Also 6 north. stayge, Sc. staige; pl. stagies. [ad. OF. estage masc. (mod.F. étage) Pr. estatge (also estatga fem.), It. staggio station, dwelling (obs.), support for a net, side of a ladder, etc.:—popular L. *staticum, f. L. stāre to stand (OF. ester, Prov. estar). From the etymological meaning standing, station, standing place, were developed in OF. many special senses, which passed into ME.; the only senses that have survived into mod.Fr. are ‘story of a building’ (= 1 a) and certain fig. applications of this. Mod.F. stage, the ‘terms’ to be kept before admission to certain professions, is ad. med.L. stagium, ad. OF. estage. In OF. estage was taken as the etymological equivalent of L. stadium, and used to render that word as denoting an ancient measure of distance (hence sense 7 below). Branch IV represents an English development of meaning, which seems to have begun about 1600, and for which it is not easy precisely to account. It may in some degree have been influenced by the notion of an etymological connection of the word with L. stadium; at any rate this notion is distinctly traceable in the medical use 11 b.]
I. Standing-place; something to stand upon.
1. Each of the portions into which the height of a structure is divided; a horizontal partition.
a. A story or floor of a building.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1679. It [the ark] sal be made wit stages sere, Ilkon to serue o þair mistere. Ibid., 1691. In þe ouermast stage þi self sal be.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 4579. He … dide hym make a merueyllous tour…. Selcouþe stages ar þer-ynne.
1382. Wyclif, Acts xx. 9. He ledd by sleep fel down fro the thridde stage [Vulg. de tertio cenaculo].
c. 1440. York Myst., viii. 127. Dyuerse stages must þer be [in the ark].
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 101 b. The ladyes and Damoyselles mounted & wente vpon the hyghe stages of the palays.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 47. And ilke fair cite, Stude payntit, euery fyall, fane, and stage, Apon the plane grund, by thar awin vmbrage.
1828. Duppa, Trav. Italy, etc. 88. The Temple appears to have been divided into three stories or stages.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 65. The lowest stage of a tower raised for the benefit of seafarers.
1884. W. Armstrong, trans. G. Perrot & C. Chipiez’ Hist. Art Chaldæa & Assyria, I. iv. 386–7. Nothing but the first two stages … now remain at Nimroud of what must have been the chief temple of Calah.
† b. Hall of stage: an upper chamber. Obs.
1485. in Descr. Cal. Anc. Deeds (1890), I. 358. A mancion with a hall of stage.
1493. Festivall (W. de W., 1515), 44. [The apostles] wente in to the cyte of Jerusalem and there they were in an halle of stage.
c. Arch. (See quot. 1836.)
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 4897. Þe windows on þe selfe wyse [of gold] … And þai ware coruen full clene & clustrid with gemmes, Stiȝt stafful of stanes stagis & othire.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert, 4146. Þe preste, graped felgyld vysage, As he saide, thurgh a wyndowe stage.
c. 1450. Robin Hood & Monk, xxxix. in Child, Ballads, III. 98/2. Litul John stode at a wyndow in þe mornyng, And lokid forþ at a stage.
1817. Rickman, Styles Archit., 94. These [buttresses] differ very little from those of the last style, except that triangular heads to the stages are much less used.
1836. Parker, Gloss. Archit. (1850), I. 443. Stage,… the term is particularly applied to the spaces or divisions between the set-offs of buttresses in Gothic architecture, and to the horizontal divisions of windows which are intersected by transoms.
1891. Freeman, Sk. Fr. Travel, 268. A single corner buttress, finished with an oddly corbelled stage.
† d. A ‘bank’ or tier of rowers. Obs. rare–1.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xxxiii. 21. Ne the grete ship of thre stagis [L. trieris] shal not ouergon it.
† e. One of a series of levels rising stepwise one above the other; a step. Obs.
a. 1500. Assembly of Ladies, 477. And there I saw … A chayre set…. And fyve stages it was set fro the ground.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. xv. (S.T.S.), I. 85. The ymage … was sett … risand on certane stagis [L. in gradibus ipsis] towart þe left hand of þe counsel houss.
† f. A shelf or one of a series of shelves or horizontal divisions in a cupboard, etc.
1465, 1472. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 243, 245. Item j armoriolum cum sex stagys [1465 is doubtfully read stagerum] duplicatis [= lined] pro cartis et munimentis conservandis.
a. 1505. in Kingsford, Chron. Lond. (1905), 250. A cupbourde of 6 stages height … garnysshed wt gilt plate.
1540. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 94. One gret arke with a stayge in the middle thereof.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron. Hen. VIII., 96. A Cupperd of xii stages, all set with greate mightie plate al of golde.
1551. in Rep. Comm. Publ. Rec. Irel. (1815), 38, note. That [in the said Library] Presses or Stages … and all other necessaries shall be provided [for the Records and Muniments].
1817. J. Bradbury, Trav. Amer., 139. The stages whereon they deposit the bodies of their dead.
g. A tier of shelves or platform for plants, esp. in a greenhouse; hence, a display of flowers on such a stage.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Dun, Wks. 1848, IV. 412. He sat down upon the corner of a stage of flowers [in Covent Garden].
1824. Loudon, Encycl. Gardening, § 6166. In the interior of the green-house the principal object demanding attention is the stage, or platform for the plants.
