Presently, for the first time it would seem in an
English theatre, the musicians were assigned that intrenched position
between the pit and the stage they have so long maintained. "The front
of the stage is opened, and the band of twenty-four violins with the
harpsicals and theorbos which accompany the voices are placed between
the pit and the stage. While the overture is playing the curtain rises
and discovers a new frontispiece joined to the great pilasters on each
side of the stage," &c. So runs one of the preliminary stage
directions in the version of Shakespeare's "Tempest," arranged by
Dryden and Davenant for performance at the Duke's Theatre, Lincoln's
Inn Fields, in 1667. The change was, no doubt, introduced by Davenant
in pursuance of French example. The authors of the "Histoire
Universelle des Theatres" state, regarding the French stage, that
after the disuse of the old chorus in 1630, "a la place du chant qui
distinguoit les actes et qui marquoit les repos necessaires, on
introduisit des joueurs d'instrumens, qui d'abord furent places sur
les ailes du theatre, ou ils executoient differens airs avant la
commencement de la piece et entre les actes.
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