The monument, carved in pale blue limestone,[2] is mounted on the north wall of the chancel. It has traditionally been identified as the work of the sculptor Gerard Johnson, but this attribution is challenged by Lena Cowen Orlin, who argues that it was more likely modelled from life by Gerard's brother, Nicholas Johnson.[3][4] The monument features a demi-figure of the poet holding a (real) quill pen in one hand and a piece of paper resting on a cushion in the other. The style, which was popular from the early- to the mid-17th century, was most commonly used to memorialize divines, academics, and those professions with pretensions of learning.[5][6]
The buttoned doublet, with its ornamental slashes, was probably originally painted scarlet, the loose subfusc gown black, the eyes hazel, and the hair and beard auburn.[7] It has been retouched many times, and was painted entirely white in 1793.[2] This demi-figure is one of only two representations definitely accepted as accurately portraying William Shakespeare's physical appearance. The monument is topped with strapwork rising to a heraldic shield displaying Shakespeare's arms, on either side of which sits an allegorical figure: one, representing Labour, holds a spade, the other, representing Rest, holds an inverted torch and a skull.[8]
The two columns that support the entablatures and coat-of-arms above the bust are of black polished marble. The two putti and the skull are of sandstone, and the capitals and bases of the columns are of gilded sandstone. The architraves, frieze and cornice were originally of red-veined white alabaster, but they were replaced in 1749 with white marble.[9] The effigy and the cushion are carved of one piece of bluish Cotswold limestone, and the inlaid panels are of black touchstone.[8]
The date the monument was erected is not known exactly, but it must have been before 1623; in that year, the First Folio of Shakespeare's works was published, prefaced by a poem by Leonard Digges that mentions "thy Stratford moniment" [sic]. John Weever transcribed the monument inscription and grave epitaph, and H. R. Woudhuysen's analysis of the undated manuscript suggests that his visit to Stratford was made not much later than 1617–18.[10] The monument was restored in 1748–49 and has been repainted several times.
Inscriptions
The memorial plaque on Shakespeare's monument
Beneath the figure is engraved an epitaph in Latin and a poem in English. The epitaph reads:
IVDICIO PYLIVM, GENIO SOCRATEM, ARTE MARONEM, TERRA TEGIT, POPVLVS MÆRET, OLYMPVS HABET
The first line translates as "A Pylian in judgement, a Socrates in genius, a Maro in art," comparing Shakespeare to Nestor the wise King of Pylos, to the Greek philosopher Socrates, and to the Roman poet Virgil (whose last name, or cognomen was Maro). The second reads "The earth buries him, the people mourn him, Olympus possesses him," referring to Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods.
The English poem reads:
STAY PASSENGER, WHY GOEST THOV BY SO FAST,
READ IF THOV CANST, WHOM ENVIOVS DEATH HATH PLAST WITH IN THIS MONVMENT SHAKSPEARE: WITH WHOME, QVICK NATVRE DIDE: WHOSE NAME, DOTH DECK YSTOMBE, FAR MORE, THEN COST: SIEH ALL, YT HE HATH WRITT,
Read if thou canst, whom envious Death hath plast Within this monument Shakspeare: with whom Quick nature died: whose name doth deck this tomb Far more than cost: sith [since] all that he hath writ
Leaves living art, but page to serve his wit.
Stanley Wells is one of the few biographers to comment on the poem, saying that it "somewhat cryptically calls on the passer-by to pay tribute to his greatness as a writer", and admitting "the only sense I can make out of the last bit is that his compositions relegate the sculptor's art to the rank of a mere page – with perhaps a forced pun on the writer's 'pages' – offering service to his genius; or perhaps that all art subsequent to Shakespeare's is a page – servant – to his." Wells also points out that "his name does not deck the tomb, and it's not a tomb anyway", suggesting that it may have been originally designed to be part of a free-standing tomb.[12]
Beneath the poem, in smaller lettering, an inscription gives the details of his death in abbreviated Latin: died the year of the Lord 1616, in his 53rd year, on 23 April.[13]
OBIIT AŃO DOI 1616 ÆTATIS٠53 DIE 23 APR.
