April 25, when all that was mortal of the great dramatist was consigned to his final resting-place in the beautiful parish-church of his native town. His remains were deposited in the chancel, the selection of the locality for the interment being due to the circumstance of its then being the legal and customary burial-place of the owners of the tithes. The grave is situated near the northern wall of the chancel, within a few paces of the ancient charnel-house, the arch of the doorway that opened to the latter, with its antique corbels, still remaining. The sepulcher was covered with a slab that bore the following inscription, GOOD FREND, FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE -lines which, according to an early tradition, were selected by the poet himself for his epitaph. There is another early but less probable statement that they were the poet's own composition; but, at all events, it may be safely gathered that they originated in some way from an aversion on his part to the idea of a disturbance of his remains. It should pe remembered that the transfer of bones from graves to the charnel-house was then an ordinary practice at Stratford-on-Avon. There has long been a tradition that Shakespeare's feelings on this subject arose from a reflection on the ghastly appearance of that receptacle, which the elder Ireland, writing in the year 1795, describes as then containing "the largest assemblage of human bones" he had ever beheld. But whether this be the truth, or if it were merely the natural wish of a sensitive and thoughtful mind, it is a source of congratulation that the simple verses should have protected his ashes from sacrilege. The nearest approach to an excavation into the grave of Shakespeare was made in the summer of the year 1796, in digging a vault in the immediate locality, when an opening appeared which was presumed to indicate the commencement of the site of the bard's remains. The most scrupulous care, however, was taken not to disturb the neighboring earth in the slightest degree, the clerk having been placed there, until the brickwork of the adjoining vault was completed, to prevent anyone making an examination. No relics whatever were visible through the small opening that thus presented itself, and as the poet was buried in the ground, not in a vault, the chancel earth, moreover, formerly absorbing a large degree of moisture, the great probability is that dust alone remains. This consideration may tend to discourage an irreverent opinion expressed by some, that it is due to the interests of science to unfold to the world the material abode which once held so great an intellect. It is not many years since a phalanx of troubletombs, lanterns and spades in hand, assembled in the chancel at dead of night, intent on disobeying the solemn injunction that the bones of Shakespeare were not to be disturbed. But the supplicatory lines prevailed. There were some among the number who, at the last moment, refused to incur the warning condemnation, and so the design was happily abandoned. 32. Timon of Athens. 1610 1611 1602 33. Coriolanus. 1610 1619 1609 36. Pericles.. 34. Winter's Tale.. 35. The Tempest.. 37. Titus Andronicus, not acknowledged by these critics, but orig 1611 1601 1610 1611 1613 1611 ..Not acknowledged 1609 inally published about 1589. Marston, Chapman, and Jonson, Eastward Hoe.. Chapman, Bussy d'Ambois.. 1606? 1607 Tourneur, The Revenger's Tragedy.............. 1607 Chapman, Conspiracy and Tragedy of Byron..... Dekker, The Honest Whore. Part II... - Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess....... Jonson, The Silent Woman... ✓ Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster. Jonson, The Alchemist. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy.... Beaumont and Fletcher, The Knight of the Burn ing Pestle.... Field, A Woman is a Weathercock............... Kinsmen Fletcher and Massinger, Thierry and Theodoret... 1617? 1621 Fletcher and Massinger, Little French Lawyer... 1620 1647 1622 Middleton, The Changeling. 1622-1624 1653 Massinger, The Duke of Milan.... 1623 Fletcher, The Pilgrim. 1621 1647 Fletcher (and another), The Beggars Bush...... - Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts...... Jonson, The Sad Shepherd. Middleton, Women beware Women.............. |