stage 
right being called the npposite-prmnpi-rentfr (or. briefly, 
o -p.-center). The stage is thus divided laterally into five 
parts, called in order the prompt-side, the prompt-center, the 
center, the o. -p. -center, and the o.-p.-'(Je,and these designa- 
tions extend through the whole depth of the stage, as well 
as up into the flies : thus the five ropes by which a drop- 
scene is raised or lowered are known us the prompt-side 
Section of Stage, as seen from Prompt-side. 
A, proscenium;./,/, border-lights; f-.^, fly-galleries; A, proscenium- 
arch; *',_/, curtains; A, asbestos fire-proof curtain. 
rope, prompt-center rope, center-rope, etc. As regards depth, 
the stage is divided into entrances varying in number ac- 
cording to the number of the wings or side-scenes. That 
between the proscenium and the flrst wing is called on 
one side the first prompt-entrance, and on the other the 
first o.-p.-entrance. From the first wing to the next is the 
second prompt- or second o.-p.-entrance, and so on. Every- 
thing above the stage from the top of the proscenium-arch 
upward is called the flies, and includes the borders, border- 
lights, all needed ropes, pulleys, and cleats, the beams to 
which these are attached, and the fly-galleries, from the 
lowest of which the drop-scenes are worked. The ancient 
Greek theater in its original form, as developed in the 
fifth century B. c., had no raised stage, the actors appear- 
ing in the orchestra amid the chorus. 
All the world 's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players. 
SAot., As you Like it, ii. 7. 139. 
Mirth. Pray you help us to some stools here. 
Pro. Where, on the staye, ladies? 
Mirth. Yes, on the staye ; we are persons of quality, I 
assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to 
be seen. B. Jonson, Staple of News, Ind. 
Hence 5. With the definite article, the thea- 
ter; the drama as acted or exhibited, or the 
profession of representing dramatic composi- 
tions: as, to take to tlie stage; to regard the 
stage as a school of elocution. 
There were also Poets that wrote onely for the stage, I 
meaneplayes and interludes, to recreate the people with 
matters of disporte. 
Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 20. 
Lo ! where the stage, the poor degraded stage, 
Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. 
I Sprague, Curiosity. 
6. A place where anything is publicly exhib- 
ited ; a field for action ; the scene of any noted 
action or career; the spot where any remark- 
able affair occurs. 
When we are born, we cry that we are come 
To this great stage of fools. Snak., Lear, iv. 6. 187. 
7. A place of rest on a journey, or where a re- 
lay of horses is taken, or where a stage-coach 
changes horses ; a station. 
I have this morning good news from Gibson ; three let- 
ters from three several stages, that he was safe last night 
as far as Royston, at between nine and ten at night. 
Pepiis, Diary, June 14, 1667. 
Hence 8. The distance between two places 
of rest on a road : in some countries a regular 
unit. 
'Tis strange a man cannot ride a stage 
Or two, to breathe himself, without a warrant. 
Beau, and Fl., Philaster, ii. 4. 
Our whole Stage this day was about five hours, our Course 
a little Southerly of the West 
MaundreU, Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 2. 
9. A single step of a gradual process ; degree 
of advance or of progression, either in increase 
or decrease, in rising or falling, or in any 
change of state : as, stages of growth in an ani- 
mal or a plant ; the stages of a disease ; in biol., 
a state or condition of being, as one of several 
5888 
successive steps in a course of development: 
as, the larval, pupal, and imaginal stages of an 
insect; several stages of an embryo. 
A blysful lyf thou says I lede, 
Thou woldez knaw ther-of the stage. 
Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), i. 410. 
These three be the true stages of knowledge. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 
Our education is in a manner wholly in the hands of 
ecclesiastics, and in all stages from infancy to manhood. 
Burkf, Rev. in France. 
They were in widely different stages of civilization. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. 
10. [Abbr. of stage-coach.'] Same as stage- 
coach; also [U. S.], an omnibus. 
A parcel sent you by the stage. 
Coicper, Conversation, 1. 305. 
I went in the six-penny stage. Sirtft. 
Law of the three stages. See three. Lyric stage. 