History
Painting of monument by limner John Hall made before its 1748–49 restoration
The monument was first illustrated and discussed in print in Sir William Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656) [14] in which Dugdale wrote that Stratford "gave birth and sepulture to our late famous Poet Will. Shakespere, whose Monument I have inserted in my discourse of the Church."[15] The engraving, almost certainly by Wenceslaus Hollar, was done from an original rough sketch made by Dugdale, probably in 1649,[16] likely under the patronage of Shakespeare's granddaughter (and last living descendant), Elizabeth Barnard.[16] Both depictions exhibit marked differences from the monument as it appears today: the poet is not shown holding a quill or paper, and the cushion appears to be tipped up against his body. The art critic Marion Spielmann described it as giving the impression that Shakespeare was pressing the cushion to his groin, "which, for no reason, except perhaps abdominal pains, is hugged against what dancing-masters euphemistically term the 'lower chest'".[17] The print was copied by later engravers.[18]
In 1725, Alexander Pope's edition of Shakespeare's works included the first engraving of the monument as it now looks, made by George Vertue in 1723. A drawing of the monument in situ by Vertue also survives.[19] An account by John Aubrey, written in the early 1670s (but possibly based on observations made a decade or two earlier), describes Shakespeare as wearing "a Tawny satten doublet I thinke pinked and over that a black gowne like an Under-gratuates at Oxford, scilicet the sleeves of the gowne doe not cover the armes, but hang loose behind".[20]
The monument was restored in 1748–49. Parson Joseph Greene, master of Stratford grammar school, organised the first known performance of a Shakespeare play in Stratford to fund the restoration.[21]John Ward's company agreed to perform Othello in the Town Hall on 9 September 1746, with all receipts going to help pay for the restoration.[22]
Writing soon after the restoration, Greene wrote that "the figure of the Bard" was removed to be "cleansed of dust &c". He noted that the figure and cushion were carved from a single piece of limestone. He added that "care was taken, as nearly as could be, not to add to or diminish what the work consisted of, and appear'd to have been when first erected: And really, except changing the substance of the Architraves from alabaster to Marble; nothing has been chang'd, nothing alter'd, except supplying with original material, (sav'd for that purpose,) whatsoever was by accident broken off; reviving the Old Colouring, and renewing the Gilding that was lost".[9]John Hall, the limner from Bristol hired to do the restoration, painted a picture of the monument on pasteboard before 1748.[23] Greene also had a plaster cast of the head made before the restoration began.[24]
Shakespeare's pen has been repeatedly stolen and replaced since, and the paint has been renewed. In 1793 Edmond Malone, the noted Shakespeare scholar, persuaded the vicar to paint the monument white, in keeping with the Neoclassical taste of the time. The paint was removed in 1861 and the monument was repainted in the colours recovered from beneath the white layer.[25]
In 1973 intruders removed the figure from its niche and tried to chip out the inscription. Local police took the view that they were looking for valuable Shakespeare manuscripts, which were rumoured to be hidden within the monument. According to Sam Schoenbaum, who examined it after the incident, the figure suffered only "very slight damage".[26]
Interpretations
A fanciful 1857 painting by Henry Wallis depicting Gerard Johnson carving the monument, while Ben Jonson shows him Shakespeare's death mask
In the 1850s, the scientist Richard Owen argued that a death mask discovered in Germany by Ludwig Becker in 1849, known as the Kesselstadt Death Mask, was probably used by Gerard Johnson to model the face of the effigy. The mask had been claimed to be of Shakespeare because of a similarity to an alleged Shakespeare portrait Becker had bought two years earlier.[27] This was depicted by the painter Henry Wallis in his imaginary scene portraying Ben Jonson showing the death mask to the sculptor.[28] However, measurements of the mask and the monument figure did not correspond, most notably the bony structure of the forehead, and the idea was discredited.[29] Though the Kesselstadt mask does not seem to fit, Park Honan asserts that the facial features of the monument do appear to have been modelled on a mask: "His eyes stare, the face is heavy and the nose is small and sharp. Because of the shrinkage of the muscles and possibly of the nostrils, the upper lip is elongated".[30]
