published, has mentioned exhibitions of this kind as a proof of the Scenery of our old plays; and taking it for granted that the point is completely established by this decifive argument, triumphantly adds, "Let us for the future no more be told of the want of proper fcenes and dreffes in our ancient theatres."6 6" My prefent purpofe," fays this writer, " is not fo much to defcribe this dramatick piece, [The Second Maiden's Tragedy, written in 1610 or 1611,] as to fhow that it bears abundant teftimony to the use of scenery, and the richness of the habits then worn. Thefe particulars will be fufficiently exemplified by the following fpeeches, and ftage-directions: "Enter the Tyrant agen at a farder door, which opened brings him to the tomb, where the lady lies buried. The Toombe here difcovered, richlie fet forthe." Some lines are then quoted from the fame piece, of which the following are thofe which alone are material to the present point: Tyrant.-Softlee, foftlee; 66 "The vaults e'en chide our steps with murmuring founds. All thy ftill ftrength, 66 "Thow grey-eyde monument, fhall not keep her from us. "Of this could ponderous creature.— O, the moone rifes: What reflection "Is throwne around this fanctified buildinge! "E'en in a twinkling how the monuments glitter, "And fcorn'd the name of marble!" "Is it probable," (adds this writer)" that fuch directions and fpeeches fhould have been hazarded, unless at the fame time they could be fupported and countenanced by correfponding scenery?" "I fhall add two more of the ftage-directions from this tragedy. On a fodayne in a kinde of noyfe like a wynde, the dores cla tering, the toombeftone flies open, and a great light appears in the midst of the toombe; his lady, as went owt, ftanding in it before hym all in white, ftuck with jewells, and a great crucifix on her breaft.' Again: "They bring the body in a chayre, dreft up in black velvet, which fetts off the paillnes of the hands and face, and a faire chayne of pearle crofs the breaft, and the crucias above it," &c. "Let us for the future, Mr. Baldwin, be told with lefs confidence A paffage which has been produced from one of the old comedies,' proves that the common theatres were furnished with fome rude pieces of machinery, which were used when it was neceffary to exhibit the descent of fome god or faint; but it is manifeft from what has been already stated, as well as from all the contemporary accounts, that the mechanifm of our ancient theatres feldom went beyond a tomb, a painted chair, a finking cauldron, or a trap-door, and that none of them had moveable scenes. When King Henry VIII. is to be discovered by the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, reading in his study, the fcenical direction in the first folio, 1623, (which was printed apparently from playhouse copies,) is, "The King draws the curtain, [i. e. draws it open] and fits reading penfively;" for, befide the principal curtains that hung in the front of the stage, they used others as fubftitutes for fcenes, which were of the want of proper fcenes and dreffes in our ancient theatres."— Letter in The St. James's Chronicle, May, 1780. To all this I have only to fay, that it never has been afferted, at leaft by me, that in Shakspeare's time a tomb was not represented on the ftage. The monument of the Capulets was perhaps reprefented in Romeo and Juliet, and a wooden structure might have been used for this purpofe in that and other plays; of which when the door was once opened, and a proper quantity of lamps, falfe stones, and black cloth difplayed, the poet might be as luxuriant as he pleafed in defcribing the furrounding invisible marble monuments. This writer, it fhould feem, was thinking of the epigram on Butler the poet we ask for fcenes, and he gives us only a flone. 7" Of whyche the lyke thyng is used to be fhewed now adays in fage-playes, when fome god or fome faynt is made to appere forth of a cloude; and fuccoureth the parties which feemed to be towardes fome great danger, through the Soudan's crueltie." The author's marginal abridgement of his text is-" The lyke manner used nowe at our days in ftage-playes." Accolaftus, a comedy by T. Palígrave, chaplain to King Henry VIII. 1540. 8 See Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, acted at the Globe and Blackfriars, and printed in 1623: "Here is difcovered behind a traverse denominated traverfes. If a bedchamber is to be represented, no change of fcene is mentioned; but the property-man is fimply ordered to thrust forth a bed, or, the curtains being opened, a bed is exhibited. So, in the old play on which Shakfpeare formed his King Henry VI. P. II. when Cardinal Beaufort is exhibited dying, the ftage-direction is"Enter King and Salisbury, and then the curtaines be drawn, [i. e. drawn open,] and the Cardinal is difcovered in his bed, raving and ftaring as if he were mad." When the fable requires the Roman capitol to be reprefented, we find two officers enter, "to lay cushions, as it were in the capitol." So, in King Richard II. Act IV. fc. i: "Bolingbroke, &c. the