ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS OF SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE

A Directorial Point of View

Joel Friedman

Despite the reconstruction of the Globe Playhouse (1997), any reproduction of an Elizabethan theatre remains subject to a legion of suppositions. The little that is known of the stage itself is dominated by the de Witt sketch (c. 1596) of the Swan’s interior. Although the sketch is based more on assumption than assurance the drawing persists as the accepted model.1 This model now stands on London’s Bankside and is popularly considered the definitive recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe.

Questions remain, however, concerning the architectural features of this stage or any other stage that presented Shakespeare’s plays. First, how do actors get to and from the upper and lower levels? Second, should the upper gallery be, as it is in the present Globe, roofed, recessed, and fenced by a railing broken at intervals by columns as depicted in the de Witt sketch? If so, would not this arrangement impair the audience’s view of the action? Finally, what type of windows did Shakespeare employ and how did they function? A close scrutiny of Shakespeare’s texts will take us a considerable way towards solutions to these questions.

In considering the first of these problems – how actors get to and from the upper and lower levels – those involved in the reconstruction of the Globe, as well as most scholars and editors, believe the only way of reaching either level was by means of a staircase concealed behind the tiring-house. This notion has persisted despite the fact that the texts demand the use of an on-stage stairway that ascends to some form of upper stage. There is no doubt there were concealed stairs, but they served as they still do in the modern theatre as an ‘escape’ to complement the staircase on stage for the purpose of allowing actors to be discovered above, or for exits and entrances to and from the backstage area. Those editors who have accepted the existence of the concealed stairway in lieu of the one on-stage, consequently misinterpret the demands of the texts, and have assumed, wherever original stage directions were lacking or seemed contradictory, that Shakespeare or his compositors had been somewhat remiss. Such editors supplied texts and entrances in order to justify their assumptions.

Smith accepts these stage directions wholly:

…a stairway was not in the front of the tiring-house façade, or elsewhere in full view of the audience, for whenever an actor went from one floor to another, he disappeared from view. This fact is indicated by the many stage-directions which give an ‘exit’ to an actor when he stakes to the stairs, and an ‘enter’ or ‘re-enter’ when he appears at the new level. The stairs, therefore, were off-stage, behind the scenic wall. 2

Consider, however, 3 Henry VI, scene 1.3 The Folio’s direction:

Enter Warwick, the Mayor of Coventry, two Messengers, and Others upon the Walls.4

1. 6. Enter Somerville.

Somerville enters onto the platform stage and tells Warwick, above, that the drum being heard is not that of Clarence, points out the direction of Southam, and remarks that whoever approaches is near at hand. At 1.15. he must ascend to join Warwick as the enemy, Edward, Richard, and soldiers enter onto the platform. There are no stage directions instructing Somerville to exit below and enter onto the upper gallery which a concealed stairway would require. Therefore he must visibly ascend. In so doing, and here we address the second question, does he climb over the traditional railing to gain access to the upper gallery, or is it more likely that he has easier entry to that area?

1.57. Enter Oxford, with drum and colours.

At 1.59. he, too, ascends to join Warwick. Again, no stage directions, but the following line has Richard saying:

1.60 Rich. The gates are open, let us enter too.

Reinforcing the position that there is visible access to the upper area.

1.66 Enter Montague, with drum and colours.

And 1.67. no stage directions are provided, but he must ascend following the action of Somerville and Oxford.

1.71. Enter Somerset, with drum and colours.

At 1.72. again, no stage directions; still he must ascend as well.

Had Coventry been situated on the platform level, where the editors Capell and Malone, due to the lack of stage directions, place it, there might be some justification for their instructions to Oxford, Montague, and Somerset: “He and his forces enter the city.” (These editors have forgotten Somerville.) But Coventry is already established on the upper level where, among others, stands ‘the Mayor of Coventry.’ A concealed staircase would not be directorially practical because all this activity would require those ascending to exit the platform, disappear, and then re-enter above. This would impede the action and add a repetitious quality to the scene. No directions are specified, nor need there be, since the stairs are at hand and visible.

Now we are looking at a considerable number of actors upon the upper gallery. There are no less than four plus ‘…Others upon the walls’ discovered at the top of the scene. In addition, there are Somerville, Oxford, with drum and colours, requiring, at a minimum, two actors; Montague, with drum and colours, and Somerset, with drum and colours. That makes fourteen plus ‘Others’ all assembled on the upper level. It is doubtful that the area of the traditionally railed ‘Tarras,’ now part of the present Globe, could possibly accommodate such a large company, and that the actors could be clearly seen behind such a railing interrupted by columns.

Let us consider Smith once more:

The rough and tumble battles that were staged upon it in some of the early historical plays suggested that it was fronted by a sturdy balustrade, or even (as in the de Witt drawing) by a solid parapet.5

Nevertheless, he considers the directorial authority of Harley Granville-Barker who he quotes:

What could the groundlings, or people in the lowest gallery, effectively see of scenes played three feet back or more behind that masking balustrade, and of seated figures particularly? Make them out, perhaps they could, but it is not enough. For scenes to be effective, especially if they are of emotional import, the actors of them must be able to dominate their audience, Juliet, leaning over he balcony, can do this. But Hamlet and the Ghost, or Cleopatra with the dying Anthony – put them behind a Venetian shutter or balustrade, and the actors might as well be acting in a cage. 6

Granville Barker’s italics.

As all exit, the text states:

Warwick and his company follow.