Lena Cowen Orlin, however, proposes that the monument may have been commissioned by Shakespeare himself, during his lifetime, from Nicholas Johnson; and that the effigy was sculpted from the life.[3][4]
Critics have generally been unkind about the appearance of the sculpture. Thomas Gainsborough wrote that "Shakespeare's bust is a silly smiling thing". J. Dover Wilson, a critic and biographer of Shakespeare, once remarked that the Bard's effigy makes him look like a "self-satisfied pork butcher."[31] Sir Nikolaus Pevsner pointed out that the iconographical type represented by the figure is that of a scholar or divine; his description of the effigy is "a self-satisfied schoolmaster".[32]
Schoenbaum, however, says the monument is a typical example of Jacobean Renaissance style,[33] and Spielmann says the "stiff simplicity" of the figure was more suitable for a sepulchral sculpture in a church than a more life-like depiction.[34]
Gallery
Sketch by William Dugdale, probably made in 1649, and afterwards used by Wenceslaus Hollar for his engraving in Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire
The first published illustration of the monument, in Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656), engraved by Hollar
Hollar engraving in full context
Later page in Dugdale identifying the above monument as that of "our late famous Poet Will. Shakespere", who was born and was buried in Stratford-upon-Avon
Michael Van der Gucht's engraving for Nicholas Rowe's Works of Mr. William Shakespear (1709), made from a plate copied from Hollar, as the reversed shadowing indicates
↑ Kemp, Brian (1980). English Church Monuments. London: Batsford. p.77. ISBN0713417358.
↑ Sherlock, Peter (2008). Monuments and Memory in Early Modern England. Aldershot: Ashgate. p.150. ISBN9780754660934.
↑ Honan, Park. Shakespeare: A Life. Oxford University Press. 1998. pp. 402–03 ISBN0-19-811792-2
1 2 Schoenbaum, S. (1987). William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life, Oxford University Press, p. 308.
1 2 Fox, Levi, ed. The Correspondence of the Reverend Joseph Greene, HMSO, 1965, p. 171.
↑ Duncan-Jones, Katherine, and H. R. Woudhuysen, eds. (2007) Shakespeare's Poems London: Arden Shakespeare, Thomson Learning. ISBN978-1-90343-687-5, pp. 438, 462.
↑ Duncan-Jones, Katherine (2001). Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes from His life, Arden Shakespeare. p. 272.
↑ Wells, Stanley (2002). Shakespeare For All Time, Oxford Shakespeare. p. 48.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Sir William Dugdale was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.
John Shakespeare was an English businessman and politician who was the father of William Shakespeare. Active in Stratford-upon-Avon, he was a glover and whittawer by trade. Shakespeare was elected to several municipal offices, serving as an alderman and culminating in a term as bailiff, the chief magistrate of the town council, and mayor of Stratford in 1568, before he fell on hard times for reasons unknown. His fortunes later revived and he was granted a coat of arms five years before his death, probably at the instigation and expense of his son, the actor and playwright.
The Chandos portrait is the most famous of the portraits that are believed to depict William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Painted between 1600 and 1610, it may have served as the basis for the engraved portrait of Shakespeare used in the First Folio in 1623. It is named after the 3rd Duke of Chandos, who formerly owned the painting. The portrait was given to the National Portrait Gallery, London, on its foundation in 1856, and it is listed as the first work in its collection.
Sir Thomas Lucy was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1571 and 1585. He was a magistrate in Warwickshire, but is best known for his links to William Shakespeare. As a Protestant activist, he came into conflict with Shakespeare's Catholic relatives, and there are stories that the young Shakespeare himself had clashes with him.
Wilmcote is a village, and since 2004 a separate civil parish, in the English county of Warwickshire, about 3 miles (5 km) north of Stratford-upon-Avon. Prior to 2004, it was part of the same parish as Aston Cantlow, and the 2001 population for the whole area was 1,670, reducing to 1,229 at the 2011 Census.
