The opening days of 1616 saw the marriage of Judith Shakespeare, the poet's daughter, born with little Hamnet who had died twenty years before. Two months later the poet entertained Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson at New Place. Some biographers say that the meeting was associated with a drinking bout—there is no reason to believe that either of his distinguished visitors would have been averse from one. Others believe that the poet fell a victim to the prevailing lack of sanitation; his house was at the corner of a very dirty lane. Whatever the cause, there can be no doubt about the result. On the 23rd of April 1616, England's greatest dramatist died in the prime of life—he was just fifty-two years of age. Two days later he was buried in Stratford Church, near the north wall of the chancel. Fearful lest his bones should be added to the grisly burden of the charnel-house close by, he penned a curse upon those who should disturb his remains.
The corporation's leading members joined the funeral procession, and a banquet consoled the mourners. A monument was put up in the chancel a few years later, the work of a London sculptor living near the "Globe Theatre." It is not a very pleasing piece of work. By his will, the poet left substantial legacies to his daughters, a gift to Stratford's poor, and mementoes to many friends, but to his wife he left his "second best bedstead" and nothing more. Anne Shakespeare died seven years later, and was buried close to her husband. His neglect of her by will does not imply indifference to her future; doubtless he had expressed his wish that one or other of his daughters should look after her, but it is clear that he did not hold her in great affection.
So passed a great man from his world, leaving an imperishable monument for generations yet to come. The London he knew has passed beyond our ken; it is a buried city that will never be unearthed. But time has dealt more gently with Stratford and Shottery, Wilmcote and Snitterfield, and a large part of the surrounding country that made our national poet articulate. Much that he loved returns with the yearly pageant of the seasons, and with this we must be perforce content.
INDEX
Aberdeen, [32]
"All's Well that Ends Well," [39]
Ancient Pistol, [43]
"Antony and Cleopatra," [53]
Arden, Forest of, [47]
" Mary, [9], [58]
" Robert, [58]
Ariosto, [47]
Arnold, Matthew, [7]
"As You Like It," [32], [47]
Aston Clinton, [7], [9]
Aubrey's "Lives of Eminent Men," [66]
Avon, [5], [73], [75], [82]
Barnard, Lady, [60]
" Sir John, [60]
Barnfield, Richard, [44]
Bath, [30]
"Bear's House," [25], [26]
Beaumont, [41], [42], [44]
"Bell, The," [43]
"Bell Inn," [17]
Bishopgate, [26], [27]
Bishopton, [64]
Blackfriars, [21], [70]
" Theatre, [22], [62]
Boar's Head, [40], [41]
"Bohemia," [44]
Boswell, [61]
Brentford, [77]
"Bull Inn," [27]
Burbage, Cuthbert [62]
" James, [22], [62]
" Richard, [22], [32], [37], [49], [62]
Burbie, Cuthbert, [35], [36]
Cambridge University, [82]
Chapel of the Guild, [72]
Charlecote, [7], [12], [46], [56], [80]
" Park, [81]
Charles II., [29]
Chaucer, Geoffrey, [43], [44], [68]
"Children of the Chapel, The," [48]
Clopton, Sir Hugh, [58], [60], [82]
" Sir John, [60]
" House, [82]
Cobham, Lord, [46]
College of Heralds, [57]
Combe, John, [82]
" William, [82], [83]
"Comedy of Errors, The," [36]
Compton, Lord, [80]
Condell, [62]
"Convivial Laws," [42]
Coopers' Arms, [33]
"Coriolanus," [53]
Coventry, [30]
"Cow Lane," [35]
Cromwell, Oliver, [73]
"Crosby Hall," [27]
Crown Inn, [68]
"Curtain, The," [21]
"Cymbeline," [53]
Danter, John, [36]
Derby, Earl of, [22]
"Devil Tavern," [41], [42]
Drayton, Michael, [7], [44], [69], [70], [83]
Droeshout, Martin, [67]
Eastcheap, [40]
Edward VI., [72]
Elizabeth, Queen, [13], [32], [37], [39], [46], [50], [51]
Essex, Earl of, [47], [48]
"Falcon, The," [41], [60], [62]
Falstaff, Sir John, [13], [46], [77]
Faversham, [30]
"Feverel, Richard," [16]
Field, Richard, [20], [21], [35]
