Shakespeare and the Stage / With a Complete List of Theatrical Terms Used by Shakespeare in His Plays and Poems, Arranged in Alphabetical Order, & Explanatory Notes

by Maurice Jonas

This huge stage presenteth nought but shows.

Sonnet 15, line 3.

STAGE. PART.

My part is youth and beat these from the stage.

Lucrece, line 278.

Black stage for tragedies and murders fell.

Lucrece, line 766.

“My part is youth” may refer to some particular play, but “Lusty Juventus,” suggested by Stevens, contains no such scene.

In the interlude of “Youth,” youth drives charity from the stage, but with threats not blows. Malone supposes that Shakespeare was thinking of the conflicts between the Devil and the Vice in the old Morality plays, where the Vice was always victorious and drove the Devil roaring off the stage.