SITTING ON THE STAGE 141 
It looks very much as if Dekker, having in mind the perform- 
‘ances and customs of Blackfriars, were mentally transferring 
these to the public theatres for the purpose of heightening the 
absurdities of the gallants under imagined ridiculous conditions 
and circumstances, or such as existed but rarely. 
Nothing in the way of very conclusive evidence can be made 
out of these satiric references in Middleton and Dekker. 
It may be that occasionally a gallant intruded his presence on 
the public stage. But on the whole it seems unlikely that the 
public theatres accommodated their conditions to the Blackfriars 
fad. It would be gratifying to find proof that they did. It would 
show even more powerful influences of the Queen’s Children than 
I have been able to trace. But the evidence at hand is not highly 
convincing. One can only admit the possibility, and hope for 
determinative declaration from contemporaries. 
Nevertheless the Blackfriars fashion spread widely. Not only 
were the two private theatres, the Cockpit* and Salisbury Court,? 
built on the general model of the Blackfriars,* but the practice of 
sitting on the stage was also imitated. There are numerous allu- 
sions to the custom as practiced in both.* In all three the gentle- 
men’s rooms were not at right and left of the stage as in the pub- 
lic theatres, but in the region where our modern private boxes 
are,°—‘‘which,” to quote Dekker, “is now but the Stages Sub- 
may (with small cost) purchase the 
(253) gulling the “Ragga-muffins” 
deere acquaintance of the boyes: 
at the public theatre, then without 
haue a good stoole for sixpence: at 
any time know what particular part 
any of the infants present.”—IJdem, 
249. 
This of course is on the Black- 
friars Boys. Yet eight lines beyond, 
in the same paragraph, without 
break of thought, the mind of the 
author is on the situation as if it 
were in the public theatre, thus :— 
“Neither are you to be hunted 
from thence, though the Scarcrows 
in the yard hoot at you, hisse at 
you, spit at you, yea, throw durt 
euen in your teeth” &c. 
Again (252) he has the gallant 
take a pair of oars for the play- 
house (1. e., to the Bankside), has 
him on the stage playing cards and 
break of thought recalls in the next 
paragraph the quarrel with Jonson 
in 1601 (4. s., 133°), and in the, 
following paragraph (254) goes on 
with this advice concerning the 
Blackfriars Boys:—“mewe at pas- 
sionate speeches, blare at merrie, 
finde fault with the musicke, whew 
at the childrens Action, whistle at 
the songs” &c. 
‘Supra, 8. 
*Built 1629. See documents, u. 
85307: 
° Supra, 36°, 39°. 
‘It is without the scope of the 
present work to assemble all these. 
But see for example supra, 43°, 1367 
and imfra, 143’. 
° Supra, 36°, 46, 50-51, plats. 
255 