1850. Glenny, Handbk. Flower Garden, 8. A stage of these flowers is a beautiful sight.
1881. F. Young, Ev. Man his own Mech., § 930. The simple stage [for flower-pots] of three, four, or more straight shelves rising one above another is easily made.
h. One of a series of layers or shelves of any material.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 212. If you take a parcel of oranges, and place upon your table a first stage of six,… and over that a second stage, and over that a third stage.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 981. Another method of working coal of uncommon thickness, is by scaffoldings or stages of coals.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xii. 151. Waterfalls bounding from one rocky stage to another.
i. Geol. (Variously used: see quots. 1881, 1910.)
1859. Darwin, Orig. Species, ix. 308. M. Barrande has lately added another and lower stage to the Silurian system, abounding with new and peculiar species.
1881. Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc., XXXVIII. Proc. 3. The conclusions arrived at [by the International Commission for the Unification of Geological Nomenclature, 1880] were … that the term Group should be applied to the largest geological division of rocks,… Series to the third in order of magnitude, Stage to the fourth.
1910. Geikie, Geol., in Encycl. Brit., XI. 668/1. Two or more sets of beds or assises similarly related form a group or stage; a number of groups or stages make a series.
j. U.S. A level (of water).
1814. Brackenridge, Views Louisiana, 43. There is a surprising difference in the navigation of this … river, in the ordinary stages of water and during … the floods.
1846. J. C. Fremont, Narr. Explor. Exped. Rocky Mts., 56. Even at its low stages, this river cannot be crossed at random.
1890. Times, 14 March, 5/1. The Government officials report … that the stage of the Mississippi river from Cairo to Vicksburg and below will be one of the highest known.
† 2. Station, position, seat, esp. with reference to relative height; each of a number of positions or stations one above the other. Obs.
1340. Ayenb., 122. And al alsuo ase ine heuene heþ þri stages of uolke ase zayt saynt denys huer-of þe on is heȝere þe oþer men þe þridde loȝest.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 122. In whiche ther were moo ymages Of golde stondynge in sondry stages.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 109. The Mones cercle so lowe is, Wherof the Sonne out of his stage Ne seth him noght with full visage.
1423. James I., Kingis Quair, lxxix. Me thoght I sawe … martris and confessouris, Ech in his stage. Ibid., lxxxiii. A voce … said … Ȝonder thou seis the hiest stage and gree Off agit folk.
1451. Capgrave, Life St. Kath., V. xx. 1151. Ye may haue wurship, ye may be sette in stage Ryght as a goddesse.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fools (1874), II. 262. Yet at the table another vse we se Whiche … ought nat vsed be That folys at the borde haue oft the hyest stage.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. xii. 20. Bot he, lyke to a ferm rouk,… dois hym self defend,… Remanand onremovyt ferm in his stage.
1536. Primer Engl. & Lat. (Rouen), 80. The father. In this worlde gyues them wages, And a place in ye heuenly stages, In the kyngdome of excellence.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Viciss. Things (Arb.), 573. The Changes and Vicissitude in Warres are many: But chiefly in three Things; In the Seats or Stages of the Warre [etc.].
† 3. A degree or step in the ‘ladder’ of virtue, honor, etc.; a ‘step’ on Fortune’s wheel. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 25973. Thrifald aght þis soruing be, for it es sett in stages thre Bitter,. bitterer,… alþer-bitterest.
c. 1360. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxiii. 704. In to heuene vs up liftyng Þorwh vertus, stage vp stage.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxv. 18. Vp-on my [Dame Fortune’s] staigis or that thow ascend, Trest weill thy truble neir is at ane end.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. v. 152. Bot Turnus hardy, stalwart, hie curage, For all this feyr demynist nevyr a stage.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Warwick, i. Among the heauy heape of happy knyghtes, Whom Fortune stalde vpon her stayles stage [etc.].
1622–34. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., x. (1906), 78. From the highest Stage of Honour, to the lowest staire of disgrace.
† b. A grade in rank. Obs. rare–1.
1801. G. Rose, Diaries (1860), I. 348. He had thought it advisable to delay … to recommend any stage in the peerage to Lord Nelson.
4. A raised floor, platform, scaffold. a. A floor raised above the level of the ground for the exhibition of something to be viewed by spectators. Now rare or Obs. Cf. 5 a.
13[?]. K. Alis., 5569 (Laud MS.). And þer hij founden … two grete ymages In þe Cee stonden on brasen stages.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xi. 42. Ymiddez of þe temple es a stage of xxiiii. grecez hie.
1536–7. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 373. Item, paid to Wolston ffor makyng of ye stages ffor ye pro phettes vj d.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 30. They founde certayne lowe cotages made of trees, lyke vnto stagies.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 389. Giue order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 297. Athelstan, Edwin, and Ethelred were crowned kings upon an open stage in the market place.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 240, ¶ 8. I have seen the whole front of a Mountebank’s stage … faced with patents, certificates, medals, and Great Seals.
† b. A scaffold for execution or exposure in the pillory. Obs.
c. 1400. Brut, 240. He was draw and hongede on a stage made in mydes þe forsaide Sir Hughes galwes.
1586. Verses of Praise of Joy, Kyd’s Wks. (1901), 341. For chaire of state, a stage of shame, and crows for crownes they haue.
1760. H. Walpole, Let. G. Montagu, 6 May (1857), III. 303. Lord Ferrers … was executed yesterday…. There was a new contrivance for sinking the stage under him.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 556. Leuconomus … Stood pilloried on infamy’s high stage.
† c. fig. To bring to, keep on the stage: cf. STAGE v. 4. Sc. Obs.
1681. in J. H. Thomson, Cloud of Witnesses (1871), 127. I … being sentenced to die … thought fit to set down … the causes wherefore I suffer…. I have never gotten the certainty of what hath brought me to the stage.
