The play contains the most famous of Shakespearean stage directions: Exit, pursued by a bear, presaging the offstage death of Antigonus. It is not known whether Shakespeare used a real bear from the London bear-pitsThe main bear-garden in London was the Paris Garden at Southwark, near the Globe Theatre. or an actor in bear costume. The Admiral's Men, the rival playing company to the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the 1590s, are reported to have possessed "j beares skyne" among their stage properties in a surviving inventory dated March 1598. Perhaps a similar prop was later used by Shakespeare's company.
The play contains the most famous of Shakespearean stage directions: Exit, pursued by a bear, presaging the offstage death of Antigonus. It is not known whether Shakespeare used a real bear from the London bear-pitsThe main bear-garden in London was the Paris Garden at Southwark, near the Globe Theatre or an actor in bear costume. The Admiral's Men, the rival playing company to the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the 1590s, are reported to have possessed "j beares skyne" among their stage properties in a surviving inventory dated March 1598. Perhaps a similar prop was later used by Shakespeare's company.