The stage runs clear across the width of the pit, about thirty-five feet, projecting in an "apron" or avant scène five feet beyond the proscenium wall, and is surrounded on the three outward sides by a low railing of classic design about eighteen inches in height, just as in many Elizabethan playhouses.
If one may trust an elevation of the stage, drawn on the same sheet to twice the scale of the general plan, the stage was four feet six inches above the floor of the pit. This elevation exhibits the surprising feature of a classic façade, Palladian in treatment, on the stage of what so far we have regarded as a late modification of a playhouse of Shakespeare's day. Evidently Inigo Jones contemplated the erection of a permanent architectural proscenium, as the ancients called it, of the type, though far more modest, both in scale and ornamentation, of Palladio's Theatro Olimpico at Vicenza, which we know he visited in about 1600, some twenty years after its erection. This proscenium, given in plan and elevation, shows a semi-circular structure with a radius of fifteen feet, two stories in height, of the Corinthian or Composite order. In the lower story are five doorways, the centre of which is a large archway flanked by pedestals, on which are inscribed in Greek characters, Melpomene—Thalia; over these and over the smaller doors are tablets.
The second story contains between its lighter engaged columns, over the four side doors, niches with corbels below, destined to carry statues as their inscribed bases indicate. So far as these inscriptions are legible,—the clearest reading "phocles," probably Sophocles,—these were to represent Greek dramatists, most likely Æschylus, Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes.
The curved pediment of the central archway runs up into this story and is broken in the middle by a tablet bearing the inscription "Prodesse et Delectare," which is flanked by two reclining genii holding garlands.
Above these are two busts on brackets, Thespis and Epicurus, or possibly Epicharmus. The space directly above this pediment is occupied by a window-like opening five by four feet, the traditional Elizabethan music-room, in all probability, which, Mr. W.J. Lawrence has shown us, occupied this position both in Shakespeare's day and for some time after the Restoration; an arrangement which was revived by Mr. Steele Mackaye in the Madison Square Theatre, and originally in the first little Lyceum, New York, both now pulled down. The pyramidal pediment above this opening projects above the upper cornice into a coved ceiling, which would appear from the rendering of the drawing to form an apse above the semi-circular stage. Behind the proscenium is a large space with staircases of approach, two windows at the rear, and apparently a fireplace for the comfort of the waiting players. Communication with the front of the house is provided by a door in the proscenium wall opening into the stage door lobby, whence the outside of the building may be reached.
There is no indication of galleries, unless some marks on the angles of the front wall of the balcony may be interpreted without too much license into the footings of piers or posts to carry one; the total interior height shown in the elevation from what I have assumed to be the floor of the pit to the ceiling being only twenty-eight feet, there would hardly have been room for more than one. The only staircases which could have served it are at the rear of the building in the corners behind the stage wall....
The general dimensions would appear to be:
| Total width of the auditorium | 58 ft. | |
| Total width of the pit | 36 ft. | |
| Total width of the front stage or "apron" | 35 ft. | |
| Total depth of the stage from the railing to the centre of the proscenium | 16 ft. | |
| The entire building is 58 feet square inside, cut to an octagon of 28 feet each side. | ||
| Height from floor to ceiling | 28 ft. | |
| Height from stage to ceiling | about | 23 ft. 6 in. |
| The lower order of the proscenium | 10 ft. 6 in. | |
| The upper order of the proscenium | 9 ft. 6 in. | |
The scale on the drawing may not be absolutely correct, as measured by it the side doors of the proscenium are only five feet high and two feet nine inches wide: this, however, may be an error in the drawing, since we have it on very good authority that Inigo Jones designed without the use of a scale, proportioning his various members by his exquisitely critical eye alone, subsequently adding the dimensions in writing.
I record below some of the references to the Cockpit which I have gathered from the Herbert Manuscript and the Office-Books of the Lord Chamberlain. The earliest payment for plays there, it will be observed, is dated March 16, 1633. Abundant evidence shows that the actors gave their performance in the Cockpit at night without interfering with their regular afternoon performance at their playhouses, and for their pains received the sum of £10. If, however, for any reason they "lost their day" at their house they were paid £20.