ABSTRACT
The playhouse audience finds often a collective analogue to itself on stage. On many occasions, the stage holds merely a number of individuals, with no special characteristics. The discussion therefore excludes the Mousetrap scene in Hamlet, the Worthies' show in Love's Labour's Lost, the mechanicals' play in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and all direct mirrors of the playhouse audience. Shakespeare begin with the Council scenes in Troilus and Cressida. These scenes clearly assume the playhouse audience to be part of the Council, or committee, which is realized on stage. The residual Sitzfleisch of the playhouse audience means that it is disinclined to follow the King, especially as it is buttonholed by Bardolph, Nym and co. The crowd in Julius Caesar is properly so called in the Forum scene. These are Citizens, numbered and clearly identifiable, who retain their individual characteristics and discuss amongst themselves Antony's points in the intervals which he leaves them.
