1663 (a MS. in the Herald's College), is given the inscription upon a tomb in Tonge church to the memory of Sir Thomas Stanley, who died in 1576, upon the cast and west ends of which respectively are the following verses, written, according to Dugdale, "by William Shakespeare, the late famous tragedian."

Aske who lyes here, but do not weepe,

He is not dead, he doth but sleepe.
This stony register is for his bones,

His fame is more perpetuall than these stones,
And his own goodness, wth himself being gone,
Shall live when earthly monument is none.

Not monumentall stone preserves our fame,
Nor skye-aspiring piramids our name;
The memory of him for whom this stands
Shall outlive marble and defacers' hands:
When all to time's consumption shall be given,

Stanley, for whom this stands, shall stand in heaven!

Another epitaph, of far less merit, on Elias James, who was perhaps one of a family of that name who resided at Stratford, has been assigned to Shakespeare on the authority of an early manuscript in Rawlinson's collection in the Bodleian Library:

An Epitaph.

When God was pleas'd, the world unwilling yet,

Elias James to Nature payd his debt,

And here reposeth: as he liv'd he dyde,

The saying in him strongly verefide,

Such life, such death: then, the known truth to tell,

He liv'd a godly life, and dyde as well.

Wm. Shakspeare.

In the accounts of Lord Harrington, Treasurer of the Chamber to James I. for 1613, the titles of several plays of Shakespeare occur as having been presented before Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine Elector, the two latter having left England in the April of that year.

Many other dramas were also played in the presence of the illustrious foreigners, but the following entry is the only one in which any of Shakespeare's are mentioned. The original MS. of these accounts is preserved in the Bodleian Library, in Rawlinson's collection, A. 239:*

Paid to John Heminges uppon the councells warrt, dated at Whitehall, xx die Maii 1613, for presentinge before the Princes Hignes, the La. Elizabeth, and the Prince Pallatyne Elector, fowerteene severall playes, viz. one playe called Filaster, one other call'd the Knott of Fooles, one other Much Adoe abowte Nothinge, the Mayeds Tragedie, the Merye Dyvell of Edmonton, the Tempest, a Kinge and no Kinge, the Twins Tragedie, the Winters' Tale, Sr. John Falstafe, the Moore of Venice, the Nobleman, Cæsars Tragedye, and one other called Love lyes a Bleedinge, all weh playes weare played wthin the tyme of this accompte, viz. p the some of iiij.(xx).xiij.li. vjs. viij.d.

The latter part of Shakespeare's life, according to Rowe, was spent, as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends;" and the same writer adds, that he "is said to have spent some years before his death at his native Stratford." The last notice of Shakespeare in London is dated in November 1614, and no account of his engagements in the following year has yet been discovered. On February 10th, 1616, his daughter Judith was married to Thomas Queeny, whose father in 1598 had applied to Shakespeare for a loan of £30 (p. 178). Their son, Shakespeare Quiny, baptized in the following November, was probably named after the deceased poet; and there can be no doubt, from the notice in Shakespeare's will, that the nuptials were celebrated with his sanction. It has been supposed that the will had special reference to this marriage, having been originally dated "vicesimo quinto die Januarii, anno regni domini nostri

*Copies of the entries in this MS. relating to plays were published by Mr. Cunningham in the Shakespeare Society's Papers, ii. 123, from an interleaved copy of Langbaine. The original MS. supplies a few immaterial corrections. It has been referred to by Malone.

Jacobi nunc regis Angliæ &c. decimo quarto," but the 25th of January in the fourteenth year of James fell in 1617, so that we may perhaps conclude this was only a clerical error. The poet is there described as in perfect health and memory, yet in a few short weeks he was no more. Shakespeare died at New Place on April 23d, 1616, and was buried in the chancel of Stratford church two days afterwards.

Edward Allen, the celebrated actor, and Shakespeare's contemporary, made a large fortune by his professional labours, and took the surest method of succeeding in a praiseworthy desire to hand down his name and industry to future generations, by a noble foundation not affected by the vicissitudes which attend the continuance of property in the hands of descendants. The name of Shakespeare is bequeathed by his works in perpetuity to all posterity, and it needs no artificial support such as this; but it is undeniable that, unconscious of his future eminence, our great dramatist was actuated by a similar anxiety, and that his continued increase of property in the neighbourhood of his early home had constant reference to the establishment of a family which should for ages inherit the fruits of his exertions.* The limitations of our law of entail occasioned the.. poet's wishes to be defeated within a very short period after his decease; and, although no lineal descendants from him. remain, there is too much reason to fear the representatives of Shakespeare on his sister's side are not in a position we can contemplate with satisfaction. The will is the last document written in the lifetime of the poet that can be produced. It is preserved in the Prerogative Office, London, and has been printed several times, but most accurately by

Shakespear, whom you and ev'ry playhouse bill
Style the divine, the matchless, what you will,
For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight,

And grew immortal in his own despight.-Pope, ed. 1770, ü. 264.

