...dead. The cause of his death is unknown, but in Stratford there was a tradition ' that Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.' By his will he left the bulk of his property to Susanna...

...Stratford some 50 years after Shakespeare's death, in which occurs the well-known entry: "Shakespeare, Drayton and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a feavour there contracted." The oldest document on display is one written at Rouen,...

...recorded that Shakespeare 'spent at the rate of £1000 a year, as I have heard', and that 'Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted'. Around 1672 John Dryden wrote that Shakespeare 'said...

...peruse Shakespeare's plays and be versed in them that I may not be ignorant in that matter: Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted. [It has been conjectured that he caught pneumonia, for...

...recollection (fifty years after the fact) of John Ward, rector of Stratford: "Shakespeare, [Michael] Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a feavor there contracted" (quoted in Brandes). 9.726-27 (204:13-14). A quart of...

...Shakespeare's plays and be versed in them that I may not be ignorant in that matter: . . . Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.7 The testimony of the Reverend Mr. John Ward is unimpeachable....

...be true. 385 Chapter Ninety-Eight The day Shakespeare died (with his last words, etc.) Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted. Who killed Cock Shakespeare? I, said Ben Jonson, with...

...at fifty-two of unknown causes, although one chronicler reported that "Shakespeare, [poet Michael] Drayton and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too much hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."6 In his will, he stated: "I commend my...

...note, later made in his diary by the vicar of Stratford, which has some plausibility: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of fever there contracted". The last of all the contemporary documents that relate...

...note, later made in his diary by the vicar of Stratford, which has some plausibility: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of fever there contracted". The last of all the contemporary documents that relate...