The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 3

by E. K. Chambers

[466] Phoenix has (a) the palace (I. i; V. i) with hall; (b) Falso’s (I. vi; II. iii; III. i); (c) the Captain’s (I. ii; II. ii); (d) a tavern (I. iv; IV. iii) with interior action; (e) a law court (IV. i); (f) a jeweller’s (III. ii; IV. i, ii, iii) with interior action. It will be observed that (f) is needed both with (d) and (e). There is no action above.

[467] M. Term has (a) Paul’s (I. i, ii); (b) Quomodo’s shop, the Three Knaves (II. iii; III. iv; IV. i, iii, iv; V. i); (c) a tavern (II. i); (d) a law court (V. iii); (e) a courtesan’s (III. i; IV. ii). All have interior action and (b) eavesdropping above in a balcony (II. iii. 108, 378, 423; III. iv). Much action is merely in the streets.

[468] A Mad World has (a) Harebrain’s (I. ii; III. i; IV. iv); (b) Penitent Brothel’s (IV. i), with interior action; (c) a courtesan’s (I. i; II. iii, vi; III. ii; IV. v), with a bed and five persons at once, perhaps above, in III. ii; (d) Sir Bounteous Progress’s in the country (II. i; II. ii, iv, v, vii; III. iii; IV. ii, iii; V. i, ii). The action here is rather puzzling, but apparently a hall, a lodging next it, where are ‘Curtains drawn’ (II. vii. 103), the stairs, and a ‘closet’ or ‘matted chamber’ (IV. ii. 27; IV. iii. 3) are all used. If the scenes were shifted, the interposition of a scene of only 7 lines (II. iii) at London amongst a series of country scenes is strange.

[469] A Trick to Catch has (a) Lucre’s (I. iii, iv; II. i, ii; IV. ii, iii; V. i); (b) Hoard’s (III. ii; IV. iv; V. ii); (c) a courtesan’s (III. i); (d) an inn (III. iii); (e) Dampit’s (III. iv; IV. v); and away from London, (f) Witgood Hall, with (g) an inn (I. i, ii); (h) Cole Harbour (IV. i). Nearly all the action is exterior, but a window above is used at (b) in IV. iv, and at (e) there is interior action both below in III. iv and perhaps above (cf. III. iv. 72), with a bed and eight persons at once in IV. v.

[470] Puritan has (a) the Widow’s (I. i; II. i, ii; III. i, ii; IV. i, ii, iii; V. i, ii), with a garden and rosemary bush; (b) a gentleman’s house (III. iv); (c) an apothecary’s (III. iii); (d) a prison (I. iv; III. v). There is interior action below in all; action above only in (a) at V. ii. 1, ‘Enter Sir John Penidub, and Moll aboue lacing of her clothes’ in a balcony.

[471] Woman Hater has (a) the Duke’s palace (I. i, iii; IV. i; V. ii); (b) the Count’s (I. iii); (c) Gondarino’s (II. i; III. i, ii); (d) Lazarillo’s lodging (I. i, ii); (e) a courtesan’s (II. i; IV. ii, iii; V. ii); (f) a mercer’s shop (III. iv); (g) Lucio’s study (V. i). There is interior action below in (a), (e), (f), and (g), where ‘Enter Lazarello, and two Intelligencers, Lucio being at his study.... Secretary draws the Curtain’. A window above is used at (e), and there is also action above at (c), apparently in a loggia within sight and ear-shot of the street.

[472] The term is used in The Faery Pastoral, Satiromastix, and Bussy d’Ambois (vide supra); but also in Sophonisba (vide infra), which is a Blackfriars play.

[473] I take it that it was in this stand that Andrugio’s ghost was placed ‘betwixt the music-houses’ in 2 Antonio and Mellida.

[474] The four plays which seem most repugnant to continuous staging, Westward Ho!, Northward Ho!, A Mad World, my Masters, and A Trick to Catch the Old One, are all datable in 1604–6.

[475] Elizabethan Plays: Love’s Metamorphosis, Liberality and Prodigality, Cynthia’s Revels, Poetaster, Sir Giles Goosecap, Gentleman Usher, and probably All Fools; Jacobean Plays: M. d’Olive, May Day, Widow’s Tears, Conspiracy of Byron, Tragedy of Byron, Case is Altered, Malcontent, Dutch Courtesan, Sophonisba, Eastward Ho!, Your Five Gallants, Philotas, Isle of Gulls, Law Tricks, Fleir, Faithful Shepherdess, Knight of the Burning Pestle. In addition Fawn and Trick to Catch an Old One, already dealt with under Paul’s, were in the first case produced at, and in the second transferred to, Blackfriars.