The
inscription mentions his age at the time of his decease- fifty-three
years; an untimely death for the world: for what fruit might not
have been expected from the golden autumn of such a mind, sheltered as
it was from the stormy vicissitudes of life, and flourishing in the
sunshine of popular and royal favor.
The inscription on the tombstone has not been without its effect. It
has prevented the removal of his remains from the bosom of his
native place to Westminster Abbey, which was at one time contemplated.
A few years since also, as some laborers were digging to make an
adjoining vault, the earth caved in, so as to leave a vacant space
almost like an arch, through which one might have reached into his
grave. No one, however, presumed to meddle with his remains so awfully
guarded by a malediction; and lest any of the idle or the curious,
or any collector of relics, should be tempted to commit
depredations, the old sexton kept watch over the place for two days,
until the vault was finished and the aperture closed again. He told me
that he had made bold to look in at the hole, but could see neither
coffin nor bones; nothing but dust. It was something, I thought, to
have seen the dust of Shakspeare.
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