hioned like unto the stadge
of the wide Playhowse called the Globe."

[Illustration: RECONSTRUCTED GLOBE THEATER, "SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND,"
EARL'S COURT, LONDON, 1912. _From an original drawing._]

The first part of the twentieth century has made a detailed study of
the stage on which the Great Elizabethan plays were acted. G.F.
Reynolds says:--

"Most students agree that the 'typical' Elizabethan stage consisted
of a platform, uncurtained in front, open as well at the sides,
carpeted, it is generally said, with rushes, and surrounded with a
railing, a space behind this platform closed by a sliding curtain,
and a balcony with its own curtains and entrances. There were also a
space below the stage reached by trap doors, a dressing room behind
the stage, machinery by which characters ascended to and descended
from some place above, and in some theaters at least, a 'heavens,'
or roof over part or all of the stage."[13]

Possibly no single stage had every feature mentioned in the above
description, which gives, however, a good general idea of a typical
stage of the time. We must remember that no one has the right to
assert that different Elizabethan stages did not differ in details. We
are not sure that every stage was so planned as to be divided into two
parts by a sliding curtain. The drawing of the Swan Theater shows no
place for such a curtain, although it is possible that the draftsman
forgot to include it. The specifications of the stage of the Fortune
Theater make no mention of a railing.

The Play and the Audience.--It is impossible to criticize
Elizabethan plays properly from the point of view of the
twentieth-century stage. Many modern criticisms are shown to be
without reason when we understand the wishes of the audience and the
manner of presenting the plays. The conditions of the entry or the
reentry of a player might explain some of those lengthy monologues
that seem so inartistic to modern dramatists. The Elizabethan theaters
and the tastes of their patrons had certain important characteristics
of their own.

I. In the public theaters,[14] the play began in the early afternoon,
usually between two and three o'clock, and lasted for about two hours.
The audience was an alert one, neither jaded by a long day's business
nor rendered impatient by waiting for the adjustment of scenery. The
Elizabethans constituted a vigorous audience, eager to meet the
dramatist and actors more than half