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name of the Great House in Stratford. A good part of the estate was in possession of Edward Clopton, Esq. and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. in 1733. The principal estate had been sold out of the Clopton family for above a century, at the time when Shakspeare became the purchaser; who having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New Place, which the mansion-house afterwards erected, in the room of the poet's house, retained for many years. The house and lands belonging to it continued in the possession of Shakspeare's descendants to the time of the restoration, when they were re-purchased by the Clopton family. Here in May 1742, when Mr. Garrick, Mr. Macklin, and Mr. Delane, visited Stratford, they were hospitably entertained under Shakspeare's mulberrytree by Sir Hugh Clopton. He was a barrister at law, was knighted by King George I. and died in the 80th year of his age, in Dec. 1751. His executor, about the year 1752, sold New Place to the Rev. Mr. Gastrell, a man of large fortune, who resided in it but a few years in consequence of a disagreement with the inhabitants of Stratford. As he resided part of the year at Lichfield, he thought he was assessed too highly in the monthly rate towards the maintenance of the poor; but being very properly compelled by

the magistrates of Stratford to pay the whole of what was levied on him, on the principle that his house was occupied by his servants in his absence, he peevishly declared, that that house should never be assessed again; and soon afterwards pulled it down, sold the materials, and left the town. He had some time before cut down Shakspeare's mulberry tree,* to save himself the trouble of shewing it to those whose admiration of our great poet led them to visit the classic ground on which it stood. That Shakspeare planted this tree appears to be sufficiently authenticated. Where New Place stood is now a garden.Before concluding this history, it may be necessary to mention that the poet's house was once honoured by the temporary residence of Henrietta Maria, queen to Charles I. Theobald has given an inaccurate account of this, as if she had been obliged to take refuge in Stratford from the rebels;

* "As the curiosity of this house and tree brought much fame, and more company and profit to the town, a certain man, on some disgust, has pulled the house down, so as not to leave one stone upon another, and cut down the tree, and piled it as a stack of firewood, to the great vexation, loss, and disappointment, of the inhabitants; however, an honest silversmith bought the whole stack of wood, and makes many odd things of this wood for the curious." Letter in Annual Register, 1760. Of Mr. Gastrell and his Lady, see Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson, Vol. II. p. 356. Edit. 1793.

but that was not the case. She marched from Newark, June 16, 1643, and entered Stratford triumphantly about the 22d of the same month, at the head of 3000 foot and 1500 horse, with 150 waggons and a train of artillery. Here she was met by Prince Rupert, accompanied by a large body of troops. She resided about three weeks at our poet's house, which was then possessed by his grand daughter Mrs. Nash, and her husband.

During Shakspeare's abode in this house, his pleasurable wit, and good-nature, says Mr. Rowe, engaged him the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Among these Mr. Rowe tells a traditional story of a miser, or usurer, named Combe, who, in conversation with Shakspeare, said he fancied the poet intended to write his epitaph if he should survive him, and desired to know what he meant to say. On this Shakspeare gave him the following, probably extempore:

"Ten in the hundred lies here ingrav'd,
'Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not sav'd,
If any man ask, who lies in this tombe?
Oh! ho! quoth the devil, 'tis my

John-a-Combe."

The sharpness of the satire is said to have stung the man so severely that he never forgave it. These lines, however, or some which nearly re

*

semble them, appeared in various collections both before and after the time they were said to have been composed; and the inquiries of Mr. Steevens and Mr. Malone satisfactorily prove that the whole story is a fabrication. Betterton is said to have heard it when he visited Warwickshire on purpose to collect anecdotes of our poet, and probably thought it of too much importance to be nicely examined.-We know not whether it be worth adding of a story which we have rejected, than a usurer in Shakspeare's time did not mean one who took exorbitant, but any interest or usance for money, and that ten in the hundred, or ten per cent. was then the ordinary interest of money. It is of more consequence, however, to record the opinion of Mr. Malone; that Shakspeare, during his retirement, wrote the play of Twelfth Night.

He died on his birth-day, Tuesday, April 23, 1616, when he had exactly completed his fiftysecond year, *and was buried on the north side of the chancel, in the great church at Stratford, where a monument is placed in the wall, on which he is represented under an arch, in a sitting posture, a cushion spread before him, with a pen in

* The only notice we have of his person is from Aubrey, who says, "He was a handsome well-shaped man," and adds, "verie good company, and of a very ready, and pleasant and smooth wit."

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his right hand, and his left rested on a scroll of paper. The following Latin distich is engraved under the cushion:

Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem,

Terra tegit, populus mæret, Olympus habet.

"The first syllable in Socratem, says Mr. "Steevens, is here made short, which cannot be "allowed. Perhaps we should read Sophoclem. "Shakspeare is then appositely compared with a "dramatick author among the ancients: but still "it should be remembered that the eulogium is "lessened while the metre is reformed; and it is "well known that some of our early writers of "Latin poetry were uncommonly negligent in "their prosody, especially in proper names. The

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thought of this distich, as Mr. Tollet observes, "might have been taken from The Faëry Queene "of Spenser, B. II. c. ix. st. 48, and c. x. st. 3. "To this Latin inscription on Shakspeare may "be added the lines which are found underneath "it on his monument:

"Stay, passenger, why dost thou go so fast?

"Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath plac'd "Within this monument; Shakspeare, with whom "Quick nature dy'd; whose name doth deck the tomb "Far more than cost; since all that he hath writ "Leaves living art but page to serve his wit.".

"Obiit An°. Dni. 1616.
æt. 53, die 23 Apri.

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