When a tragedy was played, the stage was draped with black; many references to this custom are found in contemporary authors. In Sidney’s Arcadia, 1598: “There arose even with the sun a veil of dark clouds, before his face, had blacked all over the face of heaven, preparing as it were a mournful stage for a tragedy to be played on.” In Marston’s The Insatiate Countess: “The stage of heaven is hung with solemn black. A time best fitting to act tragedies,” and in A Warning for Faire Women, 1599: “The stage is hung with black, and I perceive the auditors prepared for Tragedy.”
PLAYED. PART.
Pucelle hath bravely play’d her part in this
And doth deserve a coronet of gold.
III, 3, 88.
MASQUERS. REVEL.
Tell false Edward, thy supposed king,
That Lewis of France is sending over masquers
To revel it with him and his new bride.
III, 3, 224.