[f. STAGE sb.]
† 1. trans. To erect, build. Obs. rare–1.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 3090. Brugges ouer watres dide he stage.
2. To furnish with a stage or staging; in quots. with about. Now rare or Obs. † Also absol. or intr., to set up a platform or scaffolding.
1506. Justs of May & June, in Hazl., E. P. P. (1866), II. 114. A lady fayre … With seruauntes foure brought was into a place Staged about Whereon stode lordes and ladyes a grete route.
1526. Dunmow Churchw. MS., lf. 5. To purvay syce stufe as the workemen showlde nede, and to sett them a-worke, and helpe to stage.
1598. Stow, Surv., 388. The great Hall … was richly hanged with Arras, and Staged about on both sides.
1879. J. D. Long, Virgil’s Æneid, IX. 690. A far-outlooking tower, staged high about, Stood in the way.
3. To put (a person) into a play; to satirize in drama; to represent (a character, an incident) on the stage. Sometimes in phr. to stage to the crowd or show.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, III. iv. Death of Pluto, and you Stage mee, Stinkard; your Mansions shall sweate for’t.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. xiii. 30. Hye battel’d Cæsar will … be Stag’d to’th’shew Against a Sworder. Ibid., V. ii. 217. The quicke Comedians Extemporally will stage us.
1607. Middleton, Five Gall., IV. viii. H 3. Gold. What if we fiue presented our full shapes In a … maske? Frip. Some Poet must assist vs. Go. Poet? Youle take the direct line to haue vs sta’gde?
1621. J. Taylor (Water P.), Superbiæ Flagellum, C 6 b. Cudgeld and bastinadoed at the Court, And Comically stag’de to make men sport.
1721. Southerne, Disappointment, III. i. O! may I be that hateful thing I scorn! The common, ridden cuckold of the Town, Stag’d to the crowd on publick theatres.
1879. Swinburne, Stud. Shaks. (1880), 273. The next two scenes, in which the battle of Poitiers is so inadequately ‘staged to the show.’
1898. G. Wyndham, Poems Shaks., Introd. 61. Jonson staged Marston in Every Man out of His Humour (1599), as Carlo Buffone:—‘a public, scurrilous and profane jester.’
b. fig.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., I. i. 69. Ile priuily away: I loue the people, But doe not like to stage me to their eyes.
1784. R. Bage, Barham Downs, II. 4. Too long I had staged me to their eyes in these my true habiliments.
c. To put (a play, etc.) upon the stage.
1879. Theatre, Nov., 209. If an … author … permits a play of his to be mounted and staged without his permission.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Sept., 5/2. As pretty a pastoral scene as has ever been staged, even at the Lyceum.
1894. Times, 10 Sept., 10/3. The piece is staged in the most sumptuous manner imaginable.
† 4. Sc. To bring (a person) to trial for an offence (esp. before the ecclesiastical courts). Cf. STAGE sb. 4 c. Const. for, with (an offence). Also fig. Obs.
1671. [R. MacWard], True Nonconf., 223. All the regard to the powers, whereof … you … boast, doth not here in the least restrain you from staging these two Kings with us, as Monstruous imposers.
1681. in J. H. Thomson, Cloud of Witnesses (1871), 119. I [Isobel Alison: see quot. 1722] told them, If they had staged me, they might remember my name.
1682. Fountainhall, Diary, Aug., in Law’s Memor. (1818), 236, note. Kepperminshoo accused him of perjury. He was also staged with bribery.
1722. Wodrow, Hist. Ch. Scot. (1830), III. III. v. 275/2. Upon the 17th of January, I find Isabel Alison … and Marian Harvey … staged for their lives before the justiciary.
1729. in Wodrow’s Corr. (1843), III. 429. He thought Mr Simson was staged for heretical opinions.
5. To put (plants) on a stage; to exhibit (plants or other objects) at a show. Also absol.
1850. Beck’s Florist, 249. There were several useful flowers staged, but few novelties.
1881. F. Young, Ev. Man his own Mech., § 930. For staging auriculas the distance between the rows of shelves need not be so great as for pelargoniums.
1883. Goole Weekly Times, 7 Sept., 8/2. With holyhocks, he has taken first and second prizes every time he has staged them.
1897. C. T. C. Monthly Gaz., Jan. 24. A few silver-plated models were staged.
6. intr. To travel by stage or stage-coach; to travel by stages; to journey over by stages; also to stage it.
1695. Phil. Trans., XIX. 144. This way … we assented to, as more eligible, than … to wander so far out of the Road, to have the same Ground to stage over again the next morning.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 34. A Set of these Rascals [Coolies] … bait them generously shall stage it a Month together.
1713. [W. Darrell]. Gentl. Instr., III. vi. (ed. 5), 420. [A traveller] … learns the great Mystery of Foreign Governments;… he stages (if I may say so) into Politicks, and rides Post into Business.
1819. Coleridge, Lett., Convers., etc. I. 19. Riding, driving, or staging to London.
1840. Mrs. Trollope, Widow Married, xv. I wonder how the old lady came, whether she staged it, or posted?
1882. D. Pidgeon, Engineer’s Holiday, I. 228. I staged three miles from its terminus to Leadville.