11. 112-16. War. Alas, I am not cooped here for defense!

I will away toward Barnet presently

And bid thee battle, Edward, if thou darest.

K. Edw. Yes, Warwick, Edward dares and leads the way.*

Lords, to the field; Saint George and victory!

Exeunt. March. Warwick and his company follow.

More specifically, Kind Edward on the platform ‘leads the way’ and exits through the platform doors. ‘Warwick and his company follow’ Edward down the stairs. It would not be visually logical for Warwick to ‘follow’ Edward by exiting off the upper stage level. This stage direction negates the possibility, as well, that some of the actors may have exited unobtrusively. The only practical way to clear such a large company off the stage – and speed is essential at the transition of scenes – is to have them descend the on-stage stairs. Such time must be taken for this ‘Exeunt’ that it is not unreasonable to believe that two stairways, right and left of the upper level, may have been used. The platform is occupied by ‘Edward, Richard, and soldiers’ and later joined by several characters ‘with drum and colours’ bringing the total number, both on the upper level and on the main stage, to seventeen plus soldiers and others. This is a heavy strain on any company, yet the necessary presence of all mentioned discounts the possibility of doubling.

Many instances, as further citations will show, of on-stage stairs leading up to a projected upper platform devoid of railing and columns and spacious enough to

* My italics throughout.

accommodate a goodly number of actors, thrusting out onto the main stage and open on three sides, are a requirement of the texts. C. Walter Hodges’ concept, despite latter-day conjectures, is still most compelling in suggesting:

…a temporary structure jutting out from the façade of the of the tiring-house and raised about seven feet from the main stage….

Which would be spacious enough to accommodate so great a number. Using the instance of Christopher Sly in The Taming of the Shrew, Hodges is aware that the frequent coming and going of the servants catering to Sly must require:

A light stairway (that) leads up on one side, and up this from below come the servants with apparel, basin, and ewer.

Does his ‘light stairway’ mean a ladder or a portable unit to be moved on and off the stage? The doing of this would slacken the pace of the performance. It would serve the situation better if his ‘temporary structure’ were a permanent feature of the theatre’s architecture.7

In the earlier cited 3 Henry VI stage directions for the opening scene are:

Alarum

Enter Plantagenet, Edward, Richard, Norfolke.

Montague, Warwicke and Soldiers

The text requires that a throne be situated on the upper platform with stairs descending to the main stage, for Warwick says:

11. 21.-25. War. ……………victorious Prince of York

Before I see thee seated on that throne

I vow by heavens these eyes shall never close.

This is the palace of the fearful King,

And this the regal seat:

1. 32: They go up. This is the Folio direction.

No exit from the main stage is given nor an entrance onto the upper platform in order to reach the throne. The visible stairs discount the need for such directions. A curious note is appended to this stage direction by the Arden editor:

S. D. They go up) …to the chair of state at the back of the stage. It is unlikely to have been on the upper stage; as Wilson points out (129), ‘the dialogue… allows no time for “going up” by the stair in the tiring house.’

Wilson, of course, is right in that there is no time to use the off-stage stairs. ‘They go up’ does not mean up-stage ‘to the chair of state at the back of the stage’ in the sense that this term is used in the modern theatre. It means they ascend on-stage to the throne above.

In Act 111, scene 3. once again a throne is situated on the upper platform with stairs leading down to the main stage. The Folio direction:

Flourish. Enter Lewis the French King, his sister,

Bona, his admiral, called Bourbon.

They enter onto the upper stage.

Prince Edward, Queen Margaret, and the Earl of Oxford

Enter onto the main stage.

Lewis sits and riseth again.

11. 1.-3 K Lew. Fair Queen of England, worthy Margaret,

Sit down with us: it ill befits thy state

And birth that thou should’st stand while Lewis sit.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

11. 15.16. Lew. Whate’er it be, be still like thyself,

And sit thee by our side.

At some point she ascends, for the direction is:

Seats her by him.

1. 43. Enter Warwick.

He enters onto the main stage.

11. 44.-46. Lew. What’s he that approacheth boldly to our presence?

Mar. Our Earl of Warwicke, Edward’s greatest

Friend.

Lew. Welcome, brave Warwick! What brings

thee to France?

He descends. She ariseth.

Once more, no exit for Lewis off the upper stage nor entrance below. Yet Warwick is speaking to the king as Lewis descends. At this point Margaret has but two lines:

11. 47.-48. Mar. Ay, now begins a second storm to rise;

For this is he that moves both wind and

tide.

Yet Warwick is addressing Lewis on his descent:

11. 49.-52. War. From worthy Edward, King of Albion,

My lord and sovereign and thy avowed

friend,

I come in kindness and unfeigned love,

First to do greetings to thy royal person…

Act IV, scene 7. The stairway descends from the upper platform to meet gates crossing it at the lower level.

Flourish. Enter King Edward, Richard, Hastings, and Soldiers.

11. 7.-19 Edw. What then remains, we being thus arrived

From Ravenspurgh haven before the

gates of York,

But that we enter, as into our dukedom?

Rich. The gates made fast! ……………………………

……………………………………………………………

Edw. By fair of foul means we must enter in,

For hither will our friends repair to us.

Hast. My liege, I’ll knock once more to summon them.

Enter, on the walls, the Mayor of York and his Brethren.

May. My lords, we were forewarned of your coming

And shut the gates for safety of ourselves,

For now we owe allegiance unto Henry.