Mr. Collier, who has considered it necessary to follow the original in its numerous capital letters and want of punctuation. There are several interlineations in the document, which are here indicated by italics as more convenient than foot-notes. It is guarded with unusual care, and the public are not permitted to collate copies with the original; so that a great deal of what has been said about the difficulty of editing it really arises from want of opportunity, not from the MS. itself, which is written with sufficient clearness.

* In MS. Lansd. 721 is contained a copy of the probate of Shakespeare's will, communicated from Stratford in 1747 by the vicar to Mr. West. It is accompanied with the following curious observations:

"I have been extremely concern'd I shou'd disappoint you in your expectation of seeing Shakespear's will. As soon as you left me, I made a diligent search, and at length had the luck to meet with it, and hope for the time to come I shall have more prudence than to promise what I cannot readily perform: I have now transcribed it a second time, which transcript, as some small attonement, I humbly beg your acceptance of. I am pretty certain the thing itself will not come up to the idea you may have entertain'd of it, as it bears the name of Shakespear's will: The legacies and bequests therein are undoubtedly as he intended; but the manner of introducing them appears to me so dull and irregular, so absolutely void of the least particle of that spirit which animated our great poet, that it must lessen his character as a writer, to imagine the least sentence of it his production. The only satisfaction I receive in reading it, is to know who were his relations, and what he left them, which may perhaps just make you also amends for the trouble of perusing it."

Vicesimo quinto die Martii, anno regni domini nostri Jacobi, nunc regist Angliæ &c. decimo quarto, et Scotia xlixo. annoque Domini 1616.

T. Wmi. Shackspeare.

In the name of God, amen! I William Shackspeare, of Stratford upon Avon in the countie of Warr. gent. in perfect health and memorie, God be praysed, doe make and ordayne this my last will and testament in manner and forme followeing, that ys to saye, ffirst, I comend my soule into the handes of God my Creator, hoping and assuredlie beleeving, through thonelie merites of Jesus Christe my Saviour, to be made partaker of lyfe everlastinge, and my bodye to the earth whereof yt ys‡ made. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto my daughter§ Judyth one hundred and fyftie poundes of lawfull English money, to be paied unto her in manner and forme followeing, that ys to saye, one hundred pounds in discharge of her marriage porcion within one yeare after my deceas, with consideracion after the rate of twoe shillinges in the pound for soe long tyme as the same shalbe unpaied unto her after my deceas, and the fyftie poundes residewe thereof upon her surrendring of or gyving of such sufficient securitie as the overseers of this my will shall like of to surrender or graunte all her estate and right that shall discend or come unto her after my deccas, or that shee nowe hath, of in or to one copiehold tenemente with thappurtenaunces lyeing and being in Stratford upon Avon aforesaied in the saied countie of Warr. being parcell or holden of the mannour of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall and her heires for ever. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto my saied daughter Judith one hundred and fyftic poundes more, if shee or anie issue of her bodie be lyvinge att thend of three yeares next ensueing the daie of the date of this my will, during which tyme my executours are to paie her consideracion from my deceas according to the rate aforesaid; and if she dye within the saied tearme without issue of her bodye, then my will ys, and I doe gyve and bequeath one hundred poundes thereof to my neece Elizabeth Hall, and the fiftie poundes to be sett fourth by my executours during the lief of my sister Johane Harte, and the use and proffitt thereof cominge shalbe payed to my saied sister Jone, and after her deccas the saied 1." shall remaine amongst the children of my saied sister equallie to be devided amongst them; but if my saied daughter Judith be lyving att thend of the saied three yeares, or anie yssue of her bodye, then my will ys and|| soe I devise and bequeath the saied hundred and fyftie poundes to be sett out by my executours and overseers for the best benefitt of her and her issue, and the stock not to be paied unto her soe long as

*Originally written Januarii.

† Mr. Collier incorrectly reads rer, the original being R. contracted. Was in the copy of the probate in MS. Lansd. 721.

Originally sonne and daughter, but afterwards altered.

Mr. Hunter asserts that the will has never been sufficiently well edited, saying, as an example, that the word and in this place is not to be found there; but, in fact, the usual contracted form of the conjunction is evidently seen in the original. Compare similar passages in Combe's will.