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MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS

IN THE

QUIRE OF THE CHURCH

OF

STRATFORD UPON AVON.

HERE lyeth interred the body of ANNE, wife of WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, who departed this life the 6th day of August 1623, being of the age of 67 years.

Ubera tu mater, tu lac vitamque dedisti

Ve mihi pro tanto munere Saxa dabo,

Quam mallem amoveat lapidem bonus angelus

orem

Exuat ut Christi corpus imago tua,

Sed nil vota valent, venias citò Christi, resurget Clausa jacet tumulo mater, et astra petit.

Here

Here lyeth the body of JOHN HALL, Gent. he marr. SUSANNA, daughter and coheir of WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, Gent. he deceased November 25, anno 1635, aged 60 years.

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 fidissima conjux, Et vita comitem nunc quoque mortis habet.

Here lyeth the body of SUSANNA, wife of JOHN
HALL, Gent. the daughter of WILLIAM SHAK-
SPERE, Gent. She deceased the 2d day of July,
anno 1649, aged 66.

Witty above her sexe, but that's not all,
Wise to salvation was good Mistris Hall.
Something of Shakspere was in that, but this
Wholy of him with whom she's now in blisse.

Then, Passenger, ha'st ne're a teare,
To weepe with her that wept with all;
That wept, yet set her selfe to chere
Them up with comforts cordiall.

Her love shall live, her mercy spread,
When thou ha'st ne're a tear to shed.

Here

Here resteth the body of THOMAS NASHE, Esquier. He mar: ELIZABETH, the daug: of JOHN HALL, Gentleman: He dyed April 4, anno 1647, aged 53.

Fata manent omnes hunc non virtute carentem, Ut neque divitijs abstulit atra dies.

Abstulit, at referet lux ultima, siste viator, Si peritura paras, per mala parta peris.

On a mural monument in the north wall of the Chancel are the following inscriptions.

Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, Terra tegit, populus maret*, Olympus habet.

Stay, Passenger, why goest thou soe fast?

Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath plac't
Within this monument; Shakspere, with whome
Quick nature dyed, whose name doth deck the tombe
Far more than cost; sith all that he hath writ,
Leaues living art but page to serue his witt.

Obijt Anno Domini 1616,

Æt. 43, dáe 23 Apri.

* Maret on the monument should unquestionably have

been maret.

Extracts

Extracts from the Rev. Mr. GRANGER'S Biographical History of England.

The PORTRAITS of SHAKSPERE. Vol. I. p. 259. 8vo. Edition.

"WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, ad orig. tab. penes D. Harley; Vertue sc. 1721. 4to*."

"WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, &C. Vertue sc. 1719. Done from the original, now in the possession of Robert Keck of the Inner Temple, Esq. † large h. sh."

" WILLIAM

The portrait palmed upon Mr. Pope (I use the words of the late Mr. Oldys in a MS. note to his edition of Langbaine) for an original of Shakspere, from which he had his fine plate engraven, is evidently a juvenile portrait of K. James I." I am no judge in these matters, but only deliver an opinion, which, if ill-grounded, may be casily overthrown. The portrait, to me, at least, has no traits of Shakspere. The following observations are from the printed work of Mr. Granger. STEEVENS.

"It has been said that there never was an original portrait of Shakspere; but that Sir Thomas Clarges, after

"WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. In the possession of John Nicoll, of Southgate, Esq. Houbraken sc. 1747. Illust. Heads."

"WILLIAM SHAKSPERE; Zoust. p. From a capital picture in the collection of T. Wright, painter in CoventGarden. J. Simon f. h. sh. mezz.”

"This was painted in the reign of Charles II."

"WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, W. Marshall, sc. Frontispiece to his poems, 1640. 12mo*." under which are the following lines:

"This

his death, caused a portrait to be drawn for him, from a person who nearly resembled him. Mr. Walpole informs me, that the only original picture of Shakspere is that which belonged to Mr. Keck, from whom it passed to Mr. Nicoll, whose only daughter married the marquis of Caernarvon. This agrees with what is said in the Critical Review for December 1770, in relation to the same portrait, which is there also said to have been "painted either by Richard Burbage, or John Taylor the player, the latter of whom left it by will to Sir William Davenant. After his death, Betterton the actor bought it; and when he died, Mr. Keck of the Temple gave forty guineas for it to Mrs. Barry the actress." Mr. Walpole adds, that Marshall's print is genuine too, and probably drawn from the life."

The reader will find a faithful copy of his head prefixed to the will of Shakspere. There is a small head of Shakspere in an oval, before his Rape of Lucrece, repub

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