Lucrece, the Passionate Pilgrim, the Lover's Complaint, and 154 Sonnets. The early-formed wish of the bard to pass the evening of his days on the spot of his nativity is intimated by his purchase of New Place in 1597. In the garden of that mansion he planted, with his own hand, a mulberry-tree which long flourished under the fame of such an honourable distinction*; and thither in 1613, or the following year, he withdrew for the repose, and the calm enjoyments of a country life.+ We learn from Aubrey that it was Shakspeare's practice to visit Stratford once a year; but up to 1596 the place of his residence in London is not known. He then lived near the Bear-Garden in Southwark; and it is on presumptive The authority for the story of the mulberry-tree is that of Mr. Hugh Taylor, an alderman of Warwick, who was eighty-five years old at the end of the last century, and had lived, when a boy, at the next house to New Place. His family had resided there for three hundred years, and it was a tradition among them that the tree in question was planted by Shakspeare's hand. Note M. †The period of Shakspeare's retirement is not exactly ascertained: Rowe's account runs, "he spent some years before his death at his native Stratford;" but the discovery of the mortgage on his house in Blackfriars proves that he was in London in March, 1612-13, and, consequently, makes it doubtful whether he ceased to be a resident in the metropolis as early as had been supposed. evidence alone, that he is said to have continued in the same abode till he finally retired to the country.* * Shakspeare's associates were such as his connection with the theatre, and his literary pursuits led him into intimacy with. His fellows, Heminges, Burbage, and Condell, enjoyed a large portion of his affection. Augustine Phillips, whose name is included in King James's licence, marked his respect for the bard by a bequest of a thirty shilling piece of gold. With Fletcher, the literary associate of Beaumont, he was on terms of such friendly intimacy, that it has not been thought unreasonable to represent them as jointly concerned in the composition of the Two Noble Kinsmen. Though there is no proof of his having assisted Ben Jonson in the production of Sejanus, no doubt exists of the intimacy and friendship that subsisted between them. On the death of Shakspeare, Jonson composed an elegy * What is advanced here rests on the authority of Malone, who asserted in 1796 (Inquiry, p. 213-14) that he was in possession of two documents establishing the above facts, and which he intended to adduce in his Life of Shakspeare. He lived till 1812, but never finished his work. In 1821 all that Malone had written on the subject was published by Boswell, with a large addition of illustrative papers, but without the documents in question. + Shakspeare's will. + Phillips's will. on his friend; he inscribed his resemblance with his praise, and wrote (there is good ground for the belief,) the preface to the first edition of his works. Nor did time diminish his regard, or efface the remembrance of his companion from* his mind. Many years afterwards, he, with warmth, exclaimed, "I loved the man, and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any." Yet with these and other literary associates, in an age of free and generous expression of friendship, it is a remarkable fact, that, with one exception, Shakspeare has not left a commendatory line on any contemporary author or publication. He joined Jonson in some verses printed at the end of a little volume of poems by Robert Chester.* Shakspeare retired into the country at an age little past the prime of life. No hint is any where to be met with of the failure of his constitution, and the execution, in "perfect health and memory," of his will, on the 25th of March, 1616, raises no expectation of his speedy dissolution. He had then, however, reached the last stage of his existence. He died on the 23d of April, the anniversary of his birth, having exactly completed his fifty-second year. * VOL. I. A remark of the last editor of Jonson. F On the 25th of April his body was consigned to its native earth under the north side of the chancel of the great church at Stratford. A flat stone, covering all that is mortal of the remains of Shakspeare, conveys his benediction to the respecter, and his curse to the violator, of the peace of the grave: "Good frend, for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased here; Blese be the man that spares these stones, Within seven years a monument, executed with no mean skill by an unknown artist, was erected to his memory.* He is represented under an arch in a sitting posture; a cushion is spread before him, with a pen in his right hand, and his left resting on a scroll of paper. Immediately under the cushion is engraved the Latin distich, "Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, Terra tegit, populus mæret, Olympus habet;" and, on a tablet underneath, "Stay, passenger, why dost thou go so fast, Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath plac'd * Leonard Digges published some encomiastic verses on Shakspeare before the expiration of seven years from the poet's death, in which he speaks familiarly of the "Stratford Monument." Within this monument; Shakspeare, with whom Of the family of Skakspeare something remains to be said. His wife survived him seven years, and died on the 6th of August, 1623, being sixty-seven years of age.* I fear that the marriage of the poet was not productive of that long continued bliss which he anticipated. His wife did not reside with him in London; their children were born within the first few years of their marriage; and in his will Shakspeare speaks of her with the cold and brief notice, "I give unto my wife my second-best bed, with the furniture."t In connection with these circumstances I may mention the story of Shakspeare's gallantry at Oxford, which has been transmitted to us by authority as respectable as any that can be quoted for the traditionary part of the poet's history. In his journeys to and from Stratford and London, the dramatist often baited at the Crown Inn, in Oxford. Mine hostess was beautiful and witty; her husband a grave and discreet citizen, of a melancholy disposition, but a lover of plays * Mrs. Shakspeare's tomb-stone in Stratford church. + Note P. |