Below the monument, and serving as a base to support the effigy, is a slab with the following epitaph: Ividicio Pylivm, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, Stay, Passenger, why goest thov by so fast? Ætatis 53 Die 23 Ap. CHAPTER XXVI DESCENDANTS AFTER the death of Shakespeare, his daughter Susanna and her husband moved to New Place, and thus provided a suitable home for the aging widow. Through the acquisition of the poet's wealth, Hall at once assumed a new importance in the social order of Stratford, and his fame as a practitioner rapidly spread in fashionable circles. About the same time Judith and her husband moved into a dwelling known as The Cage.1 Here in November a son was born to them, whom they christened "Shakespeare" in honor of his illustrious grandfather, and, we may suspect, not without hope that he might inherit the dramatist's estates left in entail to the eldest male line. With the marriage portion derived from his wife, Quiney set up an ale-house for the dispensing of liquors and tobacco, and became a person of some mark in the village. The following year he was elected to the Town Council, and also appointed one of the Chamberlains of the Corporation. On August 6, 1623, Shakespeare's widow died at New Place, aged sixty-seven. According to the clerk whom Dowdall interviewed, she "did earnestly desire to be laid in the same tomb" with her husband, but the sextons, in view of the warning verses, dared not open his grave. Her desire, however, was followed as nearly as possible, and she was placed next to the dramatist. On a brass plate affixed to the slab over her body there was inscribed a tribute of affection, composed, it seems, by her daughter Susanna, and turned into Latin by Mr. Hall: 1 They secured the lease of this house in the summer of 1616. The building, now modernized, is still to be seen in Stratford. Heere lyeth interred the body of Anne, wife of Ubera tu mater, tu lac, vitamque dedisti, Væ mihi pro tanto munere saxa dabo, Quam mallem amoueat lapidem bonus Angelus ore, Sed nil vota valent, venias cito Christe, resurget, The Latin verses may be thus rendered in English: O! might some Angel blest remove its weight, To meet thy Saviour in the starry skies.1 In 1626, Elizabeth, the only child of Susanna and Mr. Hall, then eighteen years of age, married Thomas Nash, eldest son of Shakespeare's friend Anthony Nash, remembered in the poet's will with a memorial ring. Nash had been well educated, and for a time had studied law at Lincoln's Inn, London. Upon his father's death, however, The Kashe he inherited considerable wealth, and re• turned to Stratford to manage his property. After his marriage to Elizabeth he moved into a fine house adjoining New Place, now commonly known as Nash House. Nine years later, on November 25, 1635, John Hall, the physician who had so successfully healed others, himself succumbed to a fatal illness, and was buried in the Stratford Church near the poet. Over his grave was 1 Translation by the Reverend J. Jackson. carved his coat of arms impaled with that of Shakespeare, and below, the inscription: Heere lyeth ye Body of John Hall, Gent. Hee marr. Susanna, ye daughter and coheire of Will. Shakespeare, Gent. 1635; Aged 60. Hee deceased Nove'. 25 Ao Hallius hic situs est, medica celeberrimus arte: Dignus erat meritis qui Nestora vinceret annis, Ne tumulo quid desit, adest fidissima conjux, Thomas Nash and Elizabeth now moved into New Place to live with the widowed Susanna; and Nash, at once assuming the position of head of the family, undertook to manage the Hall and Shakespeare properties as well as his own. But it must have been a source of grief to him and his wife that they had no child to inherit their combined fortunes and perpetuate the family which the dramatist had especially endowed Eliza Nash in his will. Indeed, under the terms of that will the Quineys were destined, so it seemed for a time, to acquire all the poet's estates; for though little Shakespeare had died at the age of six months, two other children, Richard and Thomas, had grown into sturdy young manhood. In 1639, however, both these young men were suddenly carried away by some contagious disease, Richard at the age of twenty-one, and Thomas at the age of nineteen; and no other children were born to Judith. Little of note happened in Stratford until July 11, 1643, when Queen Henrietta Maria, with an army of 2,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, 100 wagons, and a suitable equipment of artillery, arrived in the village. Her Majesty promptly established her Court at New Place, where, we may believe, she was heartily welcomed by the daughter and granddaughter of Shakespeare, a one-time King's THE SHIELD ON THE TOMB (The arms of Nash and Bulstrode Man, as well as by Thomas Nash, who in the September preceding had shown himself a stout royalist by contributing to the King's cause the largest sum from Stratford. The Queen was shortly joined by Prince Rupert, and the distinguished guests remained at New Place until July 13. In 1647, Thomas Nash died at the age of fifty-three, and was buried in the Stratford Church by the side of the poet. On the stone over his body was carved an elab orate shield displaying the arms of the Nash, Shakespeare, and Hall families, with the inscription below: Heere resteth Ye Body of Thomas The death of Nash left at New Place only the two women, Susanna Hall, aged sixty-four, and her daughter Elizabeth, aged thirty-eight. But within a year and two months Elizabeth sought consolation in a second husband. On June 5, 1649, she married John Barnard, of Abington Manor, a wealthy widower, aged forty-four, with a number of children. The Barnard family belonged to the ancient landed gentry of Northamptonshire. John's tombstone rather pompously describes him as "a man of most noble race, illustrious through his father, his grand |