ELIZABETHAN THEATRE.

Yesterday afternoon in Sever 11 Mr. George P. Baker lectured to a very large audience on "The Elizabethan Method of Producing a Play." The lecture was a very appropriate introduction to the coming representation of Ben Jonson's "Silent Woman."

Mr. Baker said that the Elizabethan period was distinctly a dramatic epoch. At school boys were obliged to study Latin plays, and sometimes used to act in them. At the university great interest was taken in dramatic art; and when the Queen visited Oxford or Cambridge, she bestowed a prize on the one who wrote the best Latin play. This sort of training naturally produced a coterie of skilful playwrights.

The first theatre in London was established in 1576, and up to 1600 the number rapidly increased. Theatres became immensely popular. The great opening in literature was the Drama, and the young man who aspired to literary fame turned his mind to writing plays.

The actors of the Elizabethan period were very fine, though somewhat more ranting than is customary at the present day. The women's parts were all taken by boys. Choir boys from cathedrals used to come to court and give theatrical performances. The most promising were taken into the large companies.

The theatre were of two varieties, public and private. Public theatres were roofed over above the galleries and stage. The pit was open and must have been rather uncomfortable in rainy weather. The shareholders of the private theatres had their own boxes. Performances were given by candle-light instead of in the daytime as at public theatres. "The Silent Woman" was originally performed at the Blackfriars Theatre, which was private. Unfortunately it is not known what the interior looked like. Sanders will be made to resemble the Swan, a public theatre, as far as possible.

In some respects the Swan was like Sanders Theatre. It had an additional gallery, and the stage, instead of being behind the proscenium arch, was in front of it. The orchestra of Sanders Theatre, if cleared out, would correspond to the pit of the Swan. The fops and gallants, who did not care to go on the stage, used to send ahead their pages to hire stools and reserve good places in the pit. On either side of the pit were the Lords' boxes.

The stage of the Swan Theatre was very peculiar. The sole entrances, which were in the two rear corners, were concealed by arras. There was no curtain at all. Two-thirds the way up the back was a row of windows to light the stage. There were two roofs. The lower rested on pillars, the tops of which were on a level with the third gallery, and then slanted upwards toward the windows. The upper roof was horizontal and stretched from the top of the back wall half way over the slanting roof.

The scenery is a much disputed matter. The old idea is that there was none at all; but Mr. Day, the architect who is at work on the scenery for the "Silent Woman," thinks there was. In the first place the books of the theatrical managers of the Elizabethan period contain items of painted cloths, trees, and other appliances. Mr. Day says the depth of the stage was twenty-five feet, too great to be spanned by one roof, hence the two roofs. The space concealed by the slanting roof was used to arrange and lower scenery.

The audience of the Elizabethan theatre was very interesting. The fops and gallants came to show themselves off rather than to enjoy the play. They set the latest fashions. Some reclined on the stage, while others sat in the pit and boxes. The coming production of "The Silent Woman" will give an excellent idea of the appearance of the pit and stage of an Elizabethan theatre.