CHAPTER IX - HOUSE AND HOME

Summary

‘Fast bind, fast find,’

A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.

The Merchant of Venice, ii. v. 54–5

HOUSES AND FURNITURE

My house within the city

Is richly furnished with plate and gold:

Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands;

My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry;

In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns;

In cypress chests my arras counterpoints,

Costly apparel, tents, and canopies,

Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss'd with pearl,

Valance of Venice gold in needle-work,

Pewter and brass, and all things that belong

To house or housekeeping: then at my farm

I have a hundred milch-kine to the pail,

Six score fat oxen standing in my stalls,

And all things answerable to this portion.

Taming of the Shrew, ii. i. 340–53

[4 May 1597,Shakespeare buys New Place, Stratford-on-Avon. He takes up his residence there in 1608, and dies there 23 April 1616.]

The greatest part of our building in the cities and good towns of England consisteth only of timber, for as yet few of the houses of the communalty (except here and there in the west-country towns) are made of stone, although they may in my opinion in divers other places be builded so good cheap of the one as of the other.