IN RETIREMENT. 37 at Stratford. "The latter part of his life," says Rowe, "was spent, as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends. His pleasur able wit and good-nature engaged him in the acquaintance and entitled him to the friendship of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood." Amongst his acquaintances was John Combe, who, dying in 1614, left him a legacy of £5. A satirical epitaph on Combe, said to have been produced impromptu by Shakespeare, has been handed down by tradition; but there is little evidence to show that the lines are genuine. In the autumn of the same year an attempt was made to inclose a portion of the neighbouring common-fields. It is not quite certain whether Shakespeare endeavoured to forward (as Halliwell-Phillipps maintains) or to oppose the project; there is no doubt that he took measures to secure himself against loss if the inclosure should be effected.1 An entry of 1614 in the accounts of the Stratford Chamberlain sets our fancy pleasantly to work. "Item: For one quart of sack, and one quart of clarett wine, given to a preacher at the New Place xxd." Stratford had grown puritanical since Shakespeare was a boy; in 1602, and again in 1612, orders against plays and interludes were made by the corporation; at last the players were paid not to perform. "Mrs. Hall and her husband", as I have elsewhere written, "did not forfeit the 1 The words in the diary of Thomas Greene, town-clerk of Stratford, commonly printed "Mr. Shakspeare tellyng J. Greene that he was not able to bear the encloseing of Welcombe", seem in fact to be "that I was not able", &c. Dr. Ingleby supposed that Greene wrote "I" by mistake. poet's regard because they were somewhat puritanically inclined. Perhaps Shakespeare's wife had sought in religion a satisfaction which her marriage had not afforded. We can imagine the great interpreter of life listening with a serious smile to the whole truth as expounded by the preacher, and recognizing as a pleasant human foible the preacher's interest in claret and sherry sack." If there were any truth in the crab-tree legend (which, however, dates only from 1762) we should believe that Shakespeare himself, with the encouragement of his companion Ben Jonson, could for the nonce carouse "potations pottle-deep", and become somewhat more than flustered with his cups. In February, 1616, Shakespeare saw Judith, his second daughter, married. Her husband, Thomas Quiney, a son of the Richard Quiney who had begged Shakespeare for a loan of money, was four years younger than his wife. He was certainly a fairly educated man, and during the earlier portion of his married life he occupied a good position in the town, doing business as a vintner, and becoming a member of the corporation and subsequently their chamberlain. But after a time prosperity forsook him, and he drifted to London. His eldest son, named Shakespeare Quiney, died an infant; two younger sons, Richard and Thomas, reached manhood, but both died childless before their mother, who lived on through the Civil War to Restoration days. She died in 1662 in her seventy-eighth year. § 20. Before the marriage took place—a marriage celebrated somewhat hastily without a licenseShakespeare, then in perfect health, had given in L structions for his will. The draft copy was ready for engrossment, but the fair copy had not yet been made when in March, 1616, the testator was taken seriously ill. Delay in obtaining the necessary signatures was deemed inexpedient, and certain. corrections having been made by interlineation the draft copy was duly signed by the sick man and the witnesses. The chief part of his property was left to his eldest daughter, but Judith received a substantial sum of money; his sister Joan Hart, who became a widow a few days before her brother's death, was considerately remembered; small sums were left to the sons of his sister; ten pounds to the poor of Stratford; nor did Shakespeare as he lay mortally ill forget his former fellows of the Globe. Theatre, for to Richard Burbage, John Hemmings, and Henry Condell he left, by an interlineation, "twenty-six shillings and eight pence a-piece to buy them ringes". Beside the signatures at the foot of each page the words "by me" at the close of the will are in Shakespeare's handwriting, and no other words, except his own name, remain to us in the poet's autograph. On Tuesday, April 23, 1616, the great spirit, "a little lower than the angels", passed away.1 The malady of which Shakespeare died is sup 1 The name of Shakespeare is found written in a copy of Florio's Montaigne purchased for £100 by the British Museum in 1838. Its genuineness has been disputed. The words "Wilm Shakspeare, hundred and twenty poundes" are written on a paper found in the original binding of a copy of North's Plutarch, 1603, now in the Boston (U.S.A.) Public Library. There are many reasons in favour of its genuineness, but they are not decisive. It is not suggested that the volume ever belonged to Shakespeare. See Bulletin of the Boston Public Library, vol. 8. no. 4. posed to have been a fever. According to the memoranda-book written in 1662-63 by the Rev. John Ward, vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, it was contracted after a "merry meeting" with Drayton and Ben Jonson, at which the convivial friends "drank too hard". We may perhaps agree with Halliwell-Phillipps in finding a sufficient cause for blood-poisoning in the wretched sanitary conditions surrounding New Place. "If truth, and not romance, is to be invoked," says this careful biographer, "were there the woodbine and sweet honeysuckle within reach of the poet's death-bed, their fragrance would have been neutralized by their vicinity to middens, fetid water-courses, mud-walls, and piggeries." On April 25th Shakespeare's body was laid in its resting-place, the chancel of the parish church, to which position for a grave the owner of the tithes had an acknowledged right. The grave is near the north wall of the chancel. Over the spot where the body lies was placed a slab bearing the inscription, which a tradition attributes to Shakespeare himself: GOOD FREND FOR IESUS SAKE FORBEARE TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE; BLESTE BE THE MAN THAT SPARES THES STONES, "It should be remembered ", observes HalliwellPhillipps, “that the transfer of bones from graves to the charnel-house was then an ordinary practice at Stratford-on-Avon." Shakespeare's bones have lain more secure in their modest grave during three centuries than those of Schiller in the grand-ducal vault at Weimar. THE STRATFORD BUST. 41 §21. Shakespeare's widow lived for more than seven years after her husband's death. She died on August 6th, 1623. The Halls continued to reside at New Place; the physician attained a high reputation for skill in his profession; in matters of faith he seems to have inclined more decidedly to Puritanism as the years went by. His death took place in 1635; that of his wife, Susanna Hall-who was esteemed for her goodness, piety, and bright intelligence in 1649. Elizabeth Hall, Shakespeare's grandchild, was twice married; on April 22, 1626, to Thomas Nash, who died in 1647; and secondly, about two years after, to Sir John Barnard of Abington, in the county of Northampton. She had no child by either husband, and on her death, in February 1669-70, the lineal descent from Shakespeare came to an end. Not long after his death, certainly before 1623, a monument was erected to Shakespeare on the northern wall of the chancel of the parish church at Stratford. It contains a life-sized bust, the work either of Gerard Johnson, sculptor and "tombemaker", a native of Amsterdam who resided in London, or of Johnson's son. The bust-a somewhat coarse piece of art-is made of a soft bluish limestone; several excellent judges are of opinion that it was cut from a death-mask as model. presents a face powerful and full-blooded, rather than refined or subtle; the great dome of the forehead is, however, a very striking feature. Originally the bust was coloured to resemble life; the eyes a light hazel, the hair and beard auburn, the doublet scarlet, and the sleeveless gown worn over (789) D It |