Drop

Drop, early English name for cloth, still retained in America. In England the word is first found in about 1690 to indicate an unframed canvas backcloth which offered a plain surface for painting, free from the central join which marked the earlier ‘pair of flats’ (see FLAT). It was rolled up on a bottom roller, which furled up the drop as it rose. Swords, cloaks, and trains frequently got caught up in the ascending roller and an alternative method known as ‘tumbling’ was then used. A batten was fixed across the back of the drop a third of the way up, and it was taken away in coils, with a loose roller, or ‘tumbler’, inside to weight it and keep the coil straight. As it was not possible to have a practicable door or window in an unframed drop, it was later provided with battens at the back to which doors and windows could be fixed, thus making it, in effect, a single flat which could be flown. The lack of height above the stage made this impracticable in the early theatres.