The wall of the Level 3 tier of the tiring-house frons scenae has been painted with turrets using the same brick work and stone motifs as with Level 1. It follows C. Walter Hodges, who includes simulated battlements in his design for the Phase I Rose playhouse ‘to give the effect of a castle, since at the time it was popular in plays to present battle scenes, with sieges and assaults upon defended cities.’388

Above these are the heavens (see 5.8.6), on which are painted gold stars and celestial bodies, the sun and moon. Henslowe’s ‘clothe of the Sone & Mone,’ inventoried in 1598, may have formed part of the decoration for the ’heavens’.


[388] C. Walter Hodges, in Bowsher, The Rose Theatre, 77.