| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The research was extended into the whole extant corpus of Early Modern drama of England, with the help of the electronic database of stage directions which I have compiled last six years. British Library offered me opportunities of examining over 100 copies of old drama, so that I could pick out only significant examples to discuss from the whole corpus. I also started gathering information from woodcuts printed on the title page of plays. In Japan, I was able to check rare academic books on minor Renaissance plays through inter-library loan.
(1)the limitation of the use of stage posts : In many of academic editions of Renaissance plays current in the U.K. and U.S., editors tend to make the best of stage posts, where the theatrical uses of the posts are allowable. From a statistical viewpoint, the place for hiding oneself is very often the back of the arras hanging over the central opening. It is to be noted that when a post seems to be very suitable for spying or eavesdropping scenes,
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parallel scenes of other works could have required property trees, or sometimes a bower. In fact, a portable wooden post, not a stage post, is depicted in the woodcut of Swetnam.
(2) the use of the central opening : Large pieces of furniture like thrones, beds, or banquet tables were carried into the stage through the central opening. Attractive as their theory is, Andrew Gurr's and Mariko Ichikawa's interpretation of the central opening as a symbolic entrance in association with harmony is highly hypothetical and not necessarily true.
(3) the use of the upper stage : Examining a comparatively small number of examples, Ichikawa testified that in Shakespearean plays, an ascent to or a descent from the upper stage took place while just a few lines were spoken on the main stage,. It is the case in other early modern plays as well. Probably, when theatrical companies acted a play with an upper-stage scene in the venue having no upper level they had to dispense with it. A short span of time is for such performances without the upper floor ; when the upper stage was available, they might have filled the gap with music, improvisation, etc. Less
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