See lyric. Mechanical stage. See microscope, 1. To 
go on the stage, see go. To run the stage. See 
runi. 
stage (stag), v. ; pret. and pp. staged, ppr. stag- 
ing. [< stage, .] I. trans. 1. To represent 
in a play or on the stage ; exhibit on the stage. 
I love the people, 
But do not like to stage me to their eyes. 
Shak., M. for M., i. 1. 69. 
Frippery. Some poet must assist us. 
Goldstone. Poet? 
Youll take the direct line to have us stag'd. 
Middleton, Your Five Gallants, iv. 8. 
An you stage me, stinkard, your mansions shall sweat 
for 't B. Jomon, Poetaster, iii. 1. 
2. To place or put on the stage ; mount, as a 
play. 
The manager who, in staging a play, suggests judicious 
modifications, is in the position of a critic, nothing more. 
Fortnightly Ret., N. S., XXXIX. 819. 
II. intrans. To travel by stage-coach : some- 
times with indefinite it. 
He seasons pleasure with profit ; he stages (if 1 may say 
so) into politicks, and rides post into business. 
Gentleman Instructed, p. 540. (Davies.) 
stage-box (staj'boks), ?i. A proscenium-box, 
stage-carriage (staj'kar*aj), n. A stage-coach. 
In 1866 Gladstone was able to reduce the mileage for 
all stage-carriages to one farthing. 
S. Dwell, Taxes in England, III. 56. 
stage-coach (staj ' koch), n. A coach that runs 
by stages; a coach that runs regularly every 
day or on stated days between two places, for 
the conveyance of passengers. Also stage. 
Stage-craft (staj'kraft), n. 1. The art of dra- 
matic composition. 
The fact that their author so willingly leaned upon the 
plot of a predecessor indicates his weak point the lack 
of that stage-craft which seems to be still one of the rarest 
gifts of Englishmen. A. Dobson, Introd. to Steele, p. xliv. 
2. Knowledge and skill in putting a play on 
the stage. 
stage-direction (staj'di-rek'shon), 71. A writ- 
ten or printed instruction as to action, etc., 
which accompanies the text of a play. 
stage-door (staj'dor), n. The door giving ac- 
cess to the stage and the parts behind it in a 
theater; the actors' and workmen's entrance 
to a theater. 
stage-effect (staj'e-fekt"), n. Theatrical ef- 
fect ; effect produced artificially and designedly. 
Stage-fever (staj'fe'ver), . A strong desire 
to go on the stage, or to be an actor or actress. 
[Colloq.] 
He was intended for the Church, but he caught stage- 
fever, ran away from school at the age of 17, and joined 
the theater at Dublin. 
,>. Ashton, Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, II. 21. 
stage-forceps (staj'for'seps), n. A clamp for 
holding an object on the stage of a compound 
microscope. E. H. Knight. 
Stage-fright (staj'frlt), n. Nervousness ex- 
perienced on facing an audience, especially for 
the first time. 
Stage-hand (staj'hand), . A man employed 
to move scenery, etc. 
stage-house (staj'hous), n. A house, as an inn, 
at which a coach stops regularly for passengers 
or to change horses. 
stagelyt (staj'li), a. [< stage + -fyl.] Per- 
taining to the stage ; befitting the theater ; the- 
atrical. Jer. Taylor (?), Artif. Handsomeness, 
p. 168. 
Stagemant (staj'man), . An actor. T. Bra- 
fttite, 1589 (prefixed to Greene's "Menaphon"). 
(Davies.) 
Stage-manager (staj'man'aj-er), n. In theaters, 
one who superintends the production and per- 
formance of a play, and who regulates all mat- 
ters behind the curtain. 
stagger 
stage-micrometer (staj'mi-krom"e-ter), . Iii 
microscopy, a micrometer attached to the stage, 
and used to measure the size of an object un- 
der examination. 
Stage-plate (staj'plat), n. A glass plate with 
a narrow ledge along one edge, used on the 
stage of a microscope to hold an object when 
the microscope is inclined, and sometimes as 
the bottom plate of a growing-slide. E. H. 
1\ night. 
stage-play (staj'pla), . Originally, a dramatic 
performance ; hence, a play or drama adapted 
for representation on the stage, as distinguished 
from a reading- or closet-play. 