11. 27.-29. Hast. Why, Master Mayor, why stand you in doubt?

Open the gates; we are King Henry’s

friends.

May. Ay, say you so? the gates shall then be opened.

He descends.

No exit from the upper level is given.

Enter the Mayor and two aldermen.

11. 35.-37. Edw. So, Master Mayor: these gates must not be shut

But in the night or the time of war.

What! fear not, man, but yield me up

the keys;

Takes his keys.

The Mayor has visibly descended. The stage direction: Enter the Mayor… indictated his arrival at the gates.8

1 Henry VI, Act 1, scene 5:

Here an alarum again, and Talbot pursueth the Dauphin, and driveth

him; Then enter Joan La Pucelle, driving the Englishmen before her.

Then enter Talbot.

He drives the Dauphin down the stairs. He is given no exit off the upper level. Joan drives the Englishmen down the other stairway. She is given no exit off the upper level. While her action is taking place, Talbot ‘enters’ onto the platform stage.

11. 1.-4. Tal. Where is my strength, my valour, and my

force?

Our English troops retire, I cannot stay

them.

A woman clad in armour chaseth them.

Enter Pucelle.

Here she comes. I’ll have a bout with thee.

The Folio’s entrance of Talbot, and the entrance of Joan, has them both descend severally down the stairs onto the main stage.

Here they fight.

11. 13.-14. Puc. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come:

I will go victual Orleans forthwith.

A short alarum: then enter the town with soldiers.

She ascends the stairs to re-enter Orleans which has been established throughout scenes 4 and 5 on the upper level. The Arden editor cites a most interesting note for 1. 14. :

S. D.) Joan here goes form the lower level to the upper stage …lines 15-18 being spoken thence (Brooke).

11. 15.-18. Puc. O’ertake me if thou canst: I scorn thy

strength.

Go, go, cheer up they hunger-starved men;

Help Salisbury to make his testament:

This day is ours, as many more shall be. Exit.

Tucker Brooke agrees that Joan’s speech is spoken as she ascends to the upper level.

Act II, scene 1. of the same play has the upper level held by the French. The stage direction:

Enter a Sergeant of a Band, with two Sentinels.

The Sergeant leaves. The rest, of an unspecified number, remain.

Enter Talbot, Bedford, and Burgundy, with scaling ladders.

Their drums beating a Dead March.

They enter onto the main stage and place the ladders against the upper level. After the English have scaled the walls with: Cry, ‘Saint George!’ ’A Talbot!,’ the stage direction at I. 38. is:

The French leap over the walls in their shirts….

This direction discounts the presence of a railing and suggests that the front of the three-sided elevation earlier described was used for just such a purpose.

Simularly, King John, Act IV, scene 3. Arthur leaps off the wall after expressing a rhymed couplet:

11. 7.-8. I’ll find a thousand shifts to get away

As good to die and go, as die and stay.

and lands on the main stage with the following rhymed couplet:

11. 9.-10. O me! my uncle’s spirit is in these stones:

Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones!

To have him slow the action by clambering over a railing would impair the textual formality of the event, impede the cohesiveness and continuity of the couplets, and dissipate the spontaneity of the suicide.

To return to 1 Henry VI, Act V, scene 3. has the direction:

Sound. Enter Reignier on the walls.

he parlays with Suffolk who is on the main stage:

1. 143. Reig. Upon they princely warrant I descend

To give thee answer of thy just demand.

Capell gives Reignier an exit off the upper level which does not appear in the Folio.

1. 145. Suf. And here will I expect your coming

Trumpets sounds. Enter Reignier.

Again, this ‘entrance’ marks a visual descent onto the main stage.

1. 146. Reig. Welcome, brave Earl, into our territories;

There is no time for him to use the tiring-house stairs. However, in order to justify his descent in the traditional way, J. Dover Wilson states: ‘The fanfare gives time for Reignier’s descent.’ (Cited in the Arden Edition). This reasoning based on the accepted assumption that the concealed stairway is the only means of descent, does not recognize the necessity of the continuity of the dialogue nor the theatrical need to avoid dead time.

Titus Andronicus Act 1, scene 1.

Flourish. Enter the Tribunes and Senators aloft. And then enter

Saturnius and his followers at one door, and Bassanius and his

Followers at the other, with drum and colours.

The brothers enter from each of the main platform doors with their entourages and sure for the crown, appealing to the Tribunes and Senators situated on the upper level. The brothers dismiss their followers:

1. 62. Sat. Open the gates and let me in.

1. 63 Bas. Tribunes, and me, a poor competitor.

Flourish. They go into the senate house.

Since they entered from opposite doors the logical staging would have them each ascend the stairway right and left to the upper platform.

Richard II displays the most vivid use of the on-stage stairway. Act 1, scene 3. finds the kind observing from the upper platform the lists located on the main stage. Mowbray, and the appellant, Hereford, are to confront each other in single combat.

The Lord Marshall addresses Richard:

11. 52.-55. Mar. The appellant in all duty greets your Highness

And craves to kiss your hand and take his leave.

Rich. We will descend and fold him in our arms.

Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right…

No exit from the upper platform is provided for Richard. The text succinctly illustrates his movement. Richard, as he says, descends the on-stage stairway to embrace Hereford and remains to wish him well. He returns to the upper platform at some point before:

1. 99. Rich. Order the trial, Marshall, and begin.

