3-101-164 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Middle Temple - Hall, c1885. 'Middle Temple Hall [in the City of London], one of the finest works of the Renaissance in England, was built between 1562 and 1572; the date 1570 appears in the window...This date destroys the tradition that the screen was built from the spoils of the Spanish Armada, which put to sea only several years later. In addition to its beauty, the Hall has a great claim on our interest, in that the first record we have of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is contained in an entry in the diary of a student of the Middle Temple of a performance of this play in this Hall:- "Feb. 2, 1601 (1601-1602). At our feast we had a play called 'Twelfth Night or What you Will,'...A good practise in it to make the steward believe his lady widdowe was in love with him, by counterfayting a letter from his lady, in generall termes, telling him what she liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaille, &c.; and then when he came to practise, making him believe they took him to be mad."...in taking up the floor of this Hall about 1764, nearly 100 pairs of small dice were found, that had fallen through the chinks in the floor. The marble bust represents Plowden, who was Treasurer of the Inn when the present Hall was built.' Description by Alfred Marks.