The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-04
sHAKsPEARE's LAST ILLNESS.
Victim of "Merry Meeting" with
JOnsOn and Drayton.
London Talepranh

The work of the e-hundred-and- twentv-
sixth session OF the Medical Society of Lon
don, was begun on Monday evening at ths
rooms of the society, In Chandos street Nv
a short introductory address from the pres
ident Edmund Owen surgeon TO St Mlrvs
Hospital who remarked that among I'm.
many treasures OF their library We're fifteen
volumes of transcript, which formed the
diary or commonplace book of the Rev
John Ward, Nj. A, Oxon, who was vicar
OF Stratford-on-Avon from 1862 10 1851 Hav-
ing taken his NJ. A. degrees in 1862 Ward lrft
oxford for London TO study anatomy at
the -ChyrurgeonS Hall. In MonkWcH
street (where DIR. Scarborough. the friend
of Harvey, was giving demonstrationsl ard
to acquire a general knowledge of the heal
ing art.
Not very many years ago it was quite
usual for the professions of divinity AMI
medicine to be combined in the one individ-
ual, and il was to be admitted that the
custom still fingered IN the persons Of cer-
tain Wears and VicaresseS. who were unabls
to keep themselves from dabbling in pa
rochial medicine and quack remedies. Not
a few country villages still contained such
unorthodoX practitioners, who dispensed
medical advice 70 the peril OF their too-con-
ndlng pensioners, and often to the annoy
ance of the local doctor. But the Rev. John
Ward was not an empire Of this sort. lie
had worked diligently to acquire knowl-
edge of the medical profession and was
doubtless well fitted to practice it under the
license which he probably received from
his bishop at the time that he entered upon
his clerical duties. In his diary Ward
asked himself specially to remember that
he must 'Studie such diseases as are Pc
culiar to women, and also TO children, 30
as to be ready at them when ] come into
the country" He evidently meant to be /
good all-round man,
But the point TO which Mr.. Owen special
" referred was that on taking up his work
in Standardization in the foTty-siXth
year after Shakspeare's death, Ward must,
both as vicar and doctor, have been told
OF many facts concerning the bard by those
who had been intimately acquainted with
him. Unfortunately. he did not record much
n i'm in 1GlfF ho0lr.
what ne did say had been seized upon by
the industrious Halliwell- Phillips. and
duly recorded in his Life of Shakespeare"
This was one of the extracts, and, coming
az it did from highly educated man. who
it was of undoubted biographical value: II
have heard that Mr.. Shakespeare was Il
natural wit, without any art at all; he fire.
quented plays all his younger time, but in
piled the stage with two plays every year,
and for tAat had an allowance so large that
he spent at the rate Of 81,0O0 year which
in those times was very considerable
amount. corresponding. perhaps, to 5000
or $4,000 of to-day. Another extract ran as
follows: Shakespeare Drayton and Ben
JonSon had a merry meeting, and, ii seems.
drank too hard. for Shakespeare died of
feavour there contracted In those times,
said Mr.. Owen, it was customary to call
were now called ''influenzas' or ''neurOses.'
but whatever the actual cause of Shak-
speareS death might have been, it was evil
dent that local tradition ascl ibed it, rightly
meeting" And doubtless, it was a 'meT-
ry meeting" One had only to think of those
three CHEEKY friends together Shakespeare,
Ben Jonson and Drayton, 10 ne assured that
ceived could not have been there with his
notebooks.