In Act III, scene 3. Bolingbroke, York, and Northumberland appear on the main stage before Flint Castle. At 1. 61. Richard appears on the walls attended by Carlisle, Aumerle, Scroope, and Salisbury.

11. 176.-79. North. My lord, in the base court he (Bolingbroke) doth

attend

To speak to you: may it please you to come down?

Rich. Down, down I come, like glistering Phaeton,

Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

The dramatic point of the speech is not only his descent before the eyes of Bolingbroke and his party but before the eyes of the audience, for all to observe the manner in which he comes down: ‘frantic’ says Northumberland at 1. 185. For Richard has rushed in his descent in imitation of the incapable Phaeton handling so incompetently Apollo’s runaway horses.

11. 180.-83. Rich. In the base court? Base court, where kings

grow base,

To come at traitors’ calls, and do them grace!

In the base court? Come down? Down, court!

Down, king!

For night-owls shriek where mounting larks

should sing!

At this point he has reached the main platform. Yet Capell has Richard and his supporters still on the upper level and gives them: ‘Exeunt from above,’ a stage direction that does not appear in any of the Quartos or Folio. It instructs Richard, Carlisle, Aumerle, Scroope, and Salisbury all to exit and re-appear on the lower level during the speaking of a bare two and one-half lines:

11. 184.-86. Bol. What says his majesty?

North. Sorrow and grief of heart

Makes him speak fondly like a frantic man;

Yet he is come.

Nor does Capell’s direction: ‘Enter King Richard and his attendants below’ appear in any of the Quartos or Folio. Yet the Arden editor supports Capell in this:

Richard descends form the upper stage by the stairs concealed in the

tiring-house and emerges through one of the stage doors onto the platform stage. This change seems to take place during Bolingbroke’s

words at 1. 184…

There is no question of ‘seems’ for the point of the descent is missed: that is, Richard’s attitude and physical movement are lost in the enactment of the ‘glistering Phaeton’ simile; Shakespeare’s direction is ignored, and, consequently, the confrontation between Bolingbroke and Richard is obliviated. All because the text is not perceived as a guide to the use of architectural elements nor taken at its directorial value.

Troilus and Cressida, Act IV, scene 5. opens with the Folio’s stage direction:

Enter Ajax, armed, Achilles, Patroclus, Agamemnon, Menalaus, Ulisses,

Nestor, Calcas, Etc.

At 1. 63. all ‘Exeunt,’ except Ajax who remains on stage followed immediately by the direction:

Enter all of Troy, Hector, Paris, Antenor, Helenus and Attendants.

Flourish.

The ‘Exeunt’ of the Greeks instructs them to ascend the stairs to the upper platform where they are joined by the Trojans, except for Hector, who remains on the main stage to engage in single combat with Ajax. Now on the upper level there are ten principals plus the indeterminate ‘Etc.’ of the Greeks, and ‘all of Troy’ of the opposing camp. Once more, it must be noted that so large a group could not possibly be accommodated by the conventional ‘Tarras’ of the present Globe.

Now both Greeks and Trojans look down on the lists in which Ajax and Hector are to fight. At 1. 157. the Folio has:

Enter Agamemnon and the rest.

whereby all descend the stairs to join the two combatants on the main platform. The exits and entrances of so large a group leaving the main stage to re-appear above, then to leave the upper stage and re-re-appear on the lower platform, which a concealed stairway would necessitate, could only result in time wasted during which no lines could be spoken, thereby halting the progression of the action and creating general confusion.

King Lear, Act II, scene 1. at the penultimate line of Edmund’s speech:

1. 19. Edm. ………………………………………Briefness and Fortune work!

Quarto’s 2 and 3 and Folio have:

Enter Edgar.

1. 20. Edm. Brother, a word; descend: brother, I say!

Edmund sees him above and bids him come down. There is no exit for Edgar, and the ‘Enter Edgar’ indicates his descent to the main stage.

The initial direction in Julius Caesar, Act III, scene 2.:

Enter Brutus and goes into the pulpit, and Cassius, with the Plebians.

Since the Plebians enter on platform stage along with Brutus’ co-conspirator, Cassius, it is necessary that Brutus obey the double direction: ‘Enter Brutus’ with Cassius, and leaving Cassius, ‘Goes into the pulpit,’ that is, ascends to the upper level. The juxtaposition of the two directions is too close to suppose that Brutus exits to ascend then re-appearing above.

Gurr and Ichikawa in spite of their acceptance of the traditional balcony, realize that this direction disallows Brutus from speaking at such a disadvantage:

In Julius Cause, 3.2 when Brutus enters for his oration, the stage direction reads, ‘Enter Brutus and goes into the pulpit, and Cassius with the Plebians.’

The fact that he is said to enter followed by the others indicates that he does

not speak from the upper level, the stage balcony. Some object was available

on the main stage. It had to provide him with height, so that his head could be

clearly visible above the crowd…9

1.11. 3 Pleb. The noble Brutus is ascended: silence!

He ascends under the eyes of Plebians. At 1. 63. Brutus is given an exit. To be consistent with the earlier ascent he must descend visibly and leave through one of the platform doors.

Later, Antony asks the Plebians:

II. 162.-65. Ant. Shall I descend? and will you give me leave?

All. Come down.

2 Pleb. Descend.

3 Pleb. You shall have leave.

Antony descends in the short time it takes 2 Pleb. to say:

1. 168. 2pleb. Room for Antony, most noble Antony!

He immediately arrives on the main stage with:

1. 169. Ant. Nay, press not upon me; stand far off.

