ghted private theaters. In any case, however, when the
curtains were opened, the inner stage became a part of the main stage,
and while action might take place there, it might also serve as a
background for action proceeding in the front. Properties could be
brought on and off the inner stage, behind the closed curtains, hence
large properties were confined to its precincts. Furniture, as chairs,
tables, or even beds, could, however, be pushed or carried out from the
inner to the outer stage. A play might be given on the front stage
without using the curtained recess at all, but numerous references to
curtains make it clear that the inner stage was used from the early days
of the theater.

[Page Heading: Inner Stage]

The uses of the inner stage have been much discussed and are still in
dispute, but they may be summarized briefly. _First_, the inner stage
was used for a specific, restricted, and usually propertied locality--a
cave, a study, a shop, a prison. _Second_, the inner stage was used for
scenes requiring discovery or tableaux. Numerous stage directions
indicate the drawing of the curtains to present a scene set on the inner
stage, as Bethsabe at her bath, Friar Bungay in bed with his magical
apparatus about him, Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess. _Third_, the
use of the inner stage was extended so that it represented any
propertied background, especially for scenes in a forest, church, or
temple. In _As You Like It_, for example, the last four acts are located
in the Forest of Arden. "This is the Forest of Arden," says Rosalind as
soon as she arrives there; and even before this, Duke senior alludes to
"these woods," and later we learn that there are practicable trees on
which Orlando hangs his verses. The forest setting, consisting of trees
and rocks, was placed on the inner stage and served to give a scenic
background. Of course, different places in the forest are to be
presumed, but one forest background would be sufficient for all. In the
course of the four acts, however, there are three scenes (II. ii; II.
iii; III. i) that are not in the forest, but at unspecified and
unpropertied places about the palace and Oliver's house. For these
scenes the curtain would be closed, shutting off the forest background
and transferring the spectators to the unspecified localities of Act I,
_i.e._, to the bare front stage. _Fourth._ An extension of this last use
made it possible to employ the curtain to indicate change