Page:The Elizabethan stage (Volume 3).pdf/165

 May Day has four. The Widow's Tears has four. But in all cases there is a good deal of interplay of action between one house and another, and all the probabilities are in favour of continuous setting. The tragedies are perhaps another matter. The houses are still not numerous; but the action is in each play divided between two localities. The Conspiracy of Byron is partly at Paris and partly at Brussels; the Tragedy of Byron partly at Paris and partly at Dijon. Jonson's Case is Altered has one open-country scene ( iv) near Milan. The other scenes require two houses within the city. One is Farneze's palace, with a cortile where servants come and go, and a colonnade affording a private 'walk' for his daughters ( iii; i). Hard by, and probably in Italian fashion forming part of the structure of the palace itself, is the cobbler's shop of Farneze's retainer, Juniper. Near, too, is the house of Jaques, with a little walled backside, and a tree in it. A link with Paul's is provided by three Blackfriars plays from Marston. Of these, the Malcontent is in his characteristic Italian manner. There is a short hunting scene ( ii) in the middle of the play. For nearly all the rest the scene is the 'great chamber' in the palace at Genoa, with a door to the apartment of the duchess at the back ( i. 1) and the chamber of Malevole visible above. Part