William Shakespeare was an actor, playwright, poet, and theatre entrepreneur in London during the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras. He was baptised on 26 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, in the Holy Trinity Church. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children. He died in his home town of Stratford on 23 April 1616, aged 52.
Susanna Hall was the oldest child of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway and the older sister of twins Judith and Hamnet Shakespeare. Susanna married John Hall, a local physician, in 1607. They had one daughter, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth married Thomas Nash, son of Anthony Nash on 22 April 1626 at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Richard Shakespeare was a husbandman of Snitterfield, Warwickshire, four miles (6.5 km) north-northeast of Stratford-upon-Avon, the father of John Shakespeare and the grandfather of William Shakespeare.
Thomas Quiney was the husband of William Shakespeare's daughter Judith Shakespeare, and a vintner and tobacconist in Stratford-upon-Avon. Quiney held several municipal offices in the corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon, the highest being chamberlain in 1621 and 1622, but was also fined for various minor offences.
No contemporary physical description of William Shakespeare is known to exist. The two portraits of him that are the most famous are the engraving that appears on the title-page of the First Folio, published in 1623, and the other is the sculpture that adorns his memorial in Stratford upon Avon, which dates from before 1623. Experts and critics have argued that several other paintings from the period may represent him, and more than 60 portraits purporting to be of Shakespeare were offered for sale to the National Portrait Gallery within four decades of its foundation in 1856, but in none of them has Shakespeare's identity been proven.
Gerard Johnson Jr. was a sculptor working in Jacobean England who is traditionally supposed to have created Shakespeare's funerary monument. In May 1612 Johnson was paid for making part of a fountain for the east garden at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire.
Thomas Nash was the first husband of William Shakespeare's granddaughter Elizabeth Barnard. He lived most of his life in Stratford-upon-Avon, and was the dominant male figure amongst Shakespeare's senior family line after the death of Dr. John Hall, Shakespeare's son-in-law, in 1635.
Sir Hercules Underhill (1581–1658) was the son of William Underhill of Warwickshire, owner of New Place in Stratford-Upon-Avon. William Underhill sold New Place to William Shakespeare in 1597, and Hercules Underhill confirmed the sale in 1602.
Gilbert Shakespeare was a 16th-/17th-century English haberdasher, and a younger brother of playwright and poet William Shakespeare. His name is found in local records of Stratford-upon-Avon and London.
The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument that someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him. Anti-Stratfordians—a collective term for adherents of the various alternative-authorship theories—believe that Shakespeare of Stratford was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason—usually social rank, state security, or gender—did not want or could not accept public credit. Although the idea has attracted much public interest, all but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe theory, and for the most part acknowledge it only to rebut or disparage the claims.
The Droeshout portrait or Droeshout engraving is a portrait of William Shakespeare engraved by Martin Droeshout as the frontispiece for the title page of the First Folio collection of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623. It is one of only two works of art definitively identifiable as a depiction of the poet; the other is the statue erected as his funeral monument in Shakespeare's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Both are posthumous.
William Clopton (1538–1592) was a member of the English gentry who inherited New Place in Stratford upon Avon, and in 1563 sold it to William Bott.
Fulke Underhill (1578–1599) was the son of William Underhill II of Warwickshire, owner of New Place in Stratford-Upon-Avon. His father sold New Place to William Shakespeare in 1597, and his brother Hercules Underhill confirmed the sale in 1602. Fulke was alleged to have murdered his father by poison, but sources differ on whether he was accused, tried, and hanged, or accused only after his death; see below.
William Shakespeare's last will and testament was signed on 25 March 1616, just under a month before his death. The document has been studied for details of his personal life, for his opinions, and for his attitudes towards his two daughters, Susanna and Judith, and their respective husbands, John Hall and Thomas Quiney. The best-known passage of the will is the bequest to the wife of his "second best bed". The significance of this phrase is not certain.
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