1725. in Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.), VI. 116. This staging process is made use of against any of the ministry … when … there is a Fama Clamoza against any person … and as the Kirk may be moved thereunto, he may be kept on the stage a year or more longer.
† d. Applied to a pulpit. Obs. rare–1.
1483. Wardr. Acc., in Grose, Antiq. Repert. (1807), I. 34. The stage otherwise called the pulpitt in Westminster.
e. A scaffold for workmen and their tools, materials, etc.; also (after sense 1) each of the levels of scaffolding.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 471/2. Stage, or stondynge vp on (v.r. stage to stond on), fala, machinalis, machinis.
1535. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 453. Item to … carpenters … and laborers for syttyng vp the stage xxiijs ijd.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 524. Our Men who were at Work on her Bottom, with Stages.
1739. Labelye, Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge, 18. Ballast was stow’d to make the Engine and its floating Stage as steady as possible.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, viii. 18. The outside is painted by lowering stages over the side by ropes.
1878. F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 341. The gigantic travelling scaffold … made in 3 divisions, so that each part of either stage could be moved separately.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 4 Sept., 5/1. Two Blondin stages … have been erected to transport blocks of concrete.
f. An erection at a fishing station consisting of a platform and other apparatus for drying fish.
1535. in Weaver, Wells Wills (1890), 132. Wm Yonge … ij stagis of fysshinge with iiij netts to them belongynge.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), 35. Those which have had stages and make fishing voyages into those parts.
1698. Act 10 Will. III., c. 14 § 1. [With] Liberty to goe on Shore on any part of Newfoundland … to cut downe Wood and Trees there for building … Stages Shiprooms [etc.].
1733. P. Lindsay, Interest Scot., 218. The Cod and Ling … might be dried on our Beeches and Stages.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Regions, II. 175. Two men … then carried it [blubber] piece by piece to a stage or platform erected by the side of the works, where a man, denominated a ‘stage cutter’ … sliced it into pieces.
1899. Wm. Des Vœux, in 19th Cent., Aug., 236. ‘Stages’ being used simply for the drying of cod-fish.
g. A platform used as a gangway, landing place, support or stand for materials, etc.
1773. Cook’s 1st Voy., III. III. vii. 589. The bank so steep … that a ship may lie … so near the shore as to reach it with a stage.
1793. Act 33 Geo III., c. 96 § 81. To be … unloaded without a Stage being laid upon the Gunwale of such … Vessel to the Bank of the said Canal.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 234. Stage, 1. A platform upon which trams stand. 2. The pit bank.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 131. Stage, a wooden platform a few inches high used for building stacks of paper or printed work on.
h. A raised plate, ledge or shelf to support an object, slide, etc., in a microscope or other instrument.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XI. 711/2. The magnifier … may be easily made to traverse over any part of the object that lies on the stage or plate B.
1849. Noad, Electricity, 60. To the knob of a large jar A … screw a small metallic stage C, on which place a small jar B.
1875. Huxley & Martin, Pract. Biol. (1879), 23. Place on the hot stage, and gradually warm up to 50° C.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 535. By means of a double changing stage, working vertically, any framed slides … can be shown.
5. The platform in a theater upon which spectacles, plays, etc., are exhibited; esp. a raised platform with its scenery and other apparatus upon which a theatrical performance takes place.
To take the stage (Theatr.): of an actor, to walk with dignity across the stage after concluding an impressive speech.
1551. R. Robynson, trans. More’s Utopia, I. (1895), 98. Whyles a commodye of Plautus is playinge,… yf yowe shoulde sodenlye come vpon the stage in a philosophers apparrell.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 16. The Romaynes … were wont to put them [Rhinoceros and Elephants] together vpon the theater or stage for a spectacle.
1567. R. Edwards, Damon & Pithias (1906), 19. Pythagoras said, that this world was like a stage Whereon many play their parts.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xvii. (Arb.), 51. When Tragidies came vp they deuised to present them upon scaffoldes or stages of timber.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., V. ii. 24. Yorke. As in a Theater, the eyes of men After a well grac’d Actor leaues the Stage, Are idlely bent on him that enters next, Thinking his prattle to be tedious.
1623. B. Jonson, in Shaks. Wks., A 4. To heare thy Buskin tread, And shake a Stage.
1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 131. Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonsons learned Sock be on.
1774. Goldsm., Retaliation, 101. On the stage, he was natural, simple, affecting; ’Twas only that when he was off, he was acting.
1858. [H. Aïdé], Rita, I. x. 229. And having done what this virtuous woman considered to be her duty, she ‘took the stage,’ as actors say, and swept to the further end of the room with an air that said [etc.].
1867. D. Cook, Nts. at the Play (1883), I. 7. Miss Fanny Kemble used to rush from the back of the stage to the proscenium, as though driving the apparition before her.
1905. Grand Mag., Oct., 463. What we call ‘taking the stage’ on a heroic line is certain to induce a burst of applause;… but if one takes but one step too far down the stage … the applause will not be forthcoming.
b. In generalized use, e.g., To go on the stage, i.e., to take up the profession of an actor. Hence (chiefly with the), the theater, the acted drama, the dramatic profession.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xi. (Arb.), 41. There were also Poets that wrote onely for the stage, I meane playes and interludes.
1623. B. Jonson, in Shaks. Wks., A 4 b. Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage, Or influence, chide, or cheere the drooping Stage.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal (1697), Ded., 3. Shakespear, who created the Stage among us.
