The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 23.0475 Monday, 26 November 2012
From: David Frankel <
Date: November 24, 2012 10:43:42 PM EST
Subject: Re: SHAKSPER: Blood?
I’m definitely no expert on Elizabethan stage blood (I’m not sure, for example, what a “sheep’s gather” is), but I wonder if “3 viols of blood” might leave the word “stage” understood. In greeting ready for my spring production of Hamlet, my designer and I have talked about the need for blood. Both of us know we’re talking about stage blood, so there’s no need to state. So, I’m not sure that the use of the word (even connected to sheep’s gather—is that a container for the blood?) means that the animal’s blood was used. It might, but I suspect not.
C. David Frankel