Painted Cloth in 2 Henry IV
Mistress Quickly: I must be fain to pawn both my plate and the tapestry of my dining-chambers.
Falstaff: Glasses, glasses is the only drinking: and for thy walls, a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the Prodigal, or the German hunting in water-work, is worth a thousand of these bedhangings and these fly-bitten tapestries. (2 Henry IV II. i. 157-63)
SEE:
Sarah Ann M. Ill, Visibility and Resonance: Tapestries on and around the Early Modern Stage. Masters thesis, Mary Baldwin College, 2007:
talks about popularity of Prodigal Son imagery on painted cloths; use in I H IV. p. 12. “The imagery in surviving Prodigal Son tapestries suggests that medieval morality plays, not the original Biblical parable, inspired their composition.” p. 12
She suggests that the hangings were visible on stage (2 H IV passage above). p. 13. “Falstaff’s description could be literal, since tapestries or curtains repeatedly hung in the discovery space of outdoor amphitheatres, exposed to the elements.” p. 13
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