1728. Pope, Dunc., I. 109. Bays, form’d by nature Stage and Town to bless, And act, and be, a Coxcomb with success. Ibid., III. 142. And a new Cibber shall the stage adorn.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 685. Books … in which the stage gives vice a blow.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. On Artific. Comedy. The artificial Comedy, or Comedy of manners, is quite extinct on our stage.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, iv. The stage had its traditional jewels as the Crown and all great families have.
1886. Adeline Sergeant, No Saint, I. xii. 229. If he had gone on the stage he would have made a good actor.
c. To bring (a person) on or to the stage: to present (him) as a character in a play; to represent dramatically. To bring, put (an opera, a tragedy, etc.) on the stage: to produce (it) in public.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, III. iv. I heare, you’ll bring mee o’ the Stage there; you’ll play mee, they say: I shall bee presented by a sorte of Copper-lac’t Scoundrels of you.
1602. Dekker, Satirom., C 2. They sweare they’ll bring your life and death vpon’th stage like a Bricklayer in a play. Ibid., I 3 b. What could I doe, out of a iust reuenge, But bring them to the Stage?
1721. Lond. Gaz., No. 6015/1. A new Opera … will be brought upon the publick Stage here.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 74. A dramatist would scarcely venture to bring on the stage a grave prince, in the decline of life, ready to sacrifice his crown [etc.].
† d. The scene in which a play is set or the locality in which its events were supposed to have occurred. Obs. rare.
1639. Drumm. of Hawth., Conv. betw. B. J. & W. D., Wks. (1711), 224. [Ben Jonson] had also a design to write a Fisher or pastoral play, and make the stage of it in the Lomond lake.
e. fig.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. v. 14–16. Ye haue a parte to playe in the stage of the whole world.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxix. (1887), 191. I do take publike [schools] to be simply the better: as being more vpon the stage, where faultes be more seene.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 139. All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women, meerely Players.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 72. We are now to present you upon the Asiatique stage, various scaenes compos’d of a miscelany of subjects.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 38. A plain Field near the Sea, which is said to be the Stage on which St. George duell’d and kill’d the Dragon.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Error, 23. Plac’d for his trial on this bustling stage.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., i. Actions for which his happier native country afforded no free stage.
1861. Bright, Sp. Amer., 4 Dec. (1876), 88. There is no greater object of ambition on the political stage on which men are permitted to move.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., VI. lxx. 186. The stage on which this scene was enacted was the Greyfriars’ Churchyard.
† II. 6. A period of time; a fixed or appointed date. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7339. Þat þai wit-in a tuel-moth stage, War put vte o þair heritage. Ibid., 21609.
a. 1325. in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1878), 143. Afterward a gret stage In his visage it was ysene.
1338. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 164. Isaac wille not grante, to oblige him to þe, No to … ȝeld at terme & stage rent mykelle no lite. Ibid., 324.
a. 1400. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxxii. 641. Glotenye deseyueþ hym in luytel stage.
c. 1400. Yvaine & Gaw., 1068. Bot i have a wele rinand page, Wil stirt thider right in a stage. Ibid., 2501.
c. 1500. in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 419. As they that gan approchen to the stage Off decrepitus.
† III. 7. = STADIUM 1. Obs. rare.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xvi. (Magdalene), 815. A cawe … þat twelfe stage was fra þe place,… & ilke stage,… Is of a myle þe auchtand parte.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, 2725. One hundreth and fyftye stagys That Citie wes of lenth. Ibid., 2731. The wallis … Four hundreth stageis and four score In circuit.
IV. Division of a journey or process.
8. A place in which rest is taken on a journey; a roadside inn for the accommodation of travellers riding post or by stage-coach; esp. a regular stopping place on a stage-coach route where horses are changed and travellers taken up and set down.
1603. in Rep. Secret Comm. Post-Office, App. (1844), 38. That the postemasters of every stage be aided with fresh and able horses. Ibid., 39. Nor [to] ride them [sc. horses] further then the next immediate stage without changing, without the knowledge and consent of the Post of the stage.
1623. Massinger, Dk. Milan, IV. ii. He, that at euerie stage keeps liuerie Mistresses.
1635. in Rep. Secret Comm. Post-Office, App. (1844), 56. The sd Portmantle is to goe from Stage to Stage, night and day, till it shall come to Edenburgh.
1687. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 172. We … came to rest … at the place which we had made our first Stage, when we came from Suez.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Epist., I. xv. 12. The Road we now must alter, and engage Th’ unwilling Horse to pass his usual Stage.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xlv. About three pounds of cold roast mutton which he had discussed at his mid-day stage.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 273. He discovered that there was no other stage available without over-riding Osmund.
b. transf. and fig.
1770. Luckombe, Hist. Printing, 132. If any desire to know the motions and stages of the press, which printed these books; know, it was first set up at Moulsey,… thence conveyed to Fawsley, [etc.].
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xxv. A small level plain, forming a sort of stage, or resting-place, between two very rough paths.
1851. T. T. Lynch, Lett. to Scattered (1872), 143. Our Sundays are resting stages in the journey of life.
9. As much of a journey as is performed without stopping for rest, a change of horses, etc.; each of the several portions into which a road is divided for coaching or posting purposes; the distance travelled between two places of rest on a road.
1603. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw., 162. They returne back againe towards the south (where they continue all the winter) by 10 miles a stage.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 48. Like your Post-horses when they haue runne their stage.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 2. Our whole Stage this day was about five hours.
1792. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 5 Oct. Bradfield Hall … was but one stage of nineteen miles distant.
