Page:The Elizabethan stage (Volume 3).pdf/84

 give opportunity for tragic episodes of death and sickness.

and bids 'beare me to that Chamber'. Then the scene, and in F_{1} the act, ends. In 1 Contention, sc. x. 1, 'Then the Curtaines being drawne, Duke Humphrey is discouered in his bed, and two men lying on his brest and smothering him in his bed. And then enter the Duke of Suffolke to them'. He bids 'draw the Curtaines againe and get you gone'. The King enters and bids him call Gloucester. He goes out, and returns to say that Gloucester is dead. Warwick says, 'Enter his priuie chamber my Lord and view the bodie', and (50), 'Warwicke drawes the curtaines and showes Duke Humphrey in his bed'. The analogous ''2 Hen. VI'', ii, omits the murder coram populo and begins 'Enter two or three running ouer the Stage, from the Murther of Duke Humfrey'. It then follows the earlier model until (132) the King bids Warwick 'Enter his Chamber' and we get the brief s.d. (146) 'Bed put forth', and Warwick speaks again. The next scene is another death scene, which begins in 1 Contention, sc. xi, 'Enter King and Salsbury, and then the Curtaines be drawne, and the Cardinal is discouered in his bed, rauing and staring as if he were madde', and in ''2 Hen. VI'', iii, 'Enter the King  to the Cardinal in bed', ending (32) 'Close vp his eyes, and draw the Curtaine close'. In ''1 Rich. II'', i, Lapoole enters 'with a light' and murderers, whom he bids 'stay in the next with-draweing chamber ther'. Then (48), 'He drawes the curtayne', says of Gloucester 'He sleepes vppon his bed', and Exit. Gloucester, awaked by ghosts, says (110), 'The doores are all made fast and nothing heere appeeres, But the vast circute of this emptie roome'. Lapoole, returning, says, 'Hee's ryssen from his bed'. Gloucester bids him 'shutt to the doores' and 'sits to wright'. The murderers enter and kill him. Lapoole bids 'lay hime in his bed' and 'shutt the doore, as if he ther had dyd', and they (247) 'Exeunt with the bodye'. In Death of R. Hood, ii, ind., the presenter says 'Draw but that vaile, And there King John sits sleeping in his chaire', and the s.d. follows, 'Drawe the curten: the King sits sleeping Enter Queene She ascends, and seeing no motion, she fetcheth her children one by one; but seeing yet no motion, she descendeth, wringing her hands, and departeth'. In R. J. iii, iv, v (continuous action), Juliet drinks her potion and Q_{1}, has the s.d. ( iii. 58) 'She fals vpon her bed within the Curtaines'. Action follows before the house, until the Nurse, bidden to call Juliet, finds her dead. Then successively 'Enter' Lady Capulet, Capulet, the Friar, and Paris, to all of whom Juliet is visible. After lament, the Friar, in Q_{2} ( v. 91), bids them all 'go you in', but in Q_{1}, 'They all but the Nurse goe foorth, casting Rosemary on her and shutting the Curtens'. The Nurse, then, in both texts, addresses the musicians, who came with Paris. On the difficulty of this scene, in relation to ii and  v, cf. p. 94.]*
 * [Footnote: (233) the King asks the name of 'the lodging where I first did swound',