Ian Lancashire
University of Toronto
for the Shakespeare Association of America
San Francisco 1999
Orchestra, hiuis orchestræ, f. g. Cic. A place wherin Senatours and noble persons sat to beholde playes: sometime the sessions of the Senate.
Orchestra, ae, f. g. A place betweene the stage and the common seats, wherein Senatours and Noble personages satte to behold plaies and open games: sometime the sessions of the Senate: a theater or scaffold whereon musitians, singers, and such like shew their cunning.
Orchestra, a theatre or scaffolde where musitions and singers sit, a chiefe place in a theatre. Sometimes vsed for a kind of winding staires. also a place between the stage and the common seates of a theatre.
© Feb. 1999