The Youthful Wanderer eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 214 pages of information about The Youthful Wanderer.

The Youthful Wanderer eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 214 pages of information about The Youthful Wanderer.

Shakespeare was buried in the Church of the Holy Trinity.  His wife, his only daughter Susanna and her husband, Thomas Nash, lie with him in the same row, immediately in front of the altar-rails.  His tombstone bears the following inscription: 

  GOOD FREND FOR JESVS SAKE FORBEARE,
    TO DIGG THE BVST ENCLOASED HEARE: 
  BLESE BE YE MAN YT SPARES THES STONES,
    AND CVRST BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES.

The only typographical peculiarity not rendered here, is the grouping together of HE in HEARE and TH in THES, after the fashion of monograms.

This church also contains a half-length figure of Shakespeare, painted after nature.  There is evidence extant that it had already taken its place against the wall in the year 1623.  Beneath is inscribed: 

    Judicio pylivm genio socratem, arte maronem,
    Terra tegit, popvlvs maeret, Olympvs Habet[A]
  Stay, passenger; why goest thov by so fast? 
  Read, if thov canst, whom enviovs death hath plast
  Within this monvment; Shakespeare, with whom
  Quick natvre dide; whose name doth deck ys. tombe
  Far more than cost; sith all yt. he hath writt
  Leaves living art bvt page to serve his witt.

  Obiit.  Ano.  Doi. 1616. 
  AEtatis 53.  Die 23.  Ap.

[Footnote A:  In judgment a Nestor, in genius a Socrates, in art a Virgil.  The earth covers him, the people mourn for him, Olympus has him.]

Of the Guildhall, the Grammar School, and the beautiful Avon, with their hundred sweet associations, I dare say nothing more.  After a stay of three days, during which time I had recovered from the effects of the severe strain and close application of mind and body, by which both had suffered exhaustion, and been driven almost to the verge of prostration, in the museum at Liverpool and the ruins of Chester; I started on way to Warwick (pron.  War’rick) and Coventry.  As my purpose was to walk the whole distance, about twenty miles, I sent my sachel by rail, to the former place.

Chapter V.

Stratford to Coventry.

This is the walk referred to by the two Englishmen who laid a wager as to which was the finest walk in England.  “After the money had been put up, one named the walk from Stratford to Coventry, and the other from Coventry to Stratford.  How the umpire decided the case, is not recorded.”  It was late in the afternoon on Saturday, July 10th, when I bade adieu to Stratford, and went away rejoicing, in the hope of soon seeing the beauties of England’s most charming agricultural section.

After two hours, I entered Charlecote Park, where I disturbed several herds of deer, some hundred head in all.  From this park, as lame tradition has it, Shakespeare once stole deer, and became an exile for the crime!

On Sunday forenoon I attended service at

St. Mary’s Church,

in Warwick.  The choir, lady chapel and chapter-house are among the purest examples of Decorated work, and date from 1394.  The tomb of Richard Beauchamp (Bee’cham) in the Lady Chapel, is considered the most splendid in the kingdom, with the single exception of that of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey.

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The Youthful Wanderer from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.