ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the implications of possible further level of signification. It argues that dramatists expected each of the two stage doors to be 'loaded' with a standard fictional meaning in terms of the directions in which they led. One further recurring textual pattern elucidates the potential usefulness of such a standardized arrangement. Such a technique would not be advisable if it risked having the downstage character throw focus to the wrong door and provoke an unintended comic reaction, so the fact that it is so commonly used suggests that playwrights did not consider this a risky textual strategy. In the rapid repertory system of the Globe, stage management must have been a high priority, and consider evidence that simplicity and economy of effort was best achieved by exploiting the binary fictional spatial arrangement. The potential usefulness of a stage-management system governing entrances and exits flows in part from what people know of early modern rehearsal practices.
