On the 5th of June, 1607, the Poet's eldest daughter, Susanna, then in her twenty-fifth year, was married to Mr. John Hall, of Stratford, a practising physician of good standing. The February following, Shakespeare became a grandfather; Elizabeth, the first and only child of John and Susanna Hall, being baptized on the 21st of that month. It is supposed, and with good reason, that Dr. Hall and his wife lived in the same house with the Poet: she was evidently deep in her father's heart; she is said to have had something of his genius and temper; the house was large enough for them all; nor are there wanting signs of entire affection between Mrs. Hall and her mother. Add to all this the Poet's manifest fondness for children, and his gentle and affable disposition, and we have the elements of a happy family and a cheerful home, such as might well render a good-natured man impatient of the stage. Of the moral and religious spirit and tenour of domestic life at New Place, we are not allowed to know: at a later period, the Shakespeares seem to have been not a little distinguished for works of piety and charity. The chamberlain's accounts show the curious entry, in 1614, of 1 s. 8d. “for one quart of sack and one quart of claret wine, given to a preacher at the New Place." The worshipful corporation of Stratford seem to have been at this time rather addicted to Puritanism, as they could not endure plays within their jurisdiction: why they should thus have volunteered a part towards entertaining the preacher, if he were not minded like them, and why they should have suffered him to put up at New Place, if he were, are matters about which we can only speculate.

On the 10th of February, 1616, Shakespeare saw his youngest daughter, Judith, married to Thomas Quiney, of Stratford, a vintner and wine-merchant. He was a son of the Richard Quiney who requested from the Poet a loan of £30 in 1598, and who died in May, 1602, being at that time

High-Bailiff of Stratford. From the way Shakespeare mentions his daughter's marriage-portion in his will, it is evident that he gave his sanction to the match. Which may be cited as arguing that he had not himself experienced any such evils, as some have been fond of alleging, from the woman being older than the man; for his daughter had four years the start of her husband; she being at the time of her marriage thirty-one, and he twenty-seven.

Shakespeare was still in the meridian of life. There was no special cause, that we know of, why he might not live many years longer. It were vain to conjecture what he would have done, had more years been given him; possibly, instead of augmenting his legacy to us, he would have recalled and suppressed more or less of what he had written as our inheritance. For the last two or three years, at least, he seems to have left his pen unused; as if, his own ends once achieved, he set no value on that mighty sceptre with which he since sways so large a portion of mankind. That the motives and ambitions of authorship had little to do in the generation of his works, is evident from the serene carelessness with which he left them to shift for themselves; tossing those wonderful treasures from him as if he thought them good for nothing but to serve the hour.

It was in and for the theatre that his multitudinous genius was developed, and his works produced; there fortune, or rather Providence, had cast his lot. Doubtless it was his nature, in whatever he undertook, to do his best. As an honest and true man, he would, if possible, make the temple of the Drama a noble, a beautiful, and glorious place; and it was while working quietly and unobtrusively in furtherance of this end-building better than he knew - that he approved himself the greatest, wisest, sweetest of men.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE departed this life on the 23d of April, 1616. Two days after, his remains were buried be

The

neath the chancel of Trinity Church, in Stratford. burial took place on the day before the anniversary of his baptism; and it has been commonly believed that his death. fell on the anniversary of his birth. If so, he had just entered his fifty-third year.

Thus much, or rather thus little, is about all that we are permitted to know touching the personal history of, probably, the greatest intellect that ever appeared in our world. The materials for a biography of Shakespeare are scanty indeed, and, withal, rather dry. Nevertheless, there is enough, I think, to show, that in all the common dealings of life he was eminently gentle, candid, upright, and judicious; open-hearted, genial, and sweet, in his social intercourses; among his companions and friends, full of playful wit and sprightly grace; kind to the faults of others, severe to his own; quick to discern and acknowledge merit in another, modest and slow of finding it in himself: while, in the smooth and happy marriage, which he seems to have realized, of the highest poetry and art with systematic and successful prudence in business affairs, we have an example of compact and well-rounded practical manhood, such as may justly engage our admiration and respect.

As to the immediate cause or occasion of the Poet's death, we have no information beyond what has been quoted from Ward. Stratford seems to have been rather noted in those days for bad drainage. Garrick tells us that even in his time it was "the most dirty, unseemly, ill-paved, wretched looking town in all Britain." Epidemics were frequent there in the Poet's time; and not long after his death we hear, from Dr. Hall, of "the new fever," which "invaded many" of the Stratford people: he also mentions, though without stating the time, his having cured Michael Drayton, "an excellent poet," of a tertian ague. Perhaps Drayton was on a visit to his friend Shakespeare at the time; but, as he also

was a Warwickshire man, this cannot be inferred with certainty. The Poet's will was first dated the 25th of January, 1616, but afterward March was substituted for January. It appears also that his will must have been drawn up before the marriage of his daughter Judith, as he speaks of her only by her maiden name. It seems not unlikely that, being in January doubtfully ill, he may have prepared the document; then, finding himself getting better, he may have over-indulged in some festivity with his friends, which brought on a fatal relapse. The Poet, it is true, begins his will by stating that he makes it "in perfect health and memory": this may have been mere matter of form,- or such may have been But it would seem to

really the case at the time of writing. have been otherwise at the time of the execution; for several good judges have remarked that the Poet's signatures, of which there are three, in as many different places of the will, appear written with an infirm and unsteady hand, as if his energies were shattered by disease.

During his sickness, the Poet was most likely attended by his son-in-law. Dr. Hall was evidently a man of considerable science and skill in his profession. This appears from certain memoranda which he left, of cases that occurred in his practice. The notes were written in Latin, but were translated from his manuscript, and published by Jonas Cooke in 1657, with the title of "Select Observations on English Bodies." As Dr. Hall did not begin to make notes of his practice till 1617, he furnishes no information touching the Poet.

A copy of the will, as it has been given with great care by Mr. Halliwell from the original, may be found at the end of this Life; so that there is no need of presenting any analysis of its contents here. One item, however, must not pass unnoticed: "I give unto my wife the second best bed, with the furniture." As this is the only mention made of

her, the circumstance was for a long time regarded as betraying a strange indifference, or something worse, on the testator's part towards his wife. And on this has hung the main argument that the union was not a happy one. We owe to Mr. Knight an explanation of the matter; which is so simple and decisive, that we can only wonder it was not hit upon before. Shakespeare's property was mostly freehold; and in all this the widow had what is called right of dower fully secured to her by the ordinary operation of English law. As for "the second best bed," it was doubtless the very thing which a loving and beloved wife would be sure to prize above any other article of furniture in the establishment.

In some verses by Leonard Digges, prefixed to the folio of 1623, allusion is made to Shakespeare's "Stratford monument"; which shows that the monument had been placed in the church before that date. It represents the Poet with a cushion before him, a pen in his right hand, and his left resting on a scroll "The bust," says Wivell," is fixed under an arch, between two Corinthian columns of black marble, with gilded bases and capitals, supporting the entablature; above which, and surmounted by a death's-head, are carved his arms, on each side is a small figure in a sitting posture; one holding in his left hand a spade, and the other, whose eyes are closed, with an inverted torch in his left hand, the right resting upon a skull, as symbols of mortality." As originally coloured, the eyes were a light hazel, the hair auburn, the dress a scarlet doublet, and a loose black gown without sleeves thrown over it. In 1748, the colours were carefully restored; but in 1793, Malone, with strange taste, had the whole painted white by a common house-painter. Dugdale informs us that the monument was the work of Gerard Johnson, an eminent sculptor of that period. It was doubtless done at the instance and cost of