Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-08-22
Breaking Into Shakspeare's Grave.

/ have read with interest in your 10
sue of the goth June the argument O
Mr.. j. Parker Norris in favor of open
ing Shakspeare's grave. l respectfully
dissent from his conclusion. Permit ma
to say why.
On March p. 1858, 1 was one of Z
small party who went with Dean (after'
ward Archbishop Trench around West
minister Abbey, so crowded with the
great dead, while the Dean was trying
TO find q place for the reinterment OF
John Hunter, the 'father of British
surgery" He finally decided to have
the grave of Ben Jonson opened, and
ordered it done. The material uuder
the Abbey pavement, close to the north
ern wall and near the western end, is
sand, about the color of gold and near.
lv as fine and as dry as flour. The
ground there has not been exposed to
the weather since the reign Of Henry
llI-60O years ago; if, indeed,
it have not been covered for
a longer period. The remains
of Jonson consisted OF the crani-
um-the facial part OF the skull. in
Guiding the cheek bones, having
entirely disappeared-and most Of
the larger bones of the body.
Very few fragments of tho coffin
were left, and these were dry and worm
eaten, resembling pieces of coarse
sponge. The dust of the flesh, ii any
there were, was so mingled with the
sand as to be indistinguishable from it.
l examined the Uranium carefully.
Strange to say, it was less most inside
than outside. The bone was very thin,
and the hair adhered to it a nearly dry
paste; but the hair was so decaycd (if
1t may be thus expressed as 10 appear
like % multitude of lines finely craven.
Measured by modern hat sizes. 1 should
Judge that the head would have re-
quired az l-2." Jonson died in Au-
gust, 1857, twenty-one years and four
months after Shakespeare. He was
about sixty years old at his death.
while his renowned contemporary died
at exactly tifty-two. These facts, given
from notes made in March, 1855, may
aid in forming Il relatively plausible
theory OF what might be expectedin the
affair of preservation, if s%hakspeare's
grave were opened. 1t is not recorded
that either Shakespeare or Jonson was
embalmed. 1t is also a fact that preser.
walton or decomposition depends some-
what on the character of the disease
which DESTROYS life.
There is, however, q very great DIFF.
ference between the ground under the
Stratford Church and that under West
minister Abbey. The former is much
the more moist of the two. Many
years ago an English undertaken told
me that wood lasts much longer in
damp than dry ground, while on the
contrary, a body is much better pre-.
served in dry than in moist ground.
That undertaken was then seventy
years old and had had a great deal OF
experience.
1t seems TO me very strange that, so
far as | have seen, no one has recalled,
since the suggestion of opening Shak-
speare,s grave was made last August,
what Washington Irving wrote on this
very subject more than half a century
ago. Atthat date Irving talked with an
aged sexton who many years previous
ly had seen the earth of one side of
Shakspeare's grave fall outward during
repairs to the foundation wall, thus ex-
posing q cavity which contained vir-
tually nothing; mo bones, nothing but
1 believe are Irving's words.
And Irving adds: cit was something, l
thought, to have seen even the bones of
Shakspeare:'-Cor. Boston Transcript.