Leont. The fixure of her eye has motion in't,
As we are mock'd with art:—
———————————— Still methinks,
There is an air comes from her: what fine chizzel
Could ever yet cut breath?—
Paul. —————————— Shall I draw the curtain?
Leont. No, not these twenty years."[618:A]
To the memory of a poet who, independent of the matchless talents which he has exhibited in his own peculiar province, had shown such proofs of his attachment to the sister arts, some tribute, from these departments of genius, might naturally be expected, and was certainly due. Nor was it long ere the debt of gratitude was paid; before the year 1623, a monument, containing a bust of the poet, had been erected in Stratford Church, immediately above the grave which inclosed his hallowed relics. The tradition of his native town is, that this bust was copied from a cast after nature.[618:B] It is placed beneath an arch, and between two Corinthian columns of black marble, and represents the poet in a sitting posture, with a cushion spread before him, holding a pen in his right hand, whilst his left rests upon a scroll of paper. The entablature exhibits the arms of Shakspeare surmounted by a death's head, with an infantine form sitting on each side; that on the right supporting, in the same hand, a spade, and the figure on the left, whose eyes are closed, reposing its right hand on a skull, whilst the other holds an inverted torch.[618:C]
On a tablet below the cushion are engraved the two following inscriptions:
"Judicio Pylivm, genio Socratem, arte Maronem,