Briscoe Hall

Briscoe Hall is the men's college at Shiz University where Boq, Avaric, Crope, and Tibbett reside; it serves as a key setting for male student life, romantic longing, and the secret research for Doctor Dillamond, and its proximity to Crage Hall enables the clandestine meetings and rooftop voyeurism that drive the early romantic and political plots.

Location and Architecture

Briscoe Hall is one of the men's colleges at Shiz University, situated in the university district. Its rooms look out over a cobblestoned alley, and from certain windows one can see the bluestone wall of a private stable attached to a mansion house on a fashionable square. Beyond the stable roof, the rounded tops of fruit trees in the kitchen garden of Crage Hall are visible, and above them glow the lancet windows of the Crage Hall dormitories and classrooms. The proximity of the two institutions allows male students to observe the female students in various stages of undress when the girls forget to draw their drapes, a view Boq finds both tantalizing and distracting. The building itself is described as having a corner tower with stone spiral stairs, and a porter on duty at the gate.

Life and Activities at Briscoe Hall

Briscoe Hall houses students from various backgrounds, including Boq, a Munchkinlander studying agriculture, and Avaric, a strapping Gillikinese bucko from a noble family. The students spend their evenings studying, visiting pubs like the Boar and Fennel, or engaging in more disreputable entertainments. During the summer, the campus lies vacant except for the more befuddled professors and the poorer boys; Boq, who cannot afford to go home, works in the Three Queens library cleaning old manuscripts. The hall's library is noted as a better place to hunt for materials on animal and vegetable life than the Crage Hall library, though Elphaba is excluded from it on the grounds of being a girl.

Role in the Plot

Briscoe Hall is the site of Boq's frustrated romantic longing for Galinda. From his room, he watches the Crage Hall dormitory, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. His desire drives him to climb onto the adjacent stable roof for a better view, a venture that ends with him tumbling into the Crage Hall kitchen garden and landing at Elphaba's feet. This accidental encounter leads to the arranged meeting between Boq and Galinda in the garden. Later, Briscoe Hall becomes a base for the secret research Boq, Crope, and Tibbett conduct for Doctor Dillamond, with Boq using his access to the Briscoe Hall library stacks to find documents on the origins of Animals. The hall is also where Avaric tries to persuade Boq to visit the Philosophy Club, a temptation Boq eventually succumbs to after the death of Ama Clutch.