The Rutland herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1850-1852, 1850-06-13
MILTOE-SHAKSPEARE-
POPE.


MTLTON-SHAKSPEARE-
POPE.
NEITHER of these great poets has
any living representative. Shakespeare
was the first man Of letters, Pope the
second, and Sir Walter Scott the third,
who, in Great Bri,ian, ever realized a
large fortune by Iterature--or in Chris
tendon, if we except Voltaire, and two
dubious cases in Italy.
Milton was thrice married, and left
three daughters, all by his first wife
(Mary Powell.l Anne. the eldest, mar
ried master builder, and died soon af.
terwarsis Mary, the second, died in a
single state and Deborah, the young
est, married Abraham Clarke, a weav-
er in Spitalfiel,, by whom she had sew
en- sons and three daughters. The dis.
tress into which she fell in consequence
ofthis imprudcnt marriage, experienced
some laie and partial relief from the
liberality Of Addison. and the less splen.
did munificence of Queen Caroline
OF her ten children two only left off
springs; Caleb. who, marrying in the
Fast Indies. had two sons, whose his
tory cannot now be traced; and Eliza
beth, who married Thomas Foster, a
weaver, by whom she had three sons
and four daughters, who all died young
and without issue. In old age and in
penury, Mrs. Foster was discovered in
a small chambers shop, and brought in
to public notice by DR.. Birch and DIR.
Newton. Attention being thus awak-
ened to the granddaughter Of Milton,
G"mus WAS performed for her benefit in
1850; and johnson, associated rs he
then was in the labors of the infamous
| Lauder, did not hesitate to supply the
occasional prologue. The profits of the
night were only Il30 sterling; yet this
was the greatest bcncfaction that the
Paradise Lost ever procured the auth.
ors descendants. Mrs. Foster died on
/ the 9th of May, 1854, and with her ex-
piren the last dcccendant Of the immor-
tai poet. Milton realized fifteen pounds
only for the copyright and extra sale
Of Pdradise Lost.
Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway
in 1882, in his nineteenth year. lie
had two daughters. Susanna married,
on the 9TH June, 1907, DR.. John Hall,
a physician in Stratford. The doctor
died in November, 1875, aged G0-his
wife died at the age Of six'y-six, on July
llth, lG4O. They had one child, a
daughter named Elizabe,h,born in 1908,
married. April 22, 1926, to Thomas
Nashe, Esq; left widow in l647, and
subsequently, re married to Sir John
barnard; but this Lady Barnard, the
sole granddaughter of the poet, had no
children by either marriage. The Sc
cond daughter. Judith, in February,
l6l6, (about ten weeks before her faith
er's death.) married Thomas Quincy,
of Stratford, by whom she had three
sons, Shakespeare, Richard and Thomas.
Judith was about thirty-one years old at
the time of her marriage; and living
just forty-six years afterwards, she died
in February. 1862, at the age of seven.
ty-seyen. Her three sons died without
issue and thus, in the direc, lineal de-
scent. il is certain that no representa-
tive has survived Of this transccndan
poet, the most august amongst crcatet
intellects.
Pope was born on the 2lst Of May
1858, and died Oh the 3O,h of May
l745, in the fifty-seventh year Of hi
age, $50 quietly that his attendant'
could not distinguish the exact momen
! of his dissolution" lie was at all time
, feeble in bodily health, and his deatl
was FASTENED by dropsy in the chest
, Pope was never married.
Thus the threelgreat poets of the six
T teenth, seventeenth and eighteenth cen
turies have no living descendants at thi'
q period.
The four or five latter years of Shak
, speare's life, he passed in dignifed ease
in profound meditation, and in univer
8 sal respect, at hi. native town of Strat
: ford.
: Pope obtained, from the sale Of TIT
! Mad. f5 $40, and from the Odysse.
g f3,GSj. lie enjoyed for many year
r the retreat Of Twickenham, where man.
!, Of his later productions were written.