Fletcher, [41], [42]
Florence, [26]
Flower, Edgar, [67]
Folkestone, [30]
Fulbroke Parks, [12]
Fuller, [41]
Gastrell, Rev. Francis, [59], [60], [61]
"George, The," [41], [43]
" I., [70]
"Globe, The," [22], [48], [62], [84]
Gower, [25]
Grammar School, Stratford, [72]
Gray's "Elegy," [1]
Greene, Robert, [27], [36], [43], [71]
Greenwich, [32], [38]
Guild Hall, [72]
Gunpowder Plot, [82]
Hall, John, [66], [70]
" Susanna, [62], [66]
Halliwell-Phillipps, Mr. J. O., [61]
"Hamlet," [31], [32], [48], [49]
Hathaway, Anne, [11], [17], [18], [60]
"Henry IV.," [13], [14], [39], [40], [46]
" V.," [14], [47], [62]
" VI., King," [36]
" the Seventh, King, [57]
" VIII.," [47], [53], [63]
High Wycombe, [20]
Holinshed's "Chronicles," [33], [52], [53]
Hunt, Wm., [61]
Hythe, [30]
James I., King, [22], [24], [29], [51], [77]
Johnson, Robert, [53]
Jones, Inigo, [29]
Jonson, Ben, [7], [41], [42], [43], [67], [70], [83]
"Julius Cæsar," [48]
Keere, Peter Van den, [24], [25]
Kemp, William, [32]
Kenilworth, [39]
"King John," [37]
" Lear," [52]
"King's Servants, The," [51]
"Lambeth Marsh," [25]
Lee, Dr. Sidney, [10], [31], [32], [49], [52], [67]
Leicester, Earl of, [13], [21], [39], [80]
Leyton, Edward, [61]
Lichfield, [61]
Loggin, Mrs., [61]
Lollard, [46]
"Love's Labour's Lost," [35]
Lucy, Sir Thomas, [12], [13], [46], [80]
"Macbeth," [51], [52]
Manasseh ben Israel, [73]
Marlborough, [30]
Marlowe, Christopher, [27], [36], [37], [43]
Masuccio, [33], [36]
"Measure for Measure," [51]
"Merchant of Venice, The," [37]
Meredith, George, [16]
Meres, Francis, [44]
"Mermaid, The," [41], [42], [44]
"Merry Wives of Windsor," [13], [40], [46]
"Midsummer Night's Dream, A," [13], [39]
Milton, [7]
Miranda, [53]
Moorfields, [21]
"More Feyldes," [25]
Mountjoy, [33]
"Much Ado about Nothing," [47]
Naseby, [5]
Nash, Elizabeth, [60]
" Thomas, [62]
Newington Butts, [22]
New Place, [58], [59], [61], [62], [64], [69], [70], [82], [83]
New Place Museum, [62]
New Romney, [30]
Nimrod, [13]
Norman William, [5]
Oldcastle, Sir John, [46]
Old Stratford, [11], [64]
"Othello," [51]
Oxford, [20], [30], [68]
Oxford University, [82]
"Palace of Nonsuch, The," [38]
Peele, [36]
Pembroke, Earl of, [51]
"Pericles," [52], [53]
Phillips, Augustus, [22], [62]
"Phœnix and the Turtle, The," [48]
Plautus, [36]
"Play House," [25]
Plutarch's "Lives," [33], [48], [53]
Ponte Vecchio, [26]
Prospero, [53], [54]
Quiney, Mr. Thomas, [66]
Raleigh, Sir Walter, [42]
"Rape of Lucrece, The," [37], [38]
Rhodes, Cecil John, [2]
"Richard II.," [37], [47]
"Richard III.," [27], [37]
Richmond, [38]
"Romeo and Juliet," [36]
Rookwood, Ambrose, [82]
"Rose, The," [22]
Rowe, Nicholas, [70]
Rye, [30]
Saffron Walden, [30]
Saxon Harold, [6]
Senlac, [5]
Severn, [5]
Shakespeare, Edmond, [24], [69]
" Gilbert, [69]
" Hamnet, [66], [69]
" Joan, [69]
" John, [9], [10], [57], [58], [64], [66], [72], [76], [81]
" Judith, [66], [83]
" Richard, [69]
" Susanna, [12], [60], [66]
Shallow, Mr. Justice, [13], [40], [46]
"Shepherd's Garland," [69]
Shoreditch, [21]
Shottery, [7], [11], [16], [17], [18], [84]
Sidney, Sir Philip, [29]
Smith, Miss, [61]
Snitterfield, [6], [9], [10], [64], [84]
Southampton, Earl of, [37], [39], [47], [48], [63]
Southwark, [22], [26], [27], [42]
Spanish Armada, [42]
Spenser, Edmund, [41]
"Spittlefeyldes," [25]
St. Helen's, [26], [27]
"St. Marye Overyes," [24], [25]
St. Saviour's, Church of, [24], [25]
Stratford Church, [83]
"Tabard, The," [41], [42], [43], [44]
"Taming of the Shrew, The," [39]
"The Tempest," [53], [69]
"Theatre, The," [21], [22], [62]
Thorpe, [38]
"Timon of Athens," [52]
"Titus Andronicus," [37]
"Troilus and Cressida, [49]
"Twelfth Night," [47]
"Two Gentlemen of Verona, The," [35]
"Venus and Adonis," [37], [38]
Walker, Sir Edward, [60]
Welcombe, [64], [82]
Westminster Abbey, [24]
White, William, [35]
Whitehall, [38], [51], [52]
"White Hart, The," [43]
Wilmcote, [6], [9], [10], [18], [58], [84]
Wilton, [51]
"Winter's Tale, The," [53]
Wotton Wawens, [7]
Wriothesley, Henry, [39], [50], [63]