Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-10-26
ArtemUs Ward at shakspeare's
Tomb.

For some time past the American
public has heard but little of the ec-
centric Snowman, A. WARD. Some
time ago Artemas gathered up his
wax fggers" and bidding US a melan-
oholy "adoo, disappeared beyond the
great water, where he has since been
hobnobbing with John Bull. The
latest accounts from him are the fol-
lowing original views on Shakespeare
and Chaucer, contributed to the Lon
don Punch
I've been lingerin by the Tomb of
the lamented Shakespeare.
It is a success.
L do not hesitate to pronounce it as
such.
You may make any use of this opin-
ion that you see fit If you think its
publication will subswerve the cause
of literatoor, you may publicate It.
l told my wife Betsy when l left
home that | should go to the birth
place of the orthur of O}helIer and
other Plays. She said that as long as
I kept out of Newgate she didn't care
4
you know he was the greatest P0it that
ever lived? Not one of these common
potts, like that young idyit who writes
verses to our daughter, about the
Roses that growses, and the BreeZes
as blowses-but Boss Poit-alsO a
philosopher; also a man who knew j
great deal about everything.
She was packing my things at the
E-v i Ill IL
was to ask me If l was gOIn to carry
both of my red flannel night caps.
Yes. I've been to StratfOrd onto
the Avon. the birthplace of Shaks
peare. Mr.. S. is no more. He's been
dead over three hundred (300) years.
The peple of his native town are just
ly proud of him. They cherish his
mem ry. and them as sells picturs of
his birthp ace, etc, make it profitable
cherishin. Almost everybody buys a
pictur to put into their Albion.
As [ stood gazing on the spot where
Shakespeare is supposed to have fell
down on the ice and hurt hisself when
a boy (this spot cannot be bought-the
town authorities say it shall never be
taken from Stratford.) I wondered if
three hundred years hence picturs of
ma birthplace will be In demand? Will
the people of my native town be proud
of me In three hundred years? [ guess
they won't short of that time, because
they say the fat man weighin 900
pounds which [ exhibited there was
stuffed out with pliers and cushions,
which he said, one very hot day in
/ July, "Oh bother, | can't stand this, -
and commenced pullin the pliers out
| from under his weskit, and heavin 'em
at the audience. l never saw a man
/ lose flesh so fast In my life. The au-
/ dience said 1 was pretty man to come
chiselin my own toWnsmen in that
way. [ said, DO not be angry, feller
citizens I exhibited him simply as a
work of art. [ simply wished to show
you that man could grow fat without
| the aid of cod liver oil But they
wouldn't listen to me. They are a low
and grOvelin set of people, who excite
feelin of loathing in every breast
where lofty emotions and original idees
have bidin place.
And this, I said, as I stood in the
old churchyard at Stratford, beside a
/ tom mbstone, this marks the spot where
lies William W. Shakespeare. AlarsI
and this is the spot where"
You've got the wrong grave, said
mana worthy villager- shakespeare
is buried inside the church"
"Oh." " I said, boy told me this was
it." The boy larfed and put the shil-
ling I'd given him into his left eye il
an inglOrious manner, and commenced
moviu backwards towards the street.
I pursood aud captered him, and af
ter taIkin to him a spell in a skareastis
style. I let him went
William Shakespeare was born IL
Stratford in 1864 All the com
mentators, Shaksperian scholars etset
cry. are agreed on this, which Is about
the only thingthey are agreed on ii
! regard to bin, except that his mante
hasn't fallen onto any poet or dramat
= ist hard enough to hurt said poet Of
q dramatist much. And there is n,
doubt If these commentators and per
sons continner investigatin Shak
spears career, we shall not, In do
time, know anything about it at all
When a mere lad, little William atten
} ded the Grammar School, because h.
! said, the Grammar School wouldn'
J attend him. This remarkable remarI
= comm from one so young aud inexpe
runced, set people to thinkin ther
T might be somethin In this lad III
subsequently wrote Ham 'eta and Georg
7 Barnwell. When his kind teache
went TO London to accept position /
: the Office of the Metropolitan Railway
q little William was chosen by his pa
Y pills to deliver farewell address. &C
e on, sir, he said, I'm a glorious eareei
J !, Be like a eagle, and soar. and the soI
q er you get the more we shall all b
It gratified That's so.
! My young readers, who wish I
know about Shakespeare, better Q,
s these valuable remarks framed.
- [ returned to the hotel. Meetin
young married couple, they asked n
J. if could direct them to the hot
g which Washington Irving used {
: keep