Most Secret
“Friday, May 20th, 1670. Four o’clock in the afternoon, and the performance about to begin.
Stand at the back of the pit, now, and look at it. It will be a gala afternoon, since today most of the court attend the play. Nowhere will you get a better view of so many of these people gathered together, with an edge of wax-light on their faces; and you will see representatives from half London too. Grandee and Grandee’s Lady in the side boxes; in the pit, Fop and Trollop and even respectable young Ma...n of Affairs, with wife (Mr. Pepys of the Navy Office is a good example); Sedate Citizen in the middle gallery; Unnameable Public in the top gallery.
Never expect, as you enter, to see anything like our modern theatre of 1815. There’ll be no drop curtain, as you observe; no floats or footlights to shine on it; such things have not yet been invented. Merely a raised platform of a stage, with double doors at the back and a smaller door flanking them on either side; above the stage, on ropes so that they may be raised or lowered, two chandeliers with crowns of candles.MoreLess
Stand at the back of the pit, now, and look at it. It will be a gala afternoon, since today most of the court attend the play. Nowhere will you get a better view of so many of these people gathered together, with an edge of wax-light on their faces; and you will see representatives from half London too. Grandee and Grandee’s Lady in the side boxes; in the pit, Fop and Trollop and even respectable young Ma...n of Affairs, with wife (Mr. Pepys of the Navy Office is a good example); Sedate Citizen in the middle gallery; Unnameable Public in the top gallery.
Never expect, as you enter, to see anything like our modern theatre of 1815. There’ll be no drop curtain, as you observe; no floats or footlights to shine on it; such things have not yet been invented. Merely a raised platform of a stage, with double doors at the back and a smaller door flanking them on either side; above the stage, on ropes so that they may be raised or lowered, two chandeliers with crowns of candles.MoreLess
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