You'll
find a few representative illustrations of Shakespeare, his age, and the
London theatres at this site. For a more comprehensive view, I recommend
that you visit such sites as
http://www.itasmatteoricci.sinp.net/lascuola/didattica/Progetti/teatro/did/images.html,
or
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/index.html,
among the many sites available on Shakespeare and his age.
The Globe Theatre
The Second Rose Theatre
The Swan Theatre
The City of London in Shakespeare's Day
Cut-away Rendering of the Globe Theatre
Information
on the primary distinctions of stage attributes: Conventions
and Analogies

Globe Theatre (Adams)

deWitt drawing of the
Swan Theatre

City of London in Shakespeare's
Day

Cut-away view of the Globe
Theatre (Adams)
Analogies and
Conventions:
Two important things
remain to remember when studying Shakespeare and his art. First, the
theatre was both conventional and analogical.
"Conventional" means a shorthand form for reality, understood by audience
and actor alike. That is, conventions represent a way to denote an idea, a
physical condition, a quality that needs no exhaustive explanation or
description (as is often the case in modern drama). For example, sighing
conveys the idea of one being in love. The quality is call "adust," a
thickening of the blood from the heat that passion generates upon the
heart. Sighing serves to release that heat in order that we not die; this
Romeo says "Ay me" at the first of play to signal to the audience that he is
a lover. In addition, he probably leaned against a post supporting the
balcony, crossed his legs and arms, and conveyed a look of exhaustion or the
inability to sustain an upright position without the benefit of something to
lean against.
Other forms of conventions
include the soliloquy (speaking one's thoughts aloud while alone on stage),
the aside (makeing a statement that more than a thousand people can hear,
but which the character it describes or remarks upon cannot hear it, even
though he may only be five feet away), poetry (the people in Shakespeare's
day did not say things such things as "but soft / what light through yonder
window breaks...), or boys playing the parts of women (the English believed
it to be unseemly for women to play upon the stage. The French might do
such things, but then consider that the French....) Conventions, therefore,
serve to make clear shortcuts in the game of playing.
Second, the stage was
analogical; that is, its physical structure made an analogy
of God's universe within a microcosm called the theatre. The upper-most
part of the playhouse (the hut) was also called "the Heavens," where
machinery might be hidden from the sight of the audience--sound effects such
as bowling balls rolling down wooden troughs in order to sound like thunder,
or pulleys and wires for hefting angels or supernatural beings, etc. In the
middle of the stage was a trap door that opened to "Hell"--the space below
the stage, used for storage but for entrances for devils and witches as
well--which left the middle area, the stage itself, to represent the
"Earth," or mankind's life in its journey between Heaven and Hell. The
analogical mode of the stage is perhaps best expressed by Jacques' speech in
As You Like It:
All
the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely
players.
They have their exits and their
entrances,
And one man in his time plays many
parts,
His acts being seven ages. At
first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's
arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with
his satchel
Unwillingly to school. And then
the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful
ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.
Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded
like the pard,
Jealous in hounour, sudden, and
quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And
then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with good
capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of
formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern
instances,
And so he plays his part. The
sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd
pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch
on side,
His youthful hose well sav'd, a
world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big
manly voice,
Turning again toward childish
treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last
scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful
history,
Is second childishness and mere
oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste,
sans everything.
(As You Like It, 2.7.139-166)
Thus one who stands before the stage in the
pit with the "penny public," or sits in the more expensive seats, beneath
shelter and safe from the bad weather, looks upon the stage and sees the
microcosm of God's universe: the Heavens above, Hell below, and the middle
ground--the stage proper--as Earth, upon which mankind has its entrances and
exits.
The Spanish drama of Calderat about the
same as Shakespeare in England, took this a step further and often had a
character on stage--the stage manager--who represented God. All players are
judged against their roles given in life, how well they play, how well they
