He goeth
This is a particularly tricky stage direction for two reasons. It is not certain who the pronoun refers to, the king or Oxford, and it does not tell us where that person is going to. If this were a narrative text, the “he” would refer to the king as he has just spoken, but since the king has given Oxford instructions to bring the prince to him, it seems more likely that it is Oxford that is going somewhere. It might seem odd to consider this text as a narrative but this is not a particularly theatrical stage direction. Why does it not simply say Oxford exits? We will see another example of such a direction later in the scene when the king dies.
So where is Oxford going? In his next line he immediately speaks to the prince. This would make most sense if the prince was still on stage. Oxford could go across the stage to where the prince is standing aside and speak to him. The king remains on the other side of the stage since no exit his marked for him. However, as we saw in the previous note, Oxford enters from off stage and has clearly seen the prince and his companions in the palace and the prince has told him that he wants to see his father. How can this have happened if the prince is on stage the whole time?
One thing that should be clear by this point is that Elizabethan theatrical texts are not reliable. Not all character entrances and exits are marked. Characters suddenly start speaking in the middle of scenes without any indication that they have come on stage; and other characters have clearly left the stage even though no exit is marked. When performing these texts, one has to make decisions that will make sense of the action for the actors and the audience. For our project, we tried to make decisions that satisfied the majority of the stage directions that are in the text and fitted with our understanding of Elizabethan theatre practice. Before watching the decisions we made, we need to continue our textual analysis a little further.