids Warwick ‘Enter his Chamber’ and we get the brief s.d. (146) ‘Bed put forth’, and Warwick speaks again. The next scene is another death scene, which begins in 1 Contention, sc. xi, ‘Enter King and Salsbury, and then the Curtaines be drawne, and the Cardinal is discouered in his bed, rauing and staring as if he were madde’, and in 2 Hen. VI, III. iii, ‘Enter the King ... to the Cardinal in bed’, ending (32) ‘Close vp his eyes, and draw the Curtaine close’. In 1 Rich. II, V. i, Lapoole enters ‘with a light’ and murderers, whom he bids ‘stay in the next with-draweing chamber ther’. Then (48), ‘He drawes the curtayne’, says of Gloucester ‘He sleepes vppon his bed’, and Exit. Gloucester, awaked by ghosts, says (110), ‘The doores are all made fast ... and nothing heere appeeres, But the vast circute of this emptie roome’. Lapoole, returning, says, ‘Hee’s ryssen from his bed’. Gloucester bids him ‘shutt to the doores’ and ‘sits to wright’. The murderers enter and kill him. Lapoole bids ‘lay hime in his bed’ and ‘shutt the doore, as if he ther had dyd’, and they (247) ‘Exeunt with the bodye’. In Death of R. Hood, ii, ind., the presenter says ‘Draw but that vaile, And there King John sits sleeping in his chaire’, and the s.d. follows, ‘Drawe the curten: the King sits sleeping ... Enter Queene ... She ascends, and seeing no motion, she fetcheth her children one by one; but seeing yet no motion, she descendeth, wringing her hands, and departeth’. In R. J. IV. iii, iv, v (continuous action), Juliet drinks her potion and Q1, has the s.d. (IV. iii. 58) ‘She fals vpon her bed within the Curtaines’. Action follows before the house, until the Nurse, bidden to call Juliet, finds her dead. Then successively ‘Enter’ Lady Capulet, Capulet, the Friar, and Paris, to all of whom Juliet is visible. After lament, the Friar, in Q2 (IV. v. 91), bids them all ‘go you in’, but in Q1, ‘They all but the Nurse goe foorth, casting Rosemary on her and shutting the Curtens’. The Nurse, then, in both texts, addresses the musicians, who came with Paris. On the difficulty of this scene, in relation to II. ii and III. v, cf. p. 94.
[191] Wounds of Civil War, III. ii, 913, ‘Enter old Marius with his keeper, and two souldiers’. There is (965) ‘this homely bed’, on which (972) ‘He lies downe’ (s.d.), and when freed (1066) ‘from walls to woods I wend’. In Edw. II, 2448–2568 (at Kenilworth), keepers say that the King is ‘in a vault vp to the knees in water’, of which (2455) ‘I opened but the doore’. Then (2474) ‘Heere is the keyes, this is the lake’ and (2486), ‘Heeres a light to go into the dungeon’. Then (2490) Edward speaks and, presumably having been brought out, is bid (2520) ‘lie on this bed’. He is murdered with a table and featherbed brought from ‘the next roome’ (2478), and the body borne out. In 1 Tr. Raigne, sc. xii, Hubert enters, bids his men (8) ‘stay within that entry’ and when called set Arthur ‘in this chayre’. He then bids Arthur (13) ‘take the benefice of the faire evening’, and ‘Enter Arthur’ who is later (131) bid ‘Goe in with me’. K. J. IV. i has precisely analogous indications, except that the attendants stand (2) ‘within the arras’, until Hubert stamps ‘Vpon the bosome of the ground’. In Rich. III, I. iv, Clarence talks with his keeper, and sleeps. Murderers enter, to whom the keeper says (97), ‘Here are the keies, there sits the Duke a sleepe’. They stab him, threaten to ‘chop him in the malmsey but in the next roome’ (161, 277), and bear the body out. In Rich. II, V. v (at Pontefract) Richard muses on ‘this prison where I liue’. He is visited by a groom of his stable (70), ‘where no man neuer comes, but that sad dog, That brings me foode’. Then (95) ‘Enter one to Richard with meate’ and (105) ‘The murderers rush in’, and (119) the bodies are cleared away. Sir T. More, sc. xvi, ‘Enter Sir Thomas Moore, the Lieutenant, and a seruant attending as in his chamber in the Tower’; Lord Cromwell, V. v, ‘Enter Cromwell in the Tower.... Enter the Lieutenant of the Tower and officers.... Enter all the Nobles’; Dead Man’s Fortune, plot (Henslowe Papers, 134), ‘Here the laydes speakes in prysoun’; Death of R. Hood, IV. i:
Brand. Come, come, here is the door.
Lady Bruce. O God, how dark it is.
Brand. Go in, go in; it’s higher up the stairs....
He seems to lock a door.
In Old Fortunatus, 2572, Montrose says of Ampedo, ‘Drag him to yonder towre, there shackle him’. Later (2608) Andelocia is brought to join him in ‘this prison’ and the attendants bid ‘lift in his legs’. The brothers converse in ‘fetters’. In 1 Oldcastle, IV. iv, v (a continuous scene), ‘Enter the Bishop of Rochester with his men, in liuerie coates’. They have brought him ‘heere into the Tower’ (1965) and may ‘go backe vnto the Porters Lodge’ or attend him ‘here without’. But they slip away. The Bishop calls the Lieutenant and demands to see Oldcastle. A message is sent to Oldcastle by Harpoole. Then (1995), ‘Enter sir Iohn Oldcastle’, and while the Bishop dismisses the Lieutenant, Harpoole communicates a plot ‘aside’ to Oldcastle. Then the Bishop addresses Oldcastle, and as they talk Oldcastle and Harpoole lay hands upon him. They take his upper garments, which Oldcastle puts on. Harpoole says (2016) ‘the window that goes out into the leads is sure enough’ and he will ‘conuay him after, and bind him surely in the inner room’. Then (2023) ‘Enter seruing men againe’. Oldcastle, disguised as the Bishop, comes towards them, saying, ‘The inner roomes be very hot and close’. Harpoole tells him that he will ‘downe vpon them’. He then pretends to attack him. The serving-men join in, and (2049) ‘Sir John escapes’. The Lieutenant enters and asks who is brawling ‘so neare vnto the entrance of the Tower’. Then (2057) ‘Rochester calls within’, and as they go in and bring him out bound, Harpoole gets away; cf. p. 62, n. 2. Look About You, sc. v, is a similar scene in the Fleet, partly in Gloucester’s chamber (811), the door of which can be shut, partly (865) on a bowling green. Analogous to some of the prison scenes is Alarum for London, sc. xii, in which a Burgher’s Wife shows Van End a vault where her wealth is hid, and (1310) ‘She pushes him downe’, and he is stoned there.