know their lines and use their props, and are evaluated at play's end by the
manager. Such a character was, at times, in full view of the audience, who
understood his symbolic role.
Where a character stands upon the stage, and
especially where characters enter and exit, has analogical meaning: an
analogy occurs between the Theatrum Mundi, "World as Theatre," and
the lives we lead. The Puritans may have hated the theatre (which they saw
as a "lie," an illusion that misrepresented life and God's realities, to say
nothing of the injunction against men wearing women's clothing in
Deuteronomy), but the stage of Shakespeare's day reminded people of the
"Great Chain of Being," the order of God's universe. Much like a ladder,
the Chain had God at the top and Satan at the bottom. Everything on the
ladder is fixed and has a purpose, whether humanity, animals, plants,
rocks, or anything within God's creation. And balance always exists: If a
certain number of angels and archangels appear at the top, a similar number
and order will exist at the bottom. Evil exists only for the purpose of
distorting good: Communion, therefore, has it's mirror in the Black Mass
of Satan; the next in line to Satan sits at his left hand, as to oppose
Jesus on the right hand of God.
Only humanity can move on the chain; all
else is fixed. Humans, created a little lower than the angels, may fall
down the chain until closer to Satan, or they may serve God and ascend to
their rightful place a little lower than the angels. We know about the
characters in Shakespeare's plays by their language, but also by
their positioning upon the stage. Unfortunately, since his plays were not
regarded as literature and were printed only to counter other companies from
stealing their work and representing it as their own, stage directions
rarely exist; nor do we know where characters were positioned upon the
stage. But the answers to those questions remain paramount in understanding
how we view the characters and their actions. For example, when the Ghost
first appears in Hamlet, from where does he come? Does he arise from
the trap door from Hell? Does he first appear upon the balcony area (closer
to Heaven)? If the latter, we should presume that the Ghost indeed comes
from God for heavenly purpose; but should he arise from the trap door, from
Hell, we may ask ourselves whether or not this Ghost desires, as Hamlet
speculates, to snare his soul as a representative from Hell.
Notice too that language combined with
physical positioning tells us much about the characters. After the Capulet
party, Romeo climbs a wall to avoid his friends, only to find himself in the
garden below Juliet's room. Here we have Romeo on Earth, and Juliet closer
to the Heavens. Romeo's language remains full of images of stars, moon,
heavens, etc.; Juliet's language, on the other hand, appears more grounded,
focusing on hands and eyes, etc. Therefore, we feel that Juliet is more
"grounded" in her feelings and, given her physical position, more spiritual
as a result. Romeo speaks of heavenly images, remains on the "Earth," and
thus seems less grounded and less mature than Juliet. And so Romeo changes
more in the play than does she, because he has more need/room to do so.
It may have been that the actors in these
companies read the scripts and, when rehearsals began, knew where to move
and where to stand due to their understanding of their characters and the
words spoken. A director (which they called an "Instructor") would still be
necessary; but these acting professionals used the physical space of the
stage and the lines given their characters to understand where to stand,
when to move, and what their relationship was to the stage world (Theatrum
mundi). When one adds conventions to the player's understanding, it
suggests to us that Elizabethan/Jacobean actors used their knowledge of the
profession to quickly move through rehearsals and the performance process.
lays didn't run as long as we might
suppose--perhaps only two or three times a week for a month (or occasion
longer) or less--before they moved on to other material. Remember,
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, but the company of which he was a member, as
both dramatist and actor (apparently, he specialized in the portrayal of
older men), might need anywhere from 35 to 50 plays a year. That means that
Richard Burbage, lead tragedian for the Chamberlain's Men and later King's
Men (when James the IV of Scotland came down to England at the death of
Elizabeth, he assumed the title of James I of England, becoming the patron
of Shakespeare's acting company that heretofore had been patronized by the
Lord Chamberlain--a true honor) had to keep nearly 50 roles in his head in
any given year. This tells us something about the prodigious memories of
these players, as well as their need for conventions and positioning
analogies in order to help the quick learning of roles.
The physical demands of that work (sword
fighting, dancing, tumbling, and oratorical excellence) must have been
outstanding. As Hamlet says to the visiting players to Elsinor, "give us a
taste of your quality" (2.2405)--the "quality" of which he speaks is, in a
word, the player's "art."

The 2nd Rose Theatre, 1592