It would be impossible to create Shakespeare’s staging of this scene’s graphic action and Antony’s rapid descent, if his only means were a concealed staircase.

Act V, scene 3, of this play:10

1. 12. Cas. This hill is far enough. Look, look Titinius!

It is evident that Titinius partially ascends the stairs. There is no stage direction.

11. 13.-19. Cas. Are those my tents where I perceive the fire?

Tit. They are, my lord.

Cas. Titinius, if thou lovest me,

Mount thou my horse, and hide thy spurs in

Him,

Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops

And here again, that I may rest assured

Whether yon troops are friend or enemy.

Tit. I will be here again, even with a thought. Exit.

This ‘Exit’ is the Folio’s direction. Tititnius is only partly up the stairs as we know from Cassius’ instruction to Pindarus in the next line. To exit Titinius must descend.

1. 20. Cas. Go, Pinadus, get higher on that hill;

Pindarus ascends the stairs to a higher point than that of Tititnius. There needs no stage direction.

1.21. Cas. My sight was ever thick. Regard Titinius,

And tell me what thou not’st about the field.

Hanmer needlessly supplies an exit for Pindarus; the Folio has none. During the following three lines of Cassius, Pindarus has gone ‘higher’ on the hill; the Folio places him ‘Above.’

1. 33. Cas. Come down; behold no more.

At 1. 36. the Folio has ‘Enter Pindarus’ where he rejoins Cassius on the platform. We have seen this direction before where no exit from the upper level is indicated yet an entrance is given to visibly descend. The action on this ‘hill’ is most persuasive evidence of the presence of an on-stage stairway.

J. W. Saunders is also aware of the necessity of a ‘visible scalado’.

In Julius Caesar there is a need for a raised elevation described as

a ‘pulpit’ or ‘publicke chair’ in III, 2, and as a ‘hill’ in V, 3. In the first

scene there is a direction ‘Enter Brutus and goes into the pulpit’

and references like ‘The Noble Brutus is ascended’ and ‘Noble

Antony go up,’ but no exits or re-entrances marked, as we might

expect if the players had had to leave the platform to reach the

higher level of the Tiring-House. In the second, Pindarus climbs

‘higher on that hill’ and is given the directions ‘Pind. Above’ and

after his descent ‘Enter Pindarus.’ His ascent occupies 2 and one-

half lines of the play and his descent 2, insufficient time to leave the

platform from an upper level…Indeed, Pindarus takes about the same

time to reach his hilltop as Antony takes to reach the pulpit. (The

assumption is that his ‘scalado’ is used in both scenes establishing the permanency of the stairway).** Here we have the choice of a window

reached by a visible scalado…11

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, scene 5.12

Enter Host and Simple. Simple states he comes to speak with Falstaff.

1.5. Host. There’s his chamber, his house, his castle, etc.

Go knock and call.

That Falstaff’s house is on the upper level is established by:

1.10. Simp. There’s an old woman, a fat woman, gone up into his

chamber. I’ll be so bold as to stay, sir, till she comes

down. I come to speak with her, indeed.

The Host calls up to the house and Falstaff appears:

1.17. Fal. How now, mine host?

Host. There’s a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of

thy fat woman. Let her descend, bully, let her descend.

Enter Falstaff. The Quarto direction.

** My parenthesis

No exit from the upper level is indicated. Once more, this direction ‘Enter’ brings

him down the on-stage stairs to join the Host and Simple onto the main platform.

The final scene of Timon of Athens, Act V, scene 4. has the direction:

Trumpets sound. Enter Alcibiades with his Powers before Athens.

They enter onto the main stage.

1.11. Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town

Our terrible approach.

‘Sounds a parlay’

‘The Senators appear upon the Walls.’

At the very least four Senators appear to contend with Alcibiades.

1.55. Alcib. Descend and open your uncharged ports.

later, once again:

1.64. Alcib. Descend and keep your words!

The Senators descend and although no exit nor entrance is marked for them, it is apparent they have visibly reached the main stage:

1.81. Alcib. ……Bring me to your city.

……………………………………….Exeunt.

The final direction indicating that Senators, Alcibiades, and Powers all leave by the main stage doors.

The on-stage stairway is imperative for an understanding of Shakespeare’s staging of Act 11, scene 2. of Macbeth. But first, the opening of the scene must be considered. Lady Macbeth enters and addresses her speech to the audience at the center point of the platform’s edge, a convention generally accepted as the position most effective for the delivery of the soliloquy. After her ninth line the Folio has Macbeth ‘Enter’ with:

Who’s there-what ho!

He appears on the upper level as she exclaims, still to the audience:

11. 9.-13. Lady. Alack! I am afraid they have awaked,

And ‘tis not done:-th’attempt and not the deed

Confounds us.-Hark! I laid their daggers ready;

He could not miss ‘em. Had he resembled

My father as he slept, I had don’t.

Macbeth and the Lady are now on stage, he above, she below,13 and she continues her address to the audience, presumably ignoring her husband.14 Editors and directors, not appreciating the dramatic value of this staging have, for the most part, followed Steevens (1773) and Johnson in discounting the Folio’s ‘Enter’ for Macbeth, and substituting ‘Within,’ requiring Macbeth’s exclamation to be heard off-stage. This emendation impairs the tension of the moment for it is the playwright’s purpose to show simultaneously Macbeth’s panic and his wife’s anxiety on hearing his cry and concluding that the murder is unaccomplished.