1828. Scott, Tapestr. Chamb. (init.), In the conclusion of a morning stage, he found himself in the vicinity of a small country town.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. vi. 183. Horses at each post-house … ready waiting, so that no time might be lost between stages.
1896. Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, xiii. Leaving Poore and the patrol … to follow on by slow stages.
1898. J. B. Crozier, My Inner Life, i. 6. We usually proceeded leisurely and by easy stages on foot.
1907. Verney Mem., I. 465. He … had ridden a stage with Sir Henry on his journey back to Paris.
b. transf.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xvii. 109. We were quickly hindred from accurately marking the Stages made by the Mercury in its descent, because it soon sunk below the top of the Receiver.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 10. A Wood-Louse … has a swift motion and runs by starts or stages.
1687. Norris, Misc., 71. I cannot like the Sun Each day the self same stage, and still unwearied, run.
1860. Eng. & For. Mining Gloss., S. Staff. terms, Stage, a particular distance that a horse travels along the gate-road and where candles are regularly placed.
c. Short for STAGE-COACH. Also ‘U.S. an omnibus’ (Cent. Dict.).
1671. in Wood’s Life (O.H.S.), II. 221. The Stage begins Munday next.
1747. B. Hoadly, Suspicious Husb., I. iii. It looks better than being drag’d to Town in the Stage.
1781. Cowper, Convers., 305. ’Tis like a parcel sent you by the stage.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xli. The London lamps flashed joyfully as the stage rolled into Piccadilly.
1883. Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 179. The first of the two stages swooped upon the Toll House … in a cloud of dust.
10. A period of a journey through a subject, life, course of action, etc.
1608. Shaks., Per., IV. iv. 9. To teach you, The stages of our storie.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 24. God hath appointed euery mans race of life how long it shall be, and the stages hee must passe before he come to the end of it, whereof old age is the last stage of all.
1648. W. Juxon, in Chas. I.’s Wks. (1662), I. 456. There is but one Stage more, yet … it will carry you from Earth to Heaven.
1672. Cave, Prim. Chr., III. v. 355. Having travelled through the several stages of the Subject.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 674. In thy nocturnal rove, one moment halt, ’Twixt stage and stage, of riot and cabal.
1782. Cowper, Mut. Forbearance, 49. The love that cheers life’s latest stage.
11. A period of development, a degree of progress, a step in a process.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), I. 146. Such as travellers have found among nations in the same stage of manners throughout the world.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. xii. ’Tis not to be imagined that Harry Esmond had all this experience at this early stage of his life.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xix. IV. 327. At every stage in the growth of that debt it has been seriously asserted by wise men that bankruptcy and ruin were at hand.
1862. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (ed. 2), 155. It is difficult to prevent the oxidation from going a stage further.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., I. vi. 43. It is necessary that at some stage of the Bill the consent of the Crown should be signified.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 13. The distinction … belongs to a stage of philosophy which has passed away.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 49. As in one or other stage Of a torture writhe they.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Oct., 1/2. Gradual development by stages, not complete transformation at a bound, is the law in the political, as in the natural, world.
b. Med. A definite period in the development of a disease, marked by a specific group of symptoms. = STADIUM 3.
1747. trans. Astruc’s Fevers, 281. This stage holds from the fourth, and sometimes from the eighth day after the eruption, till the tenth or twelfth day.
1780. Mirror, No. 70. I found him in the last stage of a dropsy.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Observ., 65. In the advanced stage of this disease.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Med., x. 113. During the stage of rigor.
1878. L. P. Meredith, Teeth, 154. The pulps of the teeth would … be exposed in the early stages of the disease.
c. Biol. Each of the several periods in the development and growth of animals and plants, frequently with qualifying word prefixed.
1882. G. Allen, in Nature, 17 Aug., 371. The flowers of gymnosperms (in their blossoming stage) are mostly composed of green scales or leaves.
1909. E. A. Mills, Wild Life Rockies, 186. When this forest is in a sapling stage, it is very likely to be burned to ashes.
12. attrib. and Comb.: a. obvious combinations (senses 5, 5 b) ‘pertaining to the stage,’ as stage-action, apparatus, -attire, boards, business, -carpenter, -clothes, -curtain, -hand, legend, machine, -novel, -performer, -performance, -piece, -poet, -poetry, -sentiment, -side, -tradition, -trap, † -trotter, † -walker, -wardrobe, -writing, etc.; that is seen on the stage or represented in drama as distinguished from what is seen in real life, as stage death, distraction, fighting, -gesture, hero, heroine, libertine, murderer, -villain, -whisper, etc. Also rarely with adjs., as stage-drunk, -mad.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, Ded. (a) 2. There is no absolute necessity that the time of a *Stage-Action shou’d so strictly be confin’d to Twenty Four Hours.
1780. T. Davies, Garrick (1781), I. xiv. 168. The second musick … put him [an actor] in mind, that it was time to think of the *stage-apparatus.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. I. ii. 13. Poets have borrowed their best *stage-attire from the glorious Wardrobe of Israel.
1831. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Ellistoniana. That harmonious fusion of the manners of the player into those of everyday life, which brought the *stage boards into streets and dining-parlours. Ibid. (1825), Stage Illusion. In tragedy … this undivided attention to his *stage business seems indispensable.
1856. Dickens, Lett. (1880), I. 459. *Stage-carpenters.
1630. *Stage-clothes [see STAGER 3].
1659. Lady Alimony, I. ii. Be your *Stage-curtains artificially drawn.
1897. Month, April, 363. If the death of Cæsar is but *stage-death, the murderer of Cæsar is but a stage-murderer.
1804. European Mag., XLV. 58/2. The youth … finding how he is abused, exhibits all the usual *stage distraction on the occasion.
