If the playgoer had plenty of money at his command he could, according
to the German visitor, hire not only a seat but a cushion to elevate
his stature; "so that," says our author, "he might not only see the
play, but"--what is also often more important for rich people--"be
seen" by the audience to be occupying a specially distinguished place.
Fashionable playgoers of the male sex might, if they opened their
purses wide enough, occupy stools on the wide platform-stage. Such a
practice proved embarrassing, not only to the performers, but to those
who had to content themselves with the penny pit. Standing in front
and by the sides of the projecting stage, they could often only catch
glimpses of the actors through chinks in serried ranks of stools.
The histrionic and scenic conditions, in which Shakespeare's plays
were originally produced, present a further series of disadvantages
which, from our modern point of view, render the more amazing the
unqualified enthusiasm of the Elizabethan playgoer.
There was no scenery, although there were crude endeavours to create
scenic illusion by means of "properties" like rocks, tombs, caves,
trees, tables, chairs, and pasteboard dishes of food.
Pages:
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72