After completing her soliloquy Lady Macbeth turns toward him:

11. 13.-17 Lady. …………………………………………My husband!

Macb. I have done the deed. –Didst thou not

hear a noise?

Lady. I heard the owl scream and the cricket cry.

Did you not speak?

Macb. When?

Lady. Now?

Macb. As I descended?

Lady. Ay.

Macbeth says he spoke as he descended. She could not have answered ‘Ay’ had she not seen him do so.

The ‘Monument scene,’ Act IV, scene 15. in Antony and Cleopatra has puzzled scholars, editors and directors. The problem has been created by the insistence of placing the monument on the upper ‘Tarras’ and then determining how to negotiate the heaving of Antony’s body up to that area. There is the further difficulty in how to stage the action behind the railing.

Bradbrook is aware of the problem but due to his acceptance of the received idea concerning the area settles on the following compromise:

A solution would be to place Friar Lawrence’s cell above…. This would

involve some difficulty, of course, since Romeo is lying on the floor in

3.3, and he would be concealed by the balcony rails. The same difficulty occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, where the wounded Antony is hoisted over the rails and dies behind them. When characters have to leap the walls it would add greatly to their difficulties if they had to vault the rails in order to do so.15 **

** See the death of Arthur above.

J. W. Saunders, however, doubts the practicality of the railing, but accepts the stairways:

The text leave no doubt that in both scenes the ‘Monument’ is an

elevated acting area accessible from below on two opposite sides.

In IV, 15 stage directions-‘Enter Cleopatra, and her Maides aloft’ and ‘They heave Antony aloft to Cleopatra’ – imply that the hero is hoisted

aloft, perhaps with the aid of block and pulley…’ …the protagonists

cannot make much of themselves or their passion, precariously balanced on a windowsill or prone behind gallery banisters.16

Before proceeding, what must be determined is the height to which Antony had to be raised. Beckerman conjectures:

How high the body had to be raised is uncertain. … Neither 10’ nor 12’ are prohibitive heights although a railing would be difficult to work over. Perhaps it was possible to remove a portion of the railing.17

The height of ten or twelve feet would be prohibitive, indeed. The leap of Arthur to the lower stage from such heights would be most dangerous. So it would be for the French who ‘leap over the walls in their shirts’ in Act 11, scene 1. of 1. Henry VI. Hodge’s conjectures of seven feet is more likely and much safer. Beckerman attempts to cope, as well, with the railing of the upper gallery.

Gurr comes nearer to a solution:

The question of what was below the tiring-house gallery, is less easy to resolve…There must in fact have been two kinds of feature. One was permanent, a curtained alcove or discovery space in the tiring- house wall, which served as a shop, tomb, cell, study or closet. The other was a special property, a raised platform…as in Antony and Cleopatra a ‘monument’ big enough to hold Antony’s body and several women on top, but low enough for the women to lift the body up on to it… 18

Twenty years later, however, in collaboration with Ichikawa he appears to have changed his position:

It might even be thought that the top of the monument was the main stage platform, and that Antony was brought in from the yard, where the Roman soldiers come in to catch Cleopatra. The chief evidence cited in support of this reading is Diomedes saying ‘looke out o’thother side your monument,’ which seems to suggest it had sides, like the main stage, while the linear balcony did not.

But the authors reject this theory and are still left with the raising of Antony’s body to the upper stage. They then ask:

…would Antony have been laid on the balcony floor for his dying speeches, out of sight behind the balustrade? What could justify the conclusion that this whole scene was staged in the small balcony space, leaving the vast space of the main platform empty?

The author’s solution is that he was raised to the upper gallery in a chair!

It would hold Antony conveniently seated both for hauling him up and for setting him down to speak his last speeches with his head still visible over the balcony.19

A staging even the most inept director would quail at. Imagine Antony speaking the immortal line, ‘I am dying, Egypt, dying’ seated in a chair with only his head visible.

Thompson comes closer to the mark:

The conclusion must be that the gallery in the tiring-house façade was ideal for the accommodation of a silent observer, but inadequate in every respect for any scene of prolonged dialogue…The problem comes with the dialogue that follows the raising of Antony. To set one of the play’s climactic moments at the back of the stage, behind at least a railing or banister, if not something more solid, seems to me to be lunacy…The preference…must be for some structure erected on the platform proper, with upstage treads concealed from most of the audience. Access to the Monument for Cleopatra and her attendants would be through the stage door and up these treads. Diomedes then enter through the other stage door, an stands against the tiring-house facade to answer Cleopatra’s question by telling her of Antony:

His death’s upon him, but not dead.

Look out o’ the other side your monument;

His guard have brought him thither.

(11. 7-9)

The instruction can be obeyed quite literally. Cleopatra turns to look downstage as Antony is carried in. He dies, as any actor of the part would choose, in full view of the audience – and his body is carried out by way of the upstage treads and the stage door.20

Thompson is thinking of a free-standing structure which would require Cleopatra and her attendants to enter through the main stage doors, use treads to reach the top of the monument, then descend with Antony’s body and exit through one of those doors. These ascents and descents, however, are unnecessary in view of the thrust platform, three-sided and unrailed, which abuts the tiring-house wall and affords exits and entrances directly to the upper level. Thompson’s treads are concealed for the simple reason that lifting Antony up to Cleopatra would make no sense if the treads, visible to the audience, should not be used for that purpose. The stairs, rising right and left to the upper level, might possibly have been covered by canvas or cloth resulting in a pyramidal form so suitable to this scene.