1919. The Age, 9 Aug., 21/7. It is futile to ask our humorists to place the *stage-drunk man in cerements.
1851. Helps, Comp. Solit., v. 73. Like the dialogues in a book, where, after much *stage-fighting, the author’s opinion is always made to prevail.
a. 1774. Goldsm., in Hawkins, Life Johnson (1787), 418. Sheridan the player, in order to improve himself in *stage-gestures, had looking-glasses,… hung about his room.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 5 Feb., 7/2. As the accredited representatives of the artists, *stage-hands, and musicians.
1751. Warburton, Note, Pope’s Wks. (1751), IV. 165 (Jod.). Ranting, the common vice of *stage heroes.
1844. Marg. Fuller, Wom. 19th C. (1862), 45. She had not the air and tone of a *stage-heroine.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, iv. He was attired in the tight pantaloons and Hessian boots which the *stage legend has given to that injured man.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. On Artific. Comedy. We see a *stage libertine playing his loose pranks of two hours’ duration.
1862. Meredith, Mod. Love, xv. Wks. (1912), 139. The Poet’s black *stage-lion of wronged love.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, IV. (1697), 86. So did [he] the Scenes and *Stage Machines admire.
1758. Theatr. Rev., 5. This *stage-mad age.
1897. *Stage-murderer [see stage-death].
a. 1816. Sheridan, Rivals, Pref., Dram. Wks. 1902, I. 291. I … might … have boasted that it [this comedy] had done more real service in its failure than the successful morality of a thousand *stage-novels will ever effect.
1714. R. Fiddes, Pract. Disc., II. 379. Our *stage-performances, comedies especially,… have tended … to corrupt … the bravest nation under heaven.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. v. 179. I may here mention a *stage performer whose show is usually enlivened with mimicry, music, and tumbling: I mean the mountebank.
1912. F. Harrison, in Engl. Rev., April, 34. All this is enough to spoil any *stage-piece.
1658. Sir A. Cokain, Poems, 186. Here Lies the *Stage-Poet Philip Massinger.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal (1697), Ded. 10. [As the age] of Euripides … [was noted] for *Stage-Poetry amongst the Greeks.
1829. Carlyle, Crit. & Misc. Ess. (1840), II. 93. It is fair, well-ordered *stage-sentiment this of his.
1758. Johnson, in Boswell, Life (1909), I. 217. Doddy … went every night to the *stage-side, and cried at the distress of poor Cleone.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxvi. note. This gesture … is also by *stage-tradition a distinction of Shakespeare’s Richard III.
1852. Mundy, Our Antipodes (1857), 94. The ‘poor ghosts’ who … sink pale and silent through the *stage-trap of the cabin-stairs.
1614. R. Tailor, Hog hath lost Pearl, I. i. B 3. Pl[ayer]. Nay, I pray sir be not angry; for as I am a true *stage-trotter, I meane honestly.
1896. Peterson Mag., Jan., 103/2. With a *stage-villain glance at the speaker.
1602. Dekker, Satirom., I 3 b. These part-takers … (Players I meane) Theaterians pouch-mouth *Stage-walkers.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. I. ii. He has … his very Troop of Players, with their … *stage-wardrobes [etc.].
1778. Theobald, Shaks. Wks., VIII. 558, note. I never heard it so much as intimated, that he had turned his genius to *stage-writing before he associated with the players.
b. (sense 9, 9 c), as stage-boat, -carriage, -cart, -fly, -horn, -line, post, -road, -route, -track, vehicle; objective, as stage-driver, -robber.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. I. ix. 46. These *stage-boats are extremely commodious.
1839. W. Pennefather, Lett., 7 Sept., in R. Braithwaite, Life (1878), 79. The *stage car [Ireland] proceeded slowly.
1832. Act 2 & 3 Will. IV., c. 120 § 5. That every Carriage used … for … conveying Passengers for Hire,… and which shall travel at the Rate of Three Miles or more in the Hour, shall be deemed and taken to be a *Stage Carriage within the meaning of this Act.
1837–8. Act 1 & 2 Vict., c. 79 § 1. And the Words ‘Metropolitan Stage Carriage’ shall include [etc.].
1812–6. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 374. The London common *stage-carts have large wheels.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, II. 36. Hourra! *stage-driver’s blowin’ away like fun.
1821. Blackw. Mag., X. 656. In going in the *stage-fly from my own parish to Kilmartin.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, II. 112. A sound, like that of a *stage-horn, arose from the valley.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 341. The route of the Butterfield *stage-line … was through it.
1882. L. D’A. Jackson, Mod. Metrol., 43. The German *stage-miles do not follow this type.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2601/4. Late Servant at the Crane Inn at Edgworth…, and riding the *Stage Post between that Town and London.
1872. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 11. A distance of 42 miles by *stage-road.
1907. H. S. Symmes, in Putnam’s Monthly, July, 486/1. He passed out some Dutch money last night that was taken from Heinz by the *stage-robber.
1874. Raymond, 6th Rep. Mines, 307. This valley is located on the *stage-route from Denver to Fair Play.
1890. L. C. d’Oyle, Notches, 61. Crossing the river at the old *stage-track.
1808. Han. More, Cœlebs, I. xxiii. 338. An over stuffed *stage vehicle.
c. (sense 4 h), as stage condenser, forceps, micrometer, plate.
