“The Stage is Hung with Blacke”: On the Use of Black curtains for Tragedies in the Early Modern Period
“The Stage is Hung with Blacke”: On the Use of Black curtains for Tragedies in the Early Modern Period
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“舞台挂满黑色”：论近代早期悲剧中黑色幕布的运用
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发表时间：
2014
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通讯作者：
M. Ichikawa
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作者：
M. Ichikawa
现代早期的文学作品中多次提及使用黑色窗帘来演绎悲剧。在莎士比亚的叙事诗《强奸卢克丽斯》中，有一节卢克丽斯对“杀戮舒适的夜晚”进行了一系列的斥责（Q1 [1594]，F3r），其中我们发现了短语“布莱克悲剧舞台”（F3r）。在这篇粗略的参考文献中，莎士比亚无疑借鉴了他自己对当前戏剧实践的经验和知识。这句话似乎指的是在伊丽莎白时代的舞台上使用窗帘来创造黑色效果，事实上，它既简短又隐晦，这可能是它最值得注意的事情：这个简短的短语足以让这首诗的读者立即认识到什么是常见的做法。对黑色绞刑最有帮助的明确暗示出现在《对公平女性的警告》（1595-99）的引言中，（2）一部由莎士比亚剧团首先在剧院或可能在幕布上演的匿名戏剧，然后在环球剧场：拟人化的历史告诉喜剧，“舞台上挂着黑色：我认为/审计员为悲剧做准备”（Q1，A3r）。约翰·马斯顿为保罗之子写的《安东尼奥的复仇》（Antonio's Revenge，1600-01）中的证据清楚地表明，不仅露天“公共”剧院，而且室内“私人”剧院也使用黑色绞刑架来上演悲剧。该剧的序言旨在为接下来的内容营造一种适当的阴郁气氛，邀请所有那些“谁眨眼，然后关闭他的忧虑副总裁/从男人过去和现在的常识中，/谁不会知道男人必须是什么；让这样的人/从我们的黑色瓦萨格德表演中快速前进”（Q1，A2v）。短语“black vasag'd showes”在一般意义上很好地表明了所要达到的效果。但是，无论它作为一个隐喻多么生动，它都没有提供关于如何精确地实现这种效果的线索。事实上，我们对黑色绞刑的实际使用方式知之甚少。以舞台的哪一部分被黑色帷幔覆盖这样基本的事情为例。学者们提出了不同的地点，但迄今为止尚未就此事达成共识。其他问题同样存在问题。幕布在整个戏剧表演过程中都保持在原位，还是只在部分时间存在？它们是否在某个时候被完全删除或改变了？如果改变的话，会用什么其他形式的绞刑来代替？所有这些问题将在下文中考虑。主要证据以舞台指导和对话的形式包含在戏剧本身中。然而，所有这些文字证据都需要参考早期现代专业剧院的室外和室内的物理布局来补充，这就是我建议开始的地方。舞台的结构 没有典型的英国文艺复兴时期的剧场：这一时期的伦敦商业剧场在大小、形状和建筑特征上差异很大。但无论是舞台与观众席的空间关系，还是舞台的基本设备，它们都是相似的。舞台从院子或坑中升起，投射到礼堂内。舞台后面有一座累房，正面有通向舞台的大门。舞台上方有一个阳台，下方有一扇活板门。除了蒂姆·菲茨帕特里克（Tim Fitzpatrick）仍然反对在累人屋立面（39-53）中存在中央开口之外，人们普遍认为大多数专业剧场的舞台都有两个主入口门，并且它们之间有一个大开口，用于“发现”。由于明显的原因，没有室内剧院需要单独的舞台屋顶，尽管人们可能期望室外剧场在舞台上有一个盖子，但在玫瑰剧院提供一个盖子之前，似乎没有一个剧场存在，可能是在 1591 年或 1592 年（Bowsher 和 Miller 47, 58；Manley 和 MacLean 62）。 ……
The literature of the early modern period contains many references to the use of black curtains for tragedies. In Shakespeare's narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, one stanza consists of Lucrece delivering a series of rebukes against "comfort-killing night" (Q1 [1594], F3r), among which we find the phrase "Blacke stage for tragedies" (F3r). In this glancing reference Shakespeare is no doubt drawing on his own experience and knowledge of current theatrical practice. The phrase certainly seems to refer to the use of curtains in creating an effect of blackness on the Elizabethan stage, and the fact that it is both brief and oblique may be the most noteworthy thing about it: this short phrase is all that was needed to enable the reader of the poem instantly to recognise what would have been a common practice. The most helpfully explicit allusion to black hangings occurs in the induction to A Warning for Fair Women (1595-99), (2) an anonymous play acted by Shakespeare's company first at the Theatre, or perhaps at the Curtain, and then at the Globe: personified History tells Comedy, "The stage is hung with blacke: and I perceiue / The Auditors preparde for Tragedie" (Q1, A3r). The evidence from John Marston's Antonio's Revenge (1600-01), written for the Children of Paul's, carries the clear implication that not only open-air "public" theatres but also indoor "private" theatres made use of black hangings for tragedies. The Prologue to the play, setting out to create a suitably gloomy atmosphere for what is to follow, invites all those "Who winkes, and shuts his apprehension vp / From common sense of what men were, and are, / Who would not knowe what men must be; let such / Hurrie amaine from our black vasag'd showes" (Q1, A2v). The phrase "black vasag'd showes" indicates well enough in general terms the effect being aimed at. But, however graphic it may be as a metaphor, it gives no clue about how precisely this effect was to be achieved. In fact we know very little about how black hangings were actually employed. Take, for instance, something as fundamental as which part of the stage was covered by black hangings. Scholars have suggested different locations, and so far there is no consensus on the matter. Other questions are equally problematical. Were the hangings kept in place throughout the play's performance, or were they there for only part of the time? Were they at some point removed altogether, or changed? If changed, what other forms of hangings were used in their stead? All these matters will be considered in what follows. The main evidence is contained in the plays themselves in the form of stage directions and dialogue. However, all such textual evidence needs to be supplemented by reference to the physical layout of early modern professional theatres, outdoor and indoor, and this is where I propose to start. The structure of the stage There was no typical English Renaissance playhouse: the London commercial playhouses of the period varied considerably in size, shape, and architectural features. They were nevertheless similar both in the spatial relationship between the stage and the auditorium and in the basic equipment of the stage. The stage, raised from the yard or the pit, projected into the auditorium. At the rear of the stage was a tiring-house, whose facade had entrance doors on to the stage; there was a balcony above the stage, and a trapdoor to the space below. With the exception of Tim Fitzpatrick who still argues against the existence of a central opening in the tiring-house facade (39-53), it is generally accepted that the stages of most professional playhouses had two main entrance doors and a large opening between them for "discoveries". For obvious reasons no indoor theatre needed a separate stage roof, and although one might expect outdoor playhouses to have had a cover over the stage, none seems to have existed before the Rose was provided with one, possibly in 1591 or in 1592 (Bowsher and Miller 47, 58; Manley and MacLean 62). …