= SITTING ON THE STAGE 147 
_ This is the last coritemporary testimony. 
_ The adaptation of the foreign stage to the Blackfriars custom, 
_ as shown in the testimony of Tallemant des Réaux, Moliére, Vol- 
_ taire, and Goethe, is corroborative evidence of the stage-structure 
at Blackfriars where it originated. In all cases the seats were at 
- right and left of the actors. In the earliest form, as we know 
_ from the evidence at Blackfriars and from Dekker’s The Guls 
_ Horne-Book, the wings and the seats there were on a level with 
_ the stage of action. But in a century and a half the structural 
_ form had evolved from that unvarying level into the latest phase 
as reported by Goethe, with the elevated seats at the sides placed 
_ within the narrowed borders of the actors themselves. 
is I have given thus much space to this custom of sitting on the 
Stage because it shows the tendency and potency of influences 
q 
§ 
<a 
a < 
: Raume zwischen den Uniformen Werke, XVII, Wahrheit und Dicht- 
-~ und Orden ihre Geheimnisse zu ent- ung (ed. Prof. Dr. H. Diintzer, in 
_ hiillen. Ich habe die “Hypermnes- J. Kiirschner’s Deutsche National- 
tra” selbst unter solchen Umstand- Litteratur, Band 98), Teil I, Drittes 
en auffiihren sehen. — Goethe’s Buch, 119-20. 
PA Ee Vet Pay ee ee eee 
2 261 
