The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1882 Tuesday, 15 November 2005
From: Bill Lloyd <
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Date: Tuesday, 15 Nov 2005 09:02:29 EST
Subject: Railed Stage
Comment: SHK 16.1873 Railed Stage
Just for the record, I did go for the yes-indoor and no-outdoor position
in my initial summation on stage railings:
>If one may generalize it seems as if stage-rails were not a feature of
>[many? most? all?] public outdoor theatres [Swan; Fortune contract; Hope
>contract] but were a feature of at least some private indoor theatres
Concerning the possible public theatre railings mentioned in W. Smith's
The Hector of Germany, earlier I had speculated:
>...Hector of Germany was acted at the public houses the Red
>Bull and the Curtain, though it may have been written for another venue.
Dave Kathman writes me from London, where he is currently
archive-diving: "I don't know of any evidence that Hector was performed
at an indoor playhouse, though The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl, to which
Hector was a sort of response, was performed at Whitefriars." Smith
(William the Herald, not Wentworth says Dave) was not a regular
professional playwright working for the public theatres, and it seems
quite possible he wrote it with a performance at Whitefriars or another
private venue in mind, and it was either only revived at the
Curtain/Bull (by 'prentices!) or played there after other venues fell
through. Speculation of course, but the evidence Hector offers for rails
on public stages is ambiguous at best.
Bill Lloyd
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