THE SWAN THEATRE. (The De Witt Drawing, circa 1600.) DR BRODMEIER'S PLAN OF THE SHAKESPEARE STAGE.' A A. Spiral stairs to the Upper Stage. B B. Doors of the Upper Stage. C C. Side Entrances to the Back Stage. DD. Connecting passages for the Side Entrances. E E. Pillars separating the Front from the Back Stage. F. Curtain between the Pillars. G. Trap in the Back Stage. [To face page 450. balconies, etc.; it was sometimes occupied by spectators; and at other times (or perhaps concurrently) by the musicians of the theatre. 'It would seem, then,' the reader may say, 'that there is independent evidence for practically every feature in the drawing.' Yes, there is; and yet, when we come to examine it in detail, and try to conceive it as the scene of any ordinary Elizabethan play, we find it lacking in such essential particulars that we are forced to believe either that it does not accurately represent the Swan stage, or that the Swan stage differed very remarkably from the typical stage of the period. One might almost take it for a theatre conjecturally outlined by some one who had superficially examined the maps, pamphlets, and other documents, but had not gone minutely into the ultimate evidence of the plays themselves. Dr Brodmeier, however, professes at the outset to accept the Swan drawing without serious question. It - does not, indeed, show any middle curtains; but these, (though, curiously enough, he does not make the suggestion) may be concealed behind the pillars. For the rest, it gives him the three stage-regions (Bühnenfelder) which his theory requires: the Vorderbühne' in front of the pillars, the Hinterbühne' behind the pillars, and the balkonartige Oberbühne '-the balcony-like Upper Stage —at the back. To these may ‘eventuell' be added a fourth stage-region, by opening one or other of the doors and showing some action in progress in the space behind. The fact that this fourth 'Bühnenfeld' is gravely accepted by several theorists shows what dangers beset the mere library student in this investigation. Who that has any sense of the theatre can look at the Swan drawing and imagine the tomb of the Capulets represented-as Brodmeier would have us think-by the space behind one of the doors? All the most poignant part of the scene, all that passes after Romeo enters the tomb, would be wholly invisible to at least a quarter of the audience, very imperfectly visible to at least another quarter, and, on the whole, so cabined, cribbed, confined as to suggest Bob Acres' nightmare of a duel in a sentry-box. It is hard enough to imagine, with Brodmeier, that this 'fourth stage-region' served for the niche in which Hermione, as a statue, was placed at the end of 'The Winter's Tale.' Remember that, as she is twice bidden 'descend,' she was evidently standing on a pedestal; and conceive a statue on a pedestal placed behind one of these door-openings, or any door-opening of reasonable height! All the spectators above the ground level who saw her at all would see her decapitated. But this is credible in comparison with the theory as to Juliet's tomb. Dr Brodmeier evidently has not realised that the star actor's insistence on having the centre of the stage' is founded on an optical law which must have obtained in the Elizabethan no less than in the modern playhouse -at all events where anything that occurred towards the back of the stage was concerned. Returning now to the essential feature of the alternation theory-the 'middle curtain' hung between the pillars of the 'shadow-let us see how Dr Brodmeier proceeds to deal with it. The main purpose assigned it is to conceal the bringing on of furniture and properties-banqueting-tables and chairs, council-tables, beds, thrones, altars, etc. But it is clear that, in the Swan sketch, if you simply draw curtains between the two pillars, most of what passes behind them will be visible to something like a quarter of the audience. Better no concealment at all than concealment so imperfect; so that Dr Brodmeier is forced to run lateral curtains back from the pillars to the wall of the 'mimorum ædes,' or tyring-house, which shut in the stage at the back. This he is all the more willing to do as there are countless passages in which the two doors shown in the De Witt drawing are flagrantly inadequate to the entrances and exits required, and the lateral curtains provide him with very necessary side-entrances (Seiteneingänge). We assume, then, the possibility of boxing in with front and side curtains the quadrilateral between the pillars and the back wall; but what does this involve in the theatre figured by De Witt? Firstly, front-stage scenes, played with the curtains closed, would be very imperfectly seen, or not at all, by those of the audience who occupied the seats, or stood in the yard,' near the 'mimorum ædes.' Secondly, if there were any spectators in the gallery at the back of the stage (and in some theatres, and at some times, there certainly were) they would, when the curtains were closed, see all that they were not, and nothing that they were, intended to see. Thirdly, the side-entrances would be of no use whatever, since the actor could not possibly reach the point at which he had to make his entrance, except by coming on at one of the doors, stealing round the upper end of the side curtain, and coming down the outer margin of the stage, in full view of nearly half the audience, to take his stand at the opening in the curtain, and await his cue. Add to this the fact that whenever the lateral curtains were drawn so as to admit of side-entrances, the Hinterbühne,' thus curtained in, would be wholly invisible to every one who sat, or stood, farther back than the two pillars. These difficulties, of course, do not escape Dr Brodmeier; and how does he get over them? Simply by abandoning altogether the Swan drawing, and constructing a wholly new form of stage for which there is not an iota of evidence. It will be seen from his ground-plan (reproduced facing p. 450) that he entirely encloses his 'Hinterbühne,' running a wall back on either side from the outer edge of the pillars, which he places (in flat opposition to the Swan drawing) at the extreme margin of the stage. Then from the inner edge of the pillars he runs his lateral curtains back to the tyring-house wall, thus leaving on both sides, between side-wall and curtain, narrow passages to which access is obtained by two new doorways (of course invisible to the audience) pierced in the tyring-house wall. According to this scheme the two pillars are equivalent to the sides of a proscenium arch, and we have practically a modern stage with very narrow 'wings' and a very large 'apron' or projection in front of the proscenium. Now, apart from the total want of evidence for any such construction, the one determining characteristic of the Elizabethan stage which can be proved beyond all shadow of doubt is its lack of anything like a proscenium -anything in the nature of a picture-frame interposed between the spectator and the play. Dr Brodmeier's boxlike stage, with its proscenium pillars, would have modified the whole evolution of the Elizabethan drama in the most essential particulars. It is quite inconceivable that playwrights should never have discovered the convenience of the tableau ending to an act or scene-the ending which leaves a group of characters on the stage and Vol. 208.-No. 415 2 H |