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surprise. "I loved the man," says Jonson, with a noble burst of enthusiasm," and do honour his memory on this side idolatry; as much as any. He was, indeed, honest; and of an open and free nature;" and Rowe, repeating the uncontradicted rumour of times past, has told us," that every one, who had a true taste of merit, and could distinguish men, had generally a just value and esteem for him;" adding, that his exceeding candour and good-nature must certainly have inclined all the gentler part of the world to love him.” *

No greater proof, indeed, can be given of the felicity of his temper, and the sweetness of his manners, than that all who addressed him, seem to have uniformly connected his name with the epithets worthy, gentle, or beloved†; nor was he backward in returning this esteem, many of his sonnets indicating the warmth with which he cherished the remembrance of his friends. Thus the thirtieth opens with the following pensive retrospect:

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh

For precious friends hid in death's dateless night;"

and in the thirty-first he tenderly exclaims,

"How many a holy and obsequious tear

Hath dear religious love stolen from mine eye,
As interest of the dead !"

Another very fascinating feature in the character of Shakspeare, was the almost constant cheerfulness and serenity of his mind: he was "verie good company," says Aubrey," and of a very ready, and pleasant, and smooth witt." In this, as Mr. Godwin has justly ob

* Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 67.

"My gentle Shakspeare" is the language of Jonson, in his Poem to the memory of our bard: and see the Commendatory Poems prefixed to the old editions of our author's works, in Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii.

Letters by Eminent Persons, from the Bodleian Library, vol. iii. p. 307.

served, he bore a striking resemblance to Chaucer, who was remarkable for the placidity and cheerfulness of his disposition *; nor can there, probably, be a surer indication of that peace and sunshine of the soul which surpasses all other gifts, than this habitual tone of mind.

That Shakspeare was entitled to its possession from his moral virtues, we have already seen; and that, in a religious point of view, he had a claim to the enjoyment, the numerous passages in his works, which breathe a spirit of pious gratitude and devotional rapture, will sufficiently declare. In fact, upon the topic of religious, as upon that of ethic wisdom, no profane poet can furnish us with a greater number of just and luminous aphorisms; passages which dwell upon the heart and reach the soul, for they have issued from lips of fire, from conceptions worthy of a superior nature, from feelings solemn and unearthly.

To these observations on the disposition and moral character of Shakspeare, we must add a few remarks on the taste which he seems to have possessed, in an exquisite degree, for all the forms of beauty, whether resulting from nature or from art. No person can study his writings, indeed, without perceiving, that, throughout the vast range of being, whatever is lovely and harmonious, whatever is sweet in expression, or graceful in proportion, was constantly present to his mind; that

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Nor was he a less delighted worshipper of the imitative efforts With what taste and enthusiasm, he has spoken of the

of art.

* Life of Chaucer, vol. iv. p. 175.

+ Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination, book i

effects of music, has been already observed; but it remains to notice in what a sublime spirit of piety he refers this concord of sweet sounds, to its source in that transcript of Almighty, "the world's harmonious volume:-"

"There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eye'd cherubins:

Such harmony is in immortal souls ;

But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." *

Of the beauties of painting and sculpture he appears to have had a keen and lively discernment. On Juko Romano, the most poetical, perhaps, of painters, he has pronounced, that "had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, he' would beguile Nature of her custom † ;" and of his masterly appreciation of the art of sculpture, the following lines from the The Winter's Tale, where Paulina unveils to Leontes the supposed statue of Hermione, afford evidence beyond all praise:

"Paul.

Here it is: prepare

To see the life as lively mock'd, as ever
Still sleep mock'd death: behold; and say, 'tis well.

(Paulina undraws a curtain, and discovers a statue.

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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. † 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. ‡

* Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. pp. 412-416. Act v. sc. 3.

+ Wheler's Guide to Stratford, p. 87.-" If Shakspeare's and Lord Totness's tombs," says Mr. Wheler, "were erected by one and the same artist, circumstances not at all improbable, it would not appear that he (Thomas Stanton, the sculptor) had any want of skill in preserving a resemblance; for the monumental likeness of Lord Totness strongly resembles the capital paintings of him in Clopton House, and at Gorhambury, in' Hertfordshire, as well as the engraving of him prefixed to his Hibernia Pacata,' a posthumous publication in 1633."-Vide p. 89.

The arms on this monument, are, point upwards, headed argent. — Crest, pale or.

Or, on a bend sable, a tilting spear of the first, A falcon displayed argent, supporting a spear in

On a tablet below the cushion are engraved the two following inscriptions:

"Judicio Pylivm, genio Socratem, arte Maronem,

Terra tegit, popvlvs mæret, Olympvs habet.”

"Stay passenger, why goest thov by so fast,
Read, if thov canst, whom envious death hath plast
Within this monument, Shakspeare; with whome
Quick natvre dide; whose name doth deck ys tombe
Far more than cost; sieth all yt. he hath writt,
Leaves living art, bvt page to serve his witt.

Obiit Ano. Doi. 1616. Ætatis 53. Die 23. Ap."

A flat stone which covers his grave, presents us with these singular lines, said to have been written by the bard himself, and which were probably suggested, as Mr. Malone has remarked, "by an apprehension that 'his' remains might share the same fate with those of the rest of his countrymen, and be added to the immense pile of human bones deposited in the charnel-house at Stratford:-*

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"Good frend, for Jesvs sake forbeare

To digg the dvst encloased heare;
Blese be ye. man yt. spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he yt. moves my bones."

6

We view the monumental bust of Shakspeare, observes Mr. Britton, as a family record; as a memorial raised by the affection and esteem of his relatives, to keep alive contemporary admiration, and to excite the glow of enthusiasm in posterity. This invaluable effigy' is attested by tradition, consecrated by time, and preserved in the inviolability of its own simplicity and sacred station. It was evidently executed immediately after the poet's decease; and probably under the superintendance of his son-in-law, Dr. Hall, and his daughter; the latter of whom, according to her epitaph, was witty above her sexe,' and therein like her father. Leonard Digges, in a poem prais

* Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 90.

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