The tomb.
Before 1623 [276b] an elaborate monument, by a London sculptor of Dutch birth, Gerard Johnson, was erected
to Shakespeare’s memory in the chancel of the parish church. [277] It includes a half-length bust, depicting the dramatist on the point of writing. The fingers of the right hand are disposed as if holding a pen, and under the left hand lies a quarto sheet of paper. The inscription, which was apparently by a London friend, runs:
Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem,
Terra tegit, populus mæret, Olympus habet.Stay passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath plast
Within this monument; Shakespeare with whome
Quick nature dide; whose name doth deck ys tombe
Far more than cost; sith all yt he hath writt
Leaves living art but page to serve his witt.Obiit ano. doi 1616 Ætatis 53 Die 23 Ap.