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Dr. Hall and his wife. A tablet below the bust has the following inscription:

Judicio Pylum, genio Socratem, arte Maronem,

Terra tegit, populus mæret, Olympus habet.

Stay, Passenger, why go'st thou by so fast?

Read, if thou canst, whom envious Death hath placed
Within this monument; Shakespeare, with whom
Quick nature died; whose name doth deck this tomb
Far more than cost; sith all that he hath writ
Leaves living Art but page to serve his wit.

Obiit Anno Domini 1616,
Ætatis 53, die 23 April.

As to the lines which tradition ascribes to the Poet as written for his own tomb-stone, there is very little likelihood that he had any thing to do with them. The earliest that we hear of them is in the letter written by Dowdall in 1693: "Near the wall where his monument is erected lieth a plain freestone, underneath which his body is buried, with this epitaph, made by himself a little before his death:

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear

To dig the dust inclosed here:

Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones!

The writer adds, "Not one, for fear of the curse above-said, dare touch his grave-stone, though his wife and daughters did earnestly desire to be laid in the same grave with him." Such is indeed the inscription on a flat stone covering the spot where the Poet's remains are supposed to lie; but there is no name, nor any thing whatever to identify the lines as written either by Shakespeare or for him.

The mortal remains of Anne Shakespeare were laid beside those of her husband, August 8, 1623. A worthy memorial covers the spot, whereon we trace the fitting language of a daughter's love, paying a warm tribute to the religious char

acter of her who was gone, and clearly inferring that she had "as much of virtue as could die." It is a brass plate set in a stone, and inscribed as follows:

"Here lieth interred the body of Anne, wife of William Shakespeare, who departed this life the 6th day of August, 1623, being of the age of 67 years."

Ubera tu, mater, tu lac vitamque dedisti,

Væ mihi! pro tanto munere saxa dabo.

Quam mallem amoveat lapidem bonus angelus ore,
Exeat ut Christi corpus imago tua:

Sed nil vota valent; venias cito, Christe, resurget,
Clausa licet tumulo mater, et astra petet.

Another precious inscription in the chancel of Stratford church was partly erased many years ago to make room for one to Richard Watts, who died in 1707. Fortunately the lines had been preserved by Dugdale. Through the taste and liberality of the Rev. W. Harness, the original inscription has been recently restored, thus:

She

"Here lieth the body of Susanna, Wife to John Hall, Gent.; the daughter of William Shakespeare, Gent. deceased the 11th of July, Anno 1649, aged 66.

Witty above her sex, but that's not all;

Wise to salvation was good Mistress Hall:
Something of Shakespeare was in that; but this
Wholly of Him with whom she's now in bliss.

Then, passenger, hast ne'er a tear
To weep with her that wept with all?
That wept, yet set herself to cheer

Them up with comforts cordial.
Her love shall live, her mercy spread,

When thou hast ne'er a tear to shed.*

Close beside this inscription is one to her husband, as follows: "Here lieth the body of John Hall, Gent. He married Susanna, the daughter and coheir of Will. Shakespeare, Gent. He deceased November 25, Anno 1635, aged 60." To this are subjoined the following verses:

The first-born of Thomas and Judith Quiney was christened Shakespeare on the 23d of November, just seven months after the death of his grandfather. He was buried May 8, 1617. He was followed by two other children: Richard, baptized February 9, 1618, and buried February 26, 1639; and Thomas, baptized January 23, 1620, and buried January 28, 1639. Their mother was buried the 9th of February, 1662, having lived to the age of 77 years. The time of her husband's death is not known.

The Poet's grand-daughter, Elizabeth Hall, was married to Mr. Thomas Nash on the 26th of April, 1626, who died April 4, 1647. On the 5th of June, 1649, she was married. again to Mr. John Barnard, who was knighted after the Restoration. Lady Barnard died childless in 1670, and was buried in Abingdon with the family of Sir John. After her decease, the nearest relatives of the Poet living were the descendants of his sister, Joan Hart. At the time of her brother's death, Mrs. Hart was living in one of his Stratford houses, which, with the appurtenances, was by his will secured to her use for life at a nominal rent of 12 d. She was buried on the 4th of November, 1646. Her descendants, bearing the name of Hart, have continued down to our own time, but, it is said, "not in a position we can contemplate with satisfaction."

The following from Dyce may fitly close this account: "The bust at Stratford, and the engraving by Martin Droeshout on the title-page of the first folio, may be considered

Hallius hic situs est, medica celeberrimus arte,
Expectans regni gaudia læta Dei.
Dignus erat meritis, qui Nestora vinceret annis,

In terris omnes, sed rapit æqua dies.

Ne tumulo quid desit, adest fidessima conjux,

Et vitæ comitem nunc quoque mortis habet.

The parish register has the following entry of burial: "1635. Nov. 26. Johannes Hall, medicus peritissimus."

as the best-authenticated likenesses of the Poet. The former exhibits him in the act of composition, and enjoying, as it were, the richness of his own conceptions; the latter presents him somewhat younger and thinner, and with a deeply thoughtful air but a general resemblance may be traced between them. The truthfulness of the engraving is attested. by Ben Jonson in the verses which accompany it, and which we are almost bound to accept as the sincere expression of his opinion":

This figure, that thou here see'st put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut;
Wherein the graver had a strife

With Nature, to out-do the life.

O, could he but have drawn his wit

As well in brass as he hath hit

His face, the print would then surpass

All that was ever writ in brass:
But, since he cannot, reader, look
Not on his picture, but his book.

SHAKESPEARE'S WILL,

IN THE PREROGATIVE OFFICE, LONDON.

Vicesimo quinto die Martii, anno regni domini nostri Jacobi, nunc regis Angliæ, &c. decimo quarto, et Scotiæ xlixo, annoque Domini 1616.

T. Wmi Shakespeare.

IN the name of God, amen! I, William Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, gent., in perfect health and memory, God be praised, do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following; that is to say, First, I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting, and my body to the earth whereof it is made. Item, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Judith one hundred and fifty pounds of lawful English money, to be paid unto her in manner and form following; that is to say, one hundred pounds in discharge of her marriage portion within one year after my decease, with consideration after the rate of two shillings in the pound for so long time as the same shall be unpaid unto her after my decease, and the fifty pounds residue thereof upon her surrendering of, or giving of such sufficient security as the overseers of this my will shall like of, to surrender or grant all her estate and right that shall descend or come unto her after my decease, or that she now hath, of, in, or to, one copyhold tenement, with the appurtenances, lying and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaid in the said county of Warwick, being parcel or holden of the manor of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall and her heirs for ever. Item, I give and bequeath unto my said daughter Judith one hundred and fifty pounds more, if she or any issue of her body be living at the end of three years next ensuing the day of the date of this my

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