If the devil, or his instruments, should then tell him 
[a dying man] of a cup of sack, of merry company, of a 
stage-play, or a morris-dance, do you think he would then 
be so taken with the motion ? Baxter, Saints' Rest, iv. 3. 
stage-player (staj'pla"er), n. An actor on the 
stage; one whose occupation is to represent 
characters on the stage. 
Among slaves who exercised polite arts none sold so 
dear as stageplayers or actors. Arbuthnot, Ancient Coins. 
Stager (sta'jer), 71. [< stage + -trl.] If. A 
player. 
Dare quit, upon Jrour oaths, 
The stagers and the stage-wrights too (your peers). 
B. Jonson, Just Indignation of the Author. 
2. One who has long acted on the stage of life ; 
a person of experience, or of skill derived from 
long experience: usually with old. 
Here let me, as an old stager upon the theatre of the 
world, suggest one consideration to you. 
Chesterfield, To his Son, Dec. 20, 0. S. 1748. 
3. A horse used for drawing a stage-coach. 
stage-right (staj'rit), n. The proprietary right 
of the author of a dramatic composition in re- 
spect to its performance ; the exclusive right 
to perform or authorize the performance of a 
particular drama. Compare copyright. 
stageritet. [X stager T -tie 2 ; with a pun on 
Stagirite.] A stage-player. [Humorous.] 
Thou hast forgot how thou amblest ... by a play- 
wagon, in the high way, and took st mad Jeronimoes part, 
to get seruice among the Mimickes ; and when the Stager- 
ites banish't thee into the Isle of Dogs, thou tuni'dst Ban- 
dog. DeMer, Satiromastix, I. 229 (ed. Pearson). 
stageryt (sta'jer-i), 71. [< stage + -ery.] Ex- 
hibition on the stage. 
Likening those grave controversies to a piece of Stagery, 
or Scene-worke. Hilton, An Apology, etc. 
stage-setter (staj'set'er), n. One who attends 
to the proper setting of a play on the stage. 
M. Sardou is a born stage-setter, but with a leaning to 
"great machines," numbers of figurants, and magnificence. 
The Century, XXXV. 544. 
stage-struck (staj'struk), a. Smitten with a 
love for the stage ; possessed by a passion for 
the drama; seized by a passionate desire to 
become an actor. 
"You are a precious fool, Jack Bunce," said Cleveland, 
half angry, and, in despite of himself, half diverted by 
the false tones and exaggerated gesture of the stagestruck 
pirate. Scott, Pirate, xxxix. 
stag-evil (stag'e'vl), n. Tetanus or lockjaw of 
the horse. 
stage-wagon (staj'wag'on), M. 1. A wagon for 
conveying goods and passengers, by stages, at 
regularly appointed times. 2f. A stage-coach. 
stage-wait (staj'wat), . A delay in a theatri- 
carperformance, due to dilatoriness of an actor 
or carpenter, or to any like cause. [Colloq.] 
stage-whisper (staj'hwis*'per), n. A loud whis- 
per used in by-play by an actor in a theater ; an 
aside ; hence, a whisper meant to be heard by 
those to whom it is not professedly addressed. 
stagewright (staj'rit), n. A dramatic author; 
a playwright. See the quotation under stager, 1. 
[Bare.] 
stagey, stageyness. See stagy, staginess, 1. 
staggard 1 , staggart (stag'ard, -art), n. [For- 
merly also stagart; < stag + -ard, -art.] A stag 
in his fourth year, and therefore not quite full 
grown. 
staggard 2 (stag'ard), H. Same as staggarth. 
staggarth (stag'krth), n. [Also staggard; a 
reduction of "stack-garth, < stack + garth 1 . Cf. 
equiv. dial, haggarth, haggard, 'hay-garth'.] 
An inclosure within which stacks of hay and 
'mare kept. Cath. Ang.,^. 358. [Prov. Eng.] 
ger (stag'er), t>. [A var. of stacker, after 
. staggeren, stagger as a drunken man (ap- 
par. a var. of "stackeren = Icel. stakra, stagger) : 
see stacker'^.'] I. intrans. 1. To walk or stand 
unsteadily; reel; totter. 
A violent exertion, which made the King stagger back- 
ward into the hall. Scott, Quentin Durward, x. 
