Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

Figure 50 Shakespeare's monument at Stratford
Britton’s view of architecture, like Douce and Planché’s of drama, was that it was
valuable as social history and as ‘a dial indicative of a certain age, of a particular state and stage
of science, of art, and of civilization’. 139 He was therefore obliged, in addition to stripping away
the Georgian whitewash, which everyone now agreed was an abomination, to deal with the fact
that the chancel had already been spoiled by pre-Georgian monuments and other tactless
interventions. Even the sacred bust, viewed from this point of view, jammed in front of tracery,
was ‘most tastelessly inserted in the wall and window’ [fig:50]. 140 The lack of respect for the
facts of medieval history which Shakespeare displayed in his works was paralleled in the attitude
towards historic architecture expressed in the placing of his monument. Britton, like the other
antiquaries, was forced to compromise and meet the Bard halfway. He did not attempt to move
the bust but its surroundings were restored until they were ‘reformed, revolutionized’ and the flat
Georgian plaster ceiling replaced with a new timber one true to ‘the general spirit of the original
roof’, much as Kemble’s costumes and Scott’s novels were true to their respective historic
inspirations. 141
139 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p. 30.
140 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p. 26.
141 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p. 29. Later nineteenth-century restorations have removed all trace of
this campaign.
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