*** In Woodstock there is a conversation about Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s Home. He left London before 1613, and established himself at Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, where he was born (1564), and where he died (1616). In the diary of Mr. Ward, the vicar of Stratford, is this entry: “Shakspeare, Drayton and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakspeare died of a fever then contracted.” (Drayton died 1631, and Ben Jonson, 1637.) Probably Shakespeare died on his birthday, April 23.
Shakespeare’s Monument, in Westminster Abbey, designed by Kent, and executed by Scheemakers, in 1742. The statue to Shakespeare in Drury Lane Theatre was by the same.
The statue of Shakespeare in the British Museum is by Roubiliac, and was bequeathed to the nation by Garrick. His best portrait is by Droeshout.
Shakespeare’s Plays, quarto editions:
Romeo and Juliet: 1597, John Danter; 1599, Thomas Creede for Cuthbert Burby; 1609, 1637. Supposed to have been written, 1595.
King Richard II.: 1597, Valentine Simmes for Andrew Wise; 1598, 1608 (with an additional scene); 1615, 1634.
King Richard III.: 1597, ditto; 1598, 1602, 1612, 1622.
Love’s Labor’s Lost; 1598, W. W. for Cuthbert Burby. Supposed to have been written, 1594.
King Henry IV. (pt. I): 1598, P. S. for Andrew Wise; 1599, 1604, 1608, 1613. Supposed to have been written, 1597.