1856. W. B. Carpenter, Microscope, § 66. 143. Every Microscope should be furnished with a pair of Stage-forceps for holding minute objects beneath the object-glass. Ibid., § 67. 144. Glass Stage-Plate.
1857. Beale, How to Work with Microscope, 22. Placing … the stage micrometer … under the object-glass.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 2947, Stage forceps … stage condenser.
1864. Chamb. Encycl., VI. 443/1. Stage-plate, on which the object is placed [in a microscope].
13. Special comb.: † stage-blanks, dramatic blank verse (see BLANK sb. 8); stage-box, each of the boxes over the proscenium of a theater; † stage cloth, a carpet for the ‘stage’ or platform of an altar; stage-craft, that part of the art of dramatic composition that is concerned with the conditions of representation on the stage; stage critic, a critic of the drama; † stage-cutter (see quot. 1820 in sense 4 f); stage direction, a direction inserted in a written or printed play where it is thought necessary to indicate the appropriate action, etc.; † stage-doctor, a quack doctor who practised on a stage (see 4 a) in public; stage-door, the entrance to that part of a theater used by the players as distinguished from the public entrance; also attrib.; stage-effect, (a) effect on the spectators of what is shown on the stage; also fig.; (b) a spectacular effect exhibited on the stage; stage-fever, † (a) = stage-fright (obs.); (b) an intense desire to adopt the stage as a profession; stage-fright, nervousness experienced by an actor when appearing before an audience, esp. on his first appearance; stage-gangway (see quot.); stage-head, the head of a fishing stage (see 4 h); stage-house, † (a) a play-house, theater (obs.); (b) U.S. a house of accommodation used as a regular stopping place for stage-coaches; † stage-keeper, (a) one who keeps or carries on a theater; (b) ? a servant in a theater employed to keep the stage in order; stage-kiln (see quot.); stage-land, the ‘world’ of the stage and its occupants; stage-like a., resembling that of drama or the stage; theatrical; stageman, † (a) an actor (obs.); (b) a workman engaged about the stage; stagemanship nonce-wd., the profession of a stage-coachman; stage-name, a professional name assumed by an actor; stage-place, the place where a play is acted (obs. or arch.); stage-property = PROPERTY sb. 3, also attrib.; stage pumping (see quot.); stage-right (see quot.); stage-room, the locality or setting of a play; stage-scene, † (a) the scenery of a stage (obs.); (b) a scene in a play; stage-setter, a practitioner of the art of stage-setting; stage-setting, the disposition of the persons of a play and the accessories on the stage; † stage-smitten a. = stage-struck; stage-stand U.S., a place on a stage-coach route where horses are changed; stage-stricken a. rare = next; stage-struck a., smitten with love for the stage or drama or with the desire to become an actor; † stage-wagon, one of the wagons belonging to an organized system of conveyance for heavy goods and passengers by road; stage-wait, a delay or hitch in the course of a theatrical performance; stage-whisper, a conventional whisper used on the stage, purposely made audible to the spectators; stage-work, † (a) ‘play-acting,’ histrionic ceremony (obs.); (b) the work of an actor or of a theatrical company; dramatic representation; also, a dramatic work; (c) the framework of a stage; (d) stage-coach work; stage working (see quot.); stage-worthy a., worthy of representation on the stage; stage-wright, a dramatist, playwright.
1635. Massinger, On death Chas. Ld. Herbert, 7. I … bit my star-crossed pen, Too busy in *stage-blanks and trifling rhyme.
1739. Cibber, Apol. (1889), II. xii. 85. The former lower Doors of Entrance for the Actors were brought down between the … Pilasters; in the Place of which Doors now the two *Stage-Boxes are fixt.
1552. in Archæologia, XLIII. 236. vj *stage clothes for the aulter, iij of blew, j of redd, vj of whight.
1882. Society, 7 Oct., 12/1. Their ingenuity and knowledge of *stagecraft is wonderful.
1780. T. Davies, Garrick (1781), I. i. 17. That gross illiberality which often disgraces the instructions of modern *stage criticks.
1790. Malone, Pref. to Shaks., I. p. lviii. The very few *stage directions which the old copies exhibit.
1858. Thackeray, Virgin., I. xvii. 130. But Lady Castelwood could not operate upon the said eyes then and there, like the barbarous monsters in the stage-direction in King Lear.
1774. Adam Smith, Lett., 20 Sept., in J. Thomson, Life W. Cullen, I. 476. *Stage-doctors do not much excite the indignation of the faculty; more reputable quacks do.
1778. Johnson, L. P., Fenton (1781), III. 114. They determined all to see the Merry Wives of Windsor…; and Fenton, as a dramatick poet, took them to the *stage door.
1885. Jerome, On the Stage, 26. The mere announcement of my name had no visible effect upon the stage-door keeper.
1795. S. Rogers, Words to be Spoken by Mrs. Siddons, 20. Every Woman studies *stage-effect.
1835. T. Mitchell, Acharn. of Aristoph., 164, note. The Σπονδαὶ are here evidently introduced on the stage, as mutes, characteristically habited. The same stage-effect occurs in the Equites, 1387–1395.
1861. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 142/1. Some of the young chaps … get the *stage-fever and knocking in the knees. We’ve had to shove them on to the scene.
1882. J. Ashton, Soc. Life Q. Anne, II. 21. He caught stage fever, ran away from school … and joined the theatre at Dublin.