The raising of the body, then, is quite simple. The soldiers bring Antony on to the front of the monument. At a seven-foot height they have only to lift him up to the waiting women of which there are at least five: ‘Enter Cleopatra with her Maides aloft, with Charmain and Iras,’ who have possibly a foot more in which to ‘heave’ him onto the platform.21 This does not suggest that the acting of the raising of the body would appear easy. ‘How heavy weighs my lord!’ They exit, bearing Antony’s body upstage off the upper level.

Finally, what type of windows did Shakespeare work with? How did they function? Do they meet the specifications of the text? The bay window and the conventional window, supported by the wall in which the latter is set, do not. Most likely, they must have been windowed or casement doors more like our ‘French doors’ opening out toward the audience.

In Act V, scene 1. of The Taming of the Shrew, 1. 13.: ‘Pedant looks out of the window’ is the compositor’s direction. It is accepted that the Pedant appears on the upper level. The direction at 1. 55. is: Enter Pedant with Servants, Baptista, Tranio’ where he then appears on the main platform. How does he get from the upper to the lower level? Simply by passing through the window, that is, the windowed door. Surely he is not expected to climb over the sill of a bay or conventional window. Once through, he descends the on-stage stairs. The Arden editor, under the supposition of a concealed stairway, is puzzled that the Pedant is not given an exit at 1. 53. in order to make the concealed descent before appearing on the lower stage. This editor has:

…after 1. 53. no exit is marked for the Pedant, but he must be given time to leave the window before his entry on the main acting level after 1. 55.

The Pedant needs no time nor is there necessity for such an exit. Are we to conclude along with the Arden editor that the compositor failed to designate an exit but, two lines later, supplied the Pedant with a legitimate entrance? This misconception disappears in view of the on-stage stairs and the use of the windowed door. Finally, the compositor’s direction: ‘Enter Pedant with Servants, Baptista, Tranio.’ serves a double purpose. It not only instructs the Pedant to descend, a device we have met with before, but brings the rest onto the platform by one of the main stage doors.

The Folio’s ‘Enter’ for the Pedant, that is, his descent to the main stage, is similar to the direction for Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, Act 11, scene 6. Here 1. 25. states, ‘Jessica above.’ She has passed through the windowed door in response to Lorenzo’s, ‘How! Who’s within?.’ At 1. 40. Lorenzo asks her to ‘Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer.’

11. 49.-50. Jes. I will make fast the doors and gird myself

With some moe ducats and be with you straight.

No exit is marked for Jessica in either Quarto or Folio. At 1. 57. there is ‘Enter Jessica.’ Again, would not the compositor note the discrepancy and correct it? He does not because there is none. The direction for her to enter does not pre-suppose an exit above to a concealed stairway. Her entrance, like the Pedant, is nothing more than her arrival onto the platform stage where she joins Lorenzo. In the seven-line interim she is occupied in doing what she has said she will do: locking the windowed door through which she has entered, picking up a bag of ducats (pre-set), and descending, whereupon without further word they leave.

In Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene 2. the use of the windowed door is quite apparent:

1.3. Rom. But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

He suspects he sees her behind the door. As she passes through it:

1.4. Rom. It is the east and Juliet is the sun!22

A similar use of door and stairway is made in Act III, scene 5. The initial stage direction of Quarto I is: ‘Romeo and Juliet aloft at the window.’ At I. 36.: ‘Enter Nurse hastily.’ She warns Juliet of Lady Capulet’s approach:

11. 30.-31. Nurse. Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.

The day is broke, be wary, look about.

I. 64. has ‘Enter Lady Capulet.’ That she appears on the main stage is evident from Juliet’s remark who speaks from above: Is she not down so late…’ At I. 67. in Quarto 1 Juliet’s direction is: ‘She goes down from the window’ bringing her bedroom with her,23 so to speak, for the scene is unchanged but continues on the main stage to join Lady Capulet, the Nurse remaining above. In order to do so Juliet must pass through the windowed door. There is no exit for Juliet to gain access to the tiring-house stairs, nor an entrance to appear below. To Lady Capulet’s question:

1. 68. L. Cap. Why, how now Juliet?

Juliet’s response follows directly:

L. 69. Juliet. Madam, I am not well.

where she is already on the platform stage. The Arden editor has:

Juliet withdraws at the upper level and descends unseen, reappearing

on the stage to answer her mother’s call.

This is clearly impossible as there is no time for such an action, as well as ignoring the stage direction: ‘She goes down from the window.’ The direction at I. 125. ‘Enter Capulet and Nurse’ serves, as in former citations, the double purpose of bringing the Nurse down the stairs to join Capulet who enters on to the main stage.

It is unfortunate that the de Witt sketch of the Swan has wielded so prevailing an influence. It was seriously limited students of the period to the possibilities that theatres other than the Swan may have been designed with variant architectural features. Taking the drawing as it stands it is strangely lacking in the most essential of productional elements. What serves as an upper stage appears to be occupied by spectators rather than character of a play. In view of this perhaps the gallery of the Swan may never have been meant as an area for the play’s action at all. There is an absence of an inner stage or discovery space which the Roxana (1632) and Messalina (1640) title pages clearly depict, and the unsided platform lacks a trap door. Is it possible that van Buchel never saw the presumed lost drawing of de Witt and set down a graphic rendition of de Witt’s verbal report?24 To consider this sketch, incomplete as it is, as a template for all Elizabethan and Jacobean playhouses contradicts the practice of theatrical construction. No architect attempts a replication of a standing building without some measure of improvement.25

The undertaking of the reconstruction of the present Globe is a most significant event in the evolution of Shakespearean research and certainly makes a cardinal contribution merely by dint of its existence. But how much more authoritative would so worthy an enterprise be, if it had freed itself from traditional concepts and turned to one of the more obvious and richer sources of information concerning Shakespeare’s stage – his texts.

