arras

An arras hanging on a wall billows, as if stirred by a strong wind, and from behind it scurries a creature with the face of my father.

Gawaine sat gloomily on one of the side benches placed there for petitioners, with his arms folded and his head against the arras.

Staged moments — characters eavesdropping like Polonius behind his arras, lovers exchanging vows — baldly recall the genre’s cliches.

In Mayer’s description, life around Charles was “every bit as brutal as in the days when a twitching arras might signal a hidden assassin.”

But I don't like it when they jump up and down behind the arras like Polonius in Hamlet, trying to distract my attention from the poor old actors.