1878. C. & Mary Cowden Clarke, Recoll. Writers, 300. It proved to them that I was not liable to *stage fright.
1885. Jerome, On the Stage, viii. 72. Strange to say, I never experienced stage-fright at any time.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v. Brow, A *stage-gangway for the accommodation of the shipwrights, in conveying … articles on board.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative, II. (1865), 46. Coming too near the *Stage head, they presently found themselves in danger of a surprizal.
1638. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 55. Tiles for ye new *Stagehouse.
1788. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 431. Put up my horse at the stage-house in the street leading from Ordway’s Market to Powles Hook Ferry.
a. 1586. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 44. Perchance it is the Comick, whom naughtie Play-makers and *Stage-keepers, have iustly made odious.
1637. Shirley, Example, Prol. They … on whom, i’ the Roman state, Some ill-looked stage-keepers, like lictors, wait, With pipes for fasces.
1910. Encycl. Brit., V. 655/1. (Cement) There are also *stage kilns … which consist of two vertical shafts, one above the other … connected by a horizontal channel.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 May, 5/1. Mr. Jerome [in On the stage—and off] describes from a humorous point of view those lower levels of *stageland.
1893. N. Amer. Rev., Aug., 168. She had the convulsions which stageland arsenic brings on.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 105. Leauing *stagelike pompes, which dasell the eyes of the simple.
1694. F. Bragge, Disc. Parables, xiv. 466. A strange kind of humiliation, that … does indeed look too Stage-like to be thought real by any discerning man.
1589. Brabine, in Greene’s Menaphon. In praise of Author, You witts that … striue to thunder from a *Stagemans throate.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 9 Sept., 2/1. The class of stagemen employed in such places as these [theatres].
1845. Talfourd, Vacat. Rambles, I. 67. The departing race of English stage-coachmen, who shed a half-genteel grace on the last days of English *stagemanship.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B. (1876), 298. Lavinia Fenton sounds like a *stage-name.
a. 1564. Becon, Articles Chr. Relig., xiv. Wks. II. 143 b. When thys Theatre or *stage place be once dissolued, then is there nomore deseruyng of Crownes.
1902. Sir E. Arnold, Nativity, xiv. in Delineator, LX. 967. This Was scene and stage-place of the immortal story.
1850. Dyce, Marlowe’s Wks., I. Introd. 17, note. Among the *stage-properties of the Lord Admiral’s men we find ‘j. dragon in fostes.’
1863. Le Fanu, Ho. by Churchyard, I. x. 108. [He] viewed the wiglet with the eye of a stage-property man.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 234. *Stage Pumping, draining a mine by means of two or more pumps placed at different levels.
1860. Reade, 8th Commandm., 61. The copyrights only of French authors, not the *stage-rights, were to be protected. Copyright is the sole and exclusive right of printing. Stage-right the sole and exclusive right of representation on a public stage.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., 10. Whom no lesse then almost halfe the world could serve for *stage roome to play the Mime in.
1814. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), III. ix. 293. Reducing the knowledge I have acquired of the localities of the islands into scenery and stage-room for the ‘Lord of the Isles.’
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., Pref. 18. Outside Fallacies; like our *Stage-scenes, or Perspectives, that shew things inwards, when they are but superficial paintings.
1822. Shelley, Chas. I., i. 35. That stage-scene in which thou art Not a spectator but an actor.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xxvi. [A fire] breaking the bones of its prey with a horrible cracking uglier than all stage-scene glares.
1888. Evangeline W. & Edwin H. Blashfield, in Century Mag., Feb., 544/2. M. Sardou is a born *stage-setter, but with a leaning to ‘great machines,’ numbers of figurants, and magnificence.
1905. C. F. Keary, in Author, 1 Feb., 145. There is no harm in M. Antoine’s realism of *stage-setting.
1682. Mrs. Behn, City Heiress, 8. Our *Stage-smitten Youth fall in love with a woman for Acting finely.
1856. Mrs. Stowe, Dred, II. xii. 127. He pushed forward,… and, at the first *stage-stand, changed him [the horse] for a fresh one.
1838. Dickens, Mem. Grimaldi, i. The *stage-stricken young gentlemen who … long to embrace the theatrical profession.
1813. Scott, Trierm., II. ii. Or *stage-struck Juliet may presume To choose this bower for tiring-room.
1761. Ann. Reg., Chron., 184. For robbing the Bath *stage waggon on the highway.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 376. Heavy articles were, in the time of Charles the Second, generally conveyed from place to place by stage waggons.
1865. Miss Braddon, Only a Clod, II. i. 23. There were the usual number of dead pauses in the drama, technically known as *‘stage-waits.’
1865. Hotten’s Slang Dict., 244. *Stage-whisper.
1883. Howells, Register, ii. in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 79/2. Miss Reed, in a stage-whisper.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xix. 172. But the King and his Party … Canonize one another into Heav’n;… but, as was sayd before, *Stage-work will not doe it.
1829. Sporting Mag., XXIII. 194. The antediluvian principle of ‘any thing’s good enough for stage-work.’
1898. Daily News, 25 Oct., 8/5. Two large joists … had been placed in position in the stagework.
1906. S. L. Bensusan, in Macm. Mag., June, 595. The musical comedy … has wrought grave injury to all intelligent stage-work.
1913. Illustr. Lond. News, 22 Feb., 230/2. That happiest and liveliest of all Oscar Wilde’s stage-works.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 235. *Stage working, a system of working minerals by open hole in which the various beds are removed in steps or stages.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., Pref. Were I capable of writing a play which could be deemed *stage-worthy.
1630. *Stage-wright [see STAGER 3].
1897. Tablet, 18 Sept., 457. [Shakespere] our greatest stagewright and philosopher.
