Shakespeare and Architecture 



there are such omissions, some of them very 

 noteworthy, and they help us to some small 

 extent to find out what he really was, by showing 

 us, though in very small measure, what he was 

 not. 



Two of these omissions are very curious, and 

 have been often noticed. The first is that he is 

 almost silent upon dogs, except for their hunting 

 qualities, and in the few places in which a dog is 

 mentioned, it is in terms of contempt ; and of the 

 dog as the faithful companion of man there is no 

 mention at all. There is a well-known story, 

 originally told by Sir Henry Holland, and re- 

 peated by Miss Phipson in her Animal Lore of 

 Shakespeare's Time, that — 



" Lord Nugent, the greatest Shakespearian scholar of his 

 day, declared that no passage was to be found in Shake- 

 speare commending, directly or indirectly, the moral 

 qualities of the dog. A bet of a guinea was made, which 

 Sir Henry, after a year's search, paid." 



The other curious omission is tobacco. In 

 Shakespeare's time the use of tobacco was neces- 

 sarily much less than at present, but it was 

 perhaps more celebrated by writers of the day 

 on account of its recent introduction, and no 

 limits were placed to its medicinal powers. It 

 was almost considered a remedy for every evil 

 under the sun ; it was the herba sancta, herba 

 diva of the botanical and medical writers, the 

 " divine herb " of Spenser, and Gerard has two 

 pages full of its " vertues," ending with recom- 

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