Unfortunately, Malone did not know, what is well known now, that the Elizabethan theatre, unlike the theatre of his own time, had neither proscenium arch nor front curtain; otherwise he would not have conveyed his information in precisely these terms. The stage boxes in the latter half of the eighteenth century were situated on either side of the ‘apron,’ or avant scène, a little in front of the proscenium arch. It is at least made clear to us, however, by Malone that the ancient ‘music-room’ was in stage regions and not in the auditorium proper. Most likely, what Bowman’s acquaintance meant to convey to him was that the Elizabethan musicians occupied an upper balcony at the back of the stage. Broadly speaking, this tallies with most of the evidence educible on the subject.