Note 27 — NOTE ON SYMBOLS
Reading edition
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, xxxii. 80:
Quale al cader de le cortine suole Parer, fra mille lampade, la scena, D’archi, et di più d’una superba mole D’oro, e di statue e di pitture piena.
This passage was added in the edition of 1532, but a more brief allusion in that of 1516 (xliii. 10, ‘Vo’ levarti dalla scena i panni’) points to the use of a curtain, rising rather than falling, before 1519; cf. p. 31; vol. i, p. 181; Creizenach, ii. 299; Lawrence (i. 111), The Story of a Peculiar Stage Curtain.