This foundational work by Edmund Kerchever Chambers provides a comprehensive investigation into the physical conditions and staging practices of the English stage from the early Tudor period through the seventeenth century. Chambers explores the complex problems of scenic background, examining how various types of theatres accommodated the wide range of incidents found in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. The volume begins with a detailed survey of Renaissance staging at European courts, tracing the influence of Vitruvius and the development of architectural perspective in Italy, France, and England. Chambers then turns to the internal evidence of surviving interludes and early comedies, analyzing the gradual shift from simple unlocated acting spaces to more elaborate multi-domus settings and the eventual establishment of public and private playhouses.
He examines the structural resources of the early stage, including the use of doors, traps, heavens, galleries, and the curtained alcove or inner stage. Special attention is given to the staging methods of the children's companies at Paul's and the Blackfriars compared against those of the adult companies at the Globe, the Fortune, and the Rose. The latter sections of the book address the complex business of play publishing, detailing the historical development of state censorship, the role of the Stationers' Company, and the survival rates of early dramatic texts. Throughout the study, Chambers relies on contemporary financial records, stage directions, and revels accounts to reconstruct the physical realities of early modern theatrical production. The book concludes with extensive bibliographical notes and source materials that remain indispensable for scholars of dramatic history.
