There was at the
outset no music, save flourishes on trumpets at the opening of the
play and between the acts. The scenes within each act were played
continuously without pause. The bare boards of the platform-stage,
which no proscenium nor curtain darkened, projected so far into the
auditorium, that the actors spoke in the very centre of the house.
Trap-doors were in use for the entrance of "ghosts" and other
mysterious personages. At the back of the stage was a raised platform
or balcony, from which often hung loose curtains; through them the
actors passed to the forepart of the stage. The balcony was pressed
into the service when the text of the play indicated that the speakers
were not actually standing on the same level. From the raised platform
Juliet addressed Romeo in the balcony scene, and the citizens of
Angers in _King John_ held colloquy with the English besiegers. This
was, indeed, almost the furthest limit of the Elizabethan
stage-manager's notion of scenic realism. The boards, which were bare
save for the occasional presence of rough properties, were held to
present adequate semblance, as the play demanded, of a king's
throne-room, a chapel, a forest, a ship at sea, a mountainous pass, a
market-place, a battle-field, or a churchyard.
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