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1 Lawrence, W.J. The Elizabethan Playhouse and Other Studies, Shakespeare Head Press, 1912, p. 12. “…The van Buchel sketch (after de Witt) is not a minutely accurate mirroring of the playhouse (the Swan) it depicts at second hand. It is, indeed, matter for regret that we have no satisfying view of the interior of a Pre-Restoration playhouse, nothing that corroborates or amplifies the evidence synthetically derived.

2 Smith, Irwin, Shakespeare’s Globe Playhouse, Chas. Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1956, p. 118.

3 All scenes cited and their lineations are from The Arden Shakespeare.

4 Cairncross, Andrew S., cited in 3Henry VI, The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen, 1962, xix. “It is obvious that (Folio) was based on the author’s manuscript. The stage directions as Sisson notes, are elaborate and literary and thus presumably authorial.”

5 Op. cit. p. 120.

6 Ibid. pp. 127-28.

7 Hodges, C. Walter, The Globe Playhouse, Coward McGann, Inc. New York, 1964, p. 60. “…First I find that Professor G. F. Reynolds after a close analysis in his book, The Staging of Elizabethan Plays at the Red Bull Theatre, has come to a similar conclusion, and gives many examples of the textual and theatrical aptness of such a fit-up. Sir Edward Chambers, too, is prepared to accept it, speaking of the possibility ‘of some porch-like projection from the back wall’ which may have been supported by posts, and Cranford Adams has conjectured such a feature as being an intermediate development in the structure of the playhouse.”

8 This arrangement of stairs leading down to gates is represented in The Triumph of James I, London, 1604, Plate 32, cited in Hodges.

9 Gurr, Andrew and Ichikawa, Mariko, Staging in Shakespeare’s Theatres, Oxford Univ. Press, 2000, p. 58.

10 First noted by W. J. Lawrence. Cited in Hodges, p. 61.

11 Saunders, W. J., Staging at the Globe 1599-1613. Cited in Bentley, Gerald Eades, The Seventeenth Century Stage, Chap. xv, Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1968, p. 252.

12 For this play the Quarto’s stage directions are more reliable.

13 Thompson, Peter, Shakespeare’s Theatre, London and New York, 1988, p. 153.

14 That, at first, she ignores Macbeth, that is, does not ‘see’ him is a convention

Shakespeare has used before in King John, Act IV, scene 3. (11. 11-34).

At the death of Arthur, who has hurled himself off the wall, Pembroke,

Salisbury, and Bigot enter, yet they do not ‘see’ the body during the remaining fourteen. Here are four characters on the main stage who do not

‘see’ him; the same area upon which lies the corpse of Arthur

15 Brabbrook, M. C., Elizabethan Stage Conditions, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1932, pp. 39-40.

16 Op. cit., p. 251. Saunders block and pulley has been employed in modern theatre. This writer recalls seeing Laurence Olivier being hoisted up by such means. This was in 1951 in New York at the Ziegfeld Theatre where he presented Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra in repertory. However, he does not believe such an arrangement was Shakespeare’s intention. For one, anchoring hooks would have had to be pre-set into the floor and the ‘monument.’ Secondly, too much time must be taken for the actors to set up the rigging, then secure Antony’s body to it, and after he is hoisted up, free him from the ropes or chains, and then set him down on the upper platform floor. During this prolonged action the text must be halted which almost always shatters the continuity of the performance.

17 Beckerman, Bernard, Shakespeare at the Globe, Macmillan, New York, p. 230.

18 Gurr, Andrew, The Shakespearean Stage, 1514-1642, Cambridge Univ, Press, 1980, p. 136.

19 Op. cit. p. 64.

20 Op. cit. p. 54.

21 Such an arrangement is depicted in Hodges. Op. cit. p. 59.

22 It is questionable whether Juliet appears ‘above’ in this most famous of balcony scenes. In none of the Quartos or First Folio is she so directed. The Arden editor states: “According to Q Juliet appears at a window in the tiring- house façade, not a balcony.” That she appears ‘above’ was introduced by Cappell. Only at `1.141. in the Second Folio is there a direction ‘Enter Juliet above’ which has the appearance of an after-thought.

23 Granville-Barker finds Juliet’s descent a ‘clumsy device.’ On the contrary, it has great theatricality and delineates the fluidity of Shakespeare’s stage as well as providing insight into Elizabethan productional conventions.

24 Beckerman, p. 100: “…in developing an image of the Globe, we cannot rely on the Swan drawing.”

25 Leacroft, Richard, The Development of the English Playhouse, London and New York, 1973, p. 41. “It is, however, highly likely that the relationship of the audience to both stage and tiring-house had not remained that illustrated by de Witt and indeed it is to solve these very problems that the pattern of the theatre may well have changed by the time the second Globe and similar theatres were built, so that with the majority of the audience occupying positions from which they could view the tiring-house wall, the use structural galleries in this position would have been a practical proposition.”

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