artificial figures of Antonio and his children, appearing as if they were dead." In The Devil's Charter, a tragedy, 1607, the following ftage-direction is found: "Alexander draweth [that is, draws open] the curtaine of his ftudie, where he difcovereth the devill fitting in his pontificals." Again, in Satiromaftix, by Decker, 1602: "Horace fitting in his ftudy, behind a curtaine, a candle by him burning, books lying confufedly," &c. In Marlton's What you will, a comedy, 1607, the following ftage-direction still more decifively proves this point: "Enter a Schoole-maifter,-draws [i. e. draws open] the curtains behind, with Battus, Nows, Slip, Nathaniel, and Holifernes Pippo, fchool-boyes, fitting with bookes in their handes." Again, in Albovine, by Sir William D'Avenant, 1629: He drares the Arras, and difcovers Albovine, Rhodolinda, Valdaura, dead in chaires." Again, in The Woman in the Moon, by Lily, 1597: They draw the curtins from before Natures shop, where ftands an image clad, and fome unclad. They bring forth the cloathed image." Again, in Romeo and Juliet, 1597, Juliet, after he has fwallowed the fleepy potion, is ordered to "throw herfelfe on the bed, within the curtaines." As foon as Juliet has fallen on the bed, the curtains being ftill open, the nurfe enters, then old Capulet and his lady, then the muficians; and all on the fame fpot. If they could have exhibited a bed-chamber, and then could have fubftituted any other room for it, would they have fuffered the muficians and the Nurfe's fervant to have carried on a ludicrous dialogue in one where Juliet was fuppofed to be lying dead? enter as to the parliament." Again, in Sir John Oldeaffle, 1600: "Enter Cambridge, Scroop, and Gray, as in a chamber." When the citizens of Angiers were to appear on the walls of their town, and young Arthur to leap from the battlements, I fuppofe our ancestors were contented with feeing them in the balcony already defcribed; or perhaps a few boards were tacked together, and painted fo as to resemble the rude difcoloured walls of an old town, behind which a platform might have been placed near the top, on which the citizens stood: but furely this can fcarcely be called a fcene. Though undoubtedly our poet's company were furnished with fome wooden fabrick fufficiently refembling a tomb, for which they must have had occafion in feveral plays, yet fome doubt may be entertained, whether in Romeo and Juliet any exhibition of Juliet's monument was given on the ftage. Romeo perhaps only opened with his mattock one of the ftage trap-doors, (which might have represented a tomb-ftone,) by which he defcended to a vault beneath the stage, where Juliet was depofited; and this notion is countenanced by a paffage in the play, and by the poem on which the drama was founded." In all the old copies of the play last-mentioned 9 See thefe ftage-directions in the first folio. 66 2 Why I defcend into this bed of death,-." Romeo and Juliet, At V. So, in The Tragical Hiftory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "And then our Romeus, the vault-ftone set up-right, "Defcended downe, and in his hand he bore the candle light." Juliet, however, after her recovery, fpeaks and dies upon the ftage. If therefore, the exhibition was fuch as has been now fuppofed, Romeo must have brought her up in his arms from the vault beneath the ftage, after he had killed Paris, and then addreffed her," O my love, my wife," &c. we find the following stage-direction: "They march. about the ftage, and ferving-men come forth with their napkins." A more decifive proof than this, that the stage was not furnished with scenes, cannot be produced. Romeo, Mercutio, &c. with their torchbearers and attendants, are the perfons who march about the stage. They are in the ftreet, on their way to Capulet's houfe, where a masquerade is given; but Capulet's fervants who come forth with their napkins, are fuppofed to be in a hall or faloon of their mafter's houfe: yet both the masquers without and the fervants within appear on the fame fpot. In like manner in King Henry VIII. the very fame fpot is at once the outfide and infide of the Council-Chamber.' It is not, however, neceffary to infist either upon the term itself, in the fenfe of a painting in perspective on cloth or canvas, being unknown to our early writers, or upon the various ftage-directions which are found in the plays of our poet and his contemporaries, and which afford the strongest prefumptive evidence that the stage in his time was not furnished with fcenes; because we have to the fame point the concurrent testimony of Shakspeare himself, of Ben Jonfon, of every writer of the laft age who has had occafion to mention this fubject, and even of the very perfon who firft introduced fcenes on the publick stage. In the year 1629 Jonfon's comedy intitled The New Inn was performed at the Blackfriars theatre, and defervedly damned. Ben was fo much incenfed at the town for condemning his piece, that in 1631 3 See Vol. XI. p. 177, n. 8. "In your imagination hold "This ftage, the fhip, upon whofe deck |