Shakespeare and Architecture 



building is confined to the " several chairs of 

 order " with " each fair instalment, coat and 

 several crest with loyal blazon." We should not 

 expect him to give us any description of 

 Macbeth's Castle, though he had imagination 

 enough to do so had he so wished, but as with 

 Berkeley he picks out only its natural surround- 

 ings — " This castle hath a pleasant seat, and this 

 the — 



guest of summer 

 The temple-haunting martlet does approve 

 By his loved masonry that the heaven's breath 

 Smells wooingly here." 



The Tower of London must have been a familiar 

 object to him on his way to and from the Globe 

 Theatre, and many of his characters are made to 

 play their sad parts there, but of what it was like 

 he gives us no hint ; it is " Julius Caesar's ill- 

 erected tower,'' and that is all. It is the same 

 with all the castles mentioned, and they are 

 many ; they are simply spots on which he may 

 place his scenes, and, great word-painter though 

 he was, there is nothing but the name to distinguish 

 one castle from another. It is the same with 

 dwelling-houses of all sorts. In his time England 

 had so far recovered from the Wars of the Roses 

 that it was getting well covered with grand houses 

 of all descriptions, no longer built as fortresses for 

 protection, but for comfort and beauty. During 

 his life many of the great mansions which we now 

 call Elizabethan were built, and he must have 



