sitively, nor are surmises
about the Swan or Globe stage necessarily applicable to its
predecessors. But the following description will serve as a fair
conjecture. It was divided into two parts, a front and back stage,
separated by a curtain. By this device the back scene could be prepared
while the front stage was occupied, or two scenes could be presented
together, as in _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, or a second scene could
be added to the main one, as occurs when Rasni, in _A Looking-Glass for
London and England_, 'draws the curtains' and reveals Remilia struck
with lightning. There was no curtain before the front stage. At the rear
of the back stage was a fixed structure like the outside of a house with
doors and an upper balcony. The doors led into the dressing rooms, and
through them, as through the curtain if the front stage only were in
use, the exits and entrances were made. The balcony was used in many
ways familiar to us in Shakespeare's works; when, in the Second Part of
_Tamburlaine_, the Governor of Babylon enters 'upon the walls' we
recognize that he is on the balcony. A roof extended over the whole or
part of the stage to protect the actors from rain; but it was also made
use of as a hiding-place from which angels or goddesses could descend.
In _Alphonsus, King of Arragon_ Venus's exit is managed thus: 'If you
can conveniently, let a chair come down from the top of the stage and
draw her up.' The stage floor was fitted with a trap-door; through it
Queen Elinor, in _Edward the First_, disappears and re-appears; through
it 'a flame of fire' appears and 'Radagon is swallowed', in _A
Looking-Glass for London and England_.

As far as can be gathered from records, there was no great attempt to
preserve, in the actor's dresses, the local colouring of the play.
Nevertheless various easy and obviously required concessions would be
made. Kings and queens would dress magnificently, mechanics and
serving-men humbly. In _Orlando Furioso_ we read that Orlando is to
enter 'attired as a madman' and that Marsilius and Mandricard are to
appear 'like Palmers'; in _Alphonsus, King of Arragon_ 'Calchas rises up
in a white surplice and a cardinal's mitre', and in _Edward the First_
Longshanks figures 'in Friar's weeds'. The list could be continued. It
is practically certain that there was no painted scenery, the absence of
which would greatly facilitate the expeditious passage from scene to
scene. Stage properties, however,