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The Plays in Practice and on the Page
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Ohio University Press
Athens
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The Plays in Practice and on the Page
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Ohio University Press
Athens
Ohio University Press,Athens,Ohio
www.ohio.edu/oupress
© by Colin Butler
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper ƒ ™
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Butler,Colin.
The practical Shakespeare :the plays in practice and on the page / Colin Butler.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN ---(cloth :alk.paper) — ISBN ---(pbk.:alk.paper)
.Shakespeare,William,‒—Technique..Shakespeare,William,‒—
Dramatic production..Theater—Production and direction.. Drama—Technique.
I.Title.
PR.B
.'—dc
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preface vii
ix
. first steps:Writing for Performance;Using the Physical Features
of the Playhouses;Sound Effects and Music;Writing with Specific
Actors in Mind;“The Purpose of Playing”
. entrances and early words
. exits
. characterization
. scenes not shown
. controlling the audience’s responses (i): Places;Times of Day
and Night;The Bible
. controlling the audience’s responses (ii): Long Plot Lines;
Setting Up Situations Early;Risk Management;Two Storms
. untruthful behavior:Telling and Acting Lies in The Merry Wives
ofWindsor,Romeo and Juliet,Much Ado about Nothing,All’s Well That
Ends Well,Measure for Measure,King Lear,Cymbeline, and The Winter’s
Tale
. staging decisive moments:The Letter Scene in Twelfth Night,The
Observation Scene in Troilus and Cressida, and Leontes’Denunciation
of Hermione to Camillo in The Winter’s Tale
. prologues and choruses
notes
bibliography
index
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This book provides a comprehensive,plain-English introduction to the way
Shakespeare’s plays are written.It is designed for students and teachers of
English literature and for general playgoers, too.A different aspect of the
plays is examined in each of its ten chapters,which are free-standing and
which can be consulted individually.For greater convenience,each chapter
is subdivided,and each subdivision has its own heading to show its focus of
interest.To further improve access,the index at the back of the book lists
topics that are discussed as well as names of authors and play titles.There is
ample quotation,too,so that readers can understand a point even if they do
not know the play.And there are selected cross-references to show the range
of Shakespeare’s inventiveness.
The way this book is constructed allows it to be used in different ways.
For example,a student with an assignment on A Midsummer Night’s Dream
can easily look up how the “hempen home-spuns”make their first entrance;
how their understanding of a play differs from Shakespeare’s;how Puck is
characterized;how Shakespeare gets the plot lines ofTitania and Bottom to
cross;and why some scenes are not staged but reported.Teachers need pre-
cise information,too,but they also have to take a larger view of the plays
they are teaching;so,throughout,every significant point made about Shake-
speare’s playwriting technique is compared with one or more instances be-
sides,and supported by quotation as well.And general playgoers know that,
if they have insight into what Shakespeare does in one play,they can follow
his other plays much more easily,since he is a very consistent playwright.
The reference text used in this book is the widely available second edition
of The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ). For the
reader’s convenience,speakers’names that are abbreviated in Riverside are
given in full here;they are followed by a colon,not a period;and all edito-
rial square brackets have been removed.
I have inevitably incurred a large number of intellectual debts while writ-
ing this book.Published research into Shakespeare’s life and work is copi-
ous and, in the notes and bibliography, I have tried to acknowledge the
many borrowings I have made.In particular,I am grateful to the various
editors of the New Cambridge Shakespeare,the Oxford Shakespeare,and
viii
s
the Arden Shakespeare.Their work has never been far from my elbow,and
I have taken full advantage of their scholarship and insights.
More personally,I thank Professor Andrew Gurr,former director of the
Renaissance Texts Centre in the University of Reading,England,for read-
ing this book in draft and saving me from a number of pitfalls.He has also
very generously answered a number of follow-up questions.Any errors that
remain are mine.Further,I thank the master and fellows of St.John’s Col-
lege,Cambridge,England,for their invaluable hospitality while I was first
assembling my material;in the University of Utrecht,Holland,Drs J.S.M.
Savenije (University Librarian),Drs Klaas van der Hoek (Curator of Manu-
scripts) and Drs Koert van der Horst (Curator of Manuscripts) for their help
with Johannes de Witt’s sketch of the Swan theater;Nancy Basmajian,man-
aging editor of Ohio University Press,and her staff,for their lynx-eyed edit-
ing and unstinting practical advice; Beth Pratt, production manager of
Ohio University Press,and Steve Kress,for the elegant and sensitive design;
David Sanders,director of Ohio University Press,for his constant support
throughout this project;and Angela J.Butler,whose assistance with the type-
script has been indispensable.
De Witt Sketch of the Swan Theater.
Johannes de Witt,a Dutch visitor,was in London in and wrote about the play-
houses he visited to his friend,Arend van Buchell.He included a sketch of the recently
opened Swan theater.The original sketch is lost,but van Buchell’s copy of it has been
preserved.The sketch is the only contemporary picture of the interior of an Elizabethan
playhouse available to us.
Conspicuous are the three-tiered enclosure;the platform stage with standing room
on three sides;the flanking doors in the tiring-house facade (the screen at the back of
the stage,behind which was the tiring-house,or dressing room);the lords’rooms form-
ing a gallery at the back of the stage;the two column-like stage posts supporting the roof
over the stage;the hut above the roof of the stage with the playhouse flag flying from it;
and the trumpeter,who would signal the beginning of the play.There is no curtain and
no scenery,just a bench that can easily be carried on and off.No trapdoor is visible,there
is no central opening or arras,and it is not clear whether the sides of the stage are cov-
ered,though they normally would be.The light is obviously daylight.
Excavations of the Rose theater show that the London playhouses were not all ex-
actly alike.But the platform stage with the tiring-house facade at the back,flanking
doors,a roof or canopy over the stage,and the enclosed shape were recurrent features.
,
De Witt Sketch of the Swan Theater.
