Shakespeare's Bones / The Proposal to Disinter Them, Considered in Relation to Their Possible Bearing on His Portraiture: Illustrated by Instances of Visits of the Living to the Dead

Transcribed from the 1883 Trübner & Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
THE PROPOSAL TO DISINTER THEM ,
CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THEIR POSSIBLE BEARING ON HIS PORTRAITURE:
ILLUSTRATED BY INSTANCES OF
VISITS OF THE LIVING TO THE DEAD.
BY C. M. INGLEBY, LL.D., V.P.R.S.L.,
Honorary Member of the German Shakespeare Society, and a Life-Trustee of Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Museum, and New Place, at Stratford-upon-Avon.
“Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs.” Richard II , a. iii, s. 2.
This Essay IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED TO THE MAJOR AND CORPORATION OF STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, AND THE VICAR OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY THERE,
BY THEIR FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE,
THE AUTHOR.
There is still another sentiment, honourable in itself and not inconsistent with those which I have specified, though still more conditional upon the sufficiency of the reasons conducing to the act: namely, the desire, by exhumation, to set at rest a reasonable or important issue respecting the person of the deceased while he was yet a living man. Accordingly it is held justifiable to exhume a body recently buried, in order to discover the cause of death, or to settle a question of disputed identity: nor is it usually held unjustifiable to exhume a body long since deceased, in order to find such evidences as time may not have wholly destroyed, of his personal appearance, including the size and shape of his head, and the special characteristics of his living face.