St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-11-18
LIGHT UPON sHAKsPEARE,s EPI-
TAPH-

The Rev. Mr.. Macray, librarian OF the IA
nous Bodleian Library in the University Of
Oxford. has discovered an old letter relating
10 Shakespeare which sheds explanatory light
upon the lines which the great poet wrote
and ordered TO be spt upon his tombstone.
Every visitor to the church OF Strstford upon
Avon must, we presume, have wondered
that poet Of such immortal power AID in
exhaustible magnifeeuee Of dictiOn as Shaks-
peare could have written lines which arc so
much ike doggerel as his well known cpl
taph:
Good friend. for Jesus sake forbear
To dig the dast inciosed here;
Blessed be the mar that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves ny bones.
II their authenticity depended on their in
ternal evidence very few Shakspearian schol-
ars would. we believe, have accepted them as
his.
But the letter which has been discovered
in the BOdleian, written by William Hall, a
Queen's college man, in 1894, 70 Edward
Thwaites, well known Anglo-Saxon scholar
Of that time, explains the reason OF the cpl
taph and shows its homeliness and simpli-
city TO have been intentional. After telling
his friend OF his vIsi: TO STAFFORD upon Avon,
aud quoting the epitaph, the Oxford scholar
writes:
''The little learning these verses contain
would be very strong argument OF the
want Of 1t in the author, did not they carry
something in them which stands in need OF
a comment There is l.. this church i place
which they call the bone house, repository
for al bones they dig up, which are so many
that they would load great number OF
wagons. The poet, being willing to pre-
serve his bones unmoyed, laws q curse upon
him that moves them, and having 10 Go with
elarks and sections, Tor the most part very
ignorant class Of people, he desceEas to the
meancst Of their capaeitvs, and disrobes
himself OF that art which none OF his cOtem-
poFsries wore In greater perfection. Nor has
the design mist OF lis effects, for, lest they
should not only draw this curse upon them
selves, but also entail It upon their posterity,
they have laid him full seventeen Zoo, deep
deep enough % sccure him.
This is indeed an interesting discovery.
We think that scarcely any reader OF the
grayediggers' scene in Hamlet can fail TO see
that Shakespeare had an inward reverence OF
the human body and felt contempt for the
clodhoppers who could toss the skulls and
bones around without thought OF whom
they once belonged 20. There Is vein OF
true pathos in Hamlet's moralizing on poor
YOriek's skull aud in the words
Imperial Cesar dead and turned 10 clay,
May stop hole to keep the wind away.
II burial be a mark Of revercnce for the
human body, as the deserted tenement OF
the immortal soul, dread and horror OF the
desecration of graves seems necessarily to
spring from this reverence. The Jews
dreaded their shell fire." the Valley Of Hin
nom, outside OF Jerusalem, in which the
bones OF the dishonored lay In promiscuous
heaps. The Hebrew patriarch Joseph, ''when
he was a-dying gave commandment
concerning his bones" 1t Is no sign OF
good or great mind TO contemplate dis
honor done TO its dead body with indiffer-
ence. ''Our Shakspeare's curse' assumes,
under the new discovery, religious aud hui
name significance which binds him TO all
hat is noble in humanity more strongly.
He did right to dread the neighboring
charnel house, the ''valley of Hinnom," in
stratford churcbyard, and 10 adjure the
reader, whether .'elark or sexton" to let h
rest alone, enwrapt in his own shroud. ''for
Jesus sake" whom he assuredly believed
in as able TO refashion the individual frame
in the likeness OF His own glorious body on
q resurrection day.