[339] Ham. V. i; Macb. IV. i; Devil’s Charter, prol.; Catiline, I. i, &c.; I do not know whether hell-mouth remained in use; there is nothing to point to it in the hell scene of The Devil is an Ass, I. i.
[340] Pericles, II. i. 121, ‘Enter the two Fisher-men, drawing vp a Net’.
[341] Devil’s Charter, III. v. Caesar Borgia and Frescobaldi murder the Duke of Candie (vide infra). Caesar says ‘let vs heaue him ouer, That he may fall into the riuer Tiber, Come to the bridge with him’; he bids Frescobaldi ‘stretch out their armes [for] feare that he Fall not vpon the arches’, and ‘Caesar casteth Frescobaldi after’.
[342] Rape of Lucrece (ed. Pearson), p. 240. It is before ‘yon walles’ of Rome. Horatius has his foot ‘fixt vpon the bridge’ and bids his friends break it behind him, while he keeps Tarquin’s party off. Then ‘a noise of knocking downe the bridge, within’ and ‘Enter ... Valerius aboue’, who encourages Horatius. After ‘Alarum, and the falling of the Bridge’, Horatius ‘exit’, and Porsenna says ‘Hee’s leapt off from the bridge’. Presently ‘the shout of all the multitude Now welcomes him a land’.
[343] Devil’s Charter, III. v, Frescobaldi is to waylay the Duke of Candie. ‘He fenceth’ (s.d.) with ‘this conduct here’ (1482), and as the victim arrives, ‘Here will I stand close’ (1612) and ‘He stands behind the post’ (s.d.); cf. Satiromastix (p. 141, n. 4).
[344] Tp. IV. i. 72.
[345] Tp. III. iii. 17, ‘Solemne and strange Musicke: and Prosper on the top (invisible:) Enter severall strange shapes, bringing in a Banket; and dance about it with gentle actions of salutations, and inuiting the King, &c. to eate, they depart’.... (52) ‘Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariell (like a Harpey) claps his wings upon the Table, and with a queint device the Banquet vanishes’.... (82) ‘He vanishes in Thunder: then (to soft Musicke) Enter the shapes againe, and daunce (with mockes and mowes) and carrying out the Table’; IV. i. 134, ‘Enter Certaine Nimphes.... Enter certaine Reapers (properly habited:) they ioyne with the Nimphes, in a gracefull dance, towards the end whereof, Prospero starts sodainly and speakes, after which to a strange hollow and confused noyse, they heauily vanish’.... (256) ‘A noyse of Hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits in shape of Dogs and Hounds, hunting them about: Prospero and Ariel setting them on’. Was the ‘top’ merely the gallery, or the third tiring-house floor (cf. p. 98) above? Ariel, like Prospero, enters ‘invisible’ (III. ii. 48). Is this merely the touch of an editor (cf. ch. xxii) or does it reflect a stage convention? The Admiral’s tiring-house contained in 1598 (Henslowe Papers, 123) ‘a robe for to goo invisibell’.
[346] G. A. V, ‘Iris descends ... Iupiter first ascends upon the Eagle, and after him Ganimed’.... ‘Enter at 4 severall corners the 4 winds’; S. A. II, ‘Thunder and lightning. Iupiter discends in a cloude’.... ‘Iuno and Iris descend from the heavens’; III, ‘Enter Iuno and Iris above in a cloud’.... ‘Enter Pluto, his Chariot drawne in by Divels’.... ‘Mercury flies from above’.... ‘Earth riseth from under the stage’.... ‘Earth sinkes’.... ‘The river Arethusa riseth from the stage’; IV, ‘Iupiter taking up the Infant speakes as he ascends in his cloud’; V, ‘Hercules sinkes himselfe: Flashes of fire; the Diuels appeare at every corner of the stage with severall fireworkes’.... ‘Exeunt three wayes Ceres, Theseus, Philoctetes, and Hercules dragging Cerberus one way: Pluto, hels Iudges, the Fates and Furies downe to hell: Iupiter, the Gods and Planets ascend to heaven’; B. A. I, ‘When the Fury sinkes, a Buls head appeares’; V, ‘Enter Hercules from a rocke above, tearing down trees’.... ‘Iupiter above strikes him with a thunderbolt, his body sinkes, and from the heavens discends a hand in a cloud, that from the place where Hercules was burnt, brings up a starre, and fixeth it in the firmament’.
[347] G. A. II, ‘Enter Iupiter like a Nimph, or a Virago’; IV, ‘Enter Iupiter like a Pedler’; S. A. II, ‘Enter ... Iupiter shapt like Amphitrio’; IV, ‘Enter Iuno in the shape of old Beroe’.... ‘Enter Iupiter like a woodman’; B. A. V, ‘Enter ... Hercules attired like a woman, with a distaffe and a spindle’.
[348] S. A. III, ‘The Nurses bring yong Hercules in his Cradle, and leave him. Enter Iuno and Iris with two snakes, put them to the childe and depart: Hercules strangles them: to them Amphitrio, admiring the accident’; B. A. IV, ‘Enter Vulcan and Pyragmon with his net of wire.... Vulcan catcheth them fast in his net.... All the Gods appeare above and laugh, Iupiter, Iuno, Phoebus, Mercury, Neptune’.