Shakespeare was still in the meridian of life.  There was no special cause, that we know of, why he might not live many years longer.  It were vain to conjecture what he would have done, had more years been given him; possibly, instead of augmenting his legacy to us, he would have recalled and suppressed more or less of what he had written as our inheritance.  For the last two or three years, at least he seems to have left his pen unused; as if, his own ends once achieved, he set no value on that mighty sceptre with which he since sways so large a portion of mankind.  That the motives and ambitions of authorship had little to do in the generation of his works, is evident from the serene carelessness with which he left them to shift for themselves; tossing these wonderful treasures from him as if he thought them good for nothing but to serve the hour.  Still, to us, in our ignorance, his life cannot but seem too short.  For aught we know, Providence, in its wisdom, may have ruled not to allow the example of a man so gifted living to himself.

Be that as it may, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE departed this life on the 23d of April, 1616.  Two days after, his remains were buried beneath the chancel of Trinity Church, in Stratford.  The burial took place on the day before the anniversary of his baptism; and it has been commonly believed that his death fell on the anniversary of his birth.  If so, he had just entered his fifty-third year.

The Poet’s will bears date March 25, 1616.  I must notice one item of it:  “I give unto my wife the second-best bed, with the furniture.”  As this is the only mention made of her, the circumstance was for a long time regarded as betraying a strange indifference, or something worse, on the testator’s part, towards his wife.  And on this has hung the main argument that the union was not a happy one.  We owe to Mr. Knight an explanation of the matter; which is so simple and decisive, that we can but wonder it was not hit upon before.  Shakespeare’s property was mostly freehold; and in all this the widow had what is called the right of dower fully secured to her by the ordinary operation of English law.  The Poet was lawyer enough to know this.  As for “the second-best bed,” this was doubtless the very thing which a loving and beloved wife would naturally prize above any other article of furniture in the establishment.

From the foregoing sketch it appears that the materials for a biography of Shakespeare are scanty indeed, and, withal, rather dry.  Nevertheless, there is enough, I think, to show, that in all the common dealings of life he was eminently gentle, candid, upright, and judicious; open-hearted, genial, and sweet, in his social intercourses; among his companions and friends, full of playful wit and sprightly grace; kind to the faults of others, severe to his own; quick to discern and acknowledge merit in another, modest and slow of finding it in himself:  while, in the smooth and happy marriage, which he seems to have realized, of the highest poetry and art with systematic and successful prudence in business affairs, we have an example of compact and well-rounded practical manhood, such as may justly engage our admiration and respect.