says "he dyed a Papist." We have no evidence regarding the religious state of his mind. Halliwell * remarks, that the epitaph on his daughter seems to imply the contrary of his becoming piously inclined in his latter days. It reads thus:

"Witty above her sexe, but that's not all,

WISE TO SALVATION was good Mistriss Hall.
Something of Shakespeare was in that, but THIS

WHOLLY of Him with whom she's now in blisse."

His will is dated 25th March 1616. The nature of his fatal malady does not appear. He died on the 23d of April 1616, as we believe, on his fifty-third birthday. He was buried two days after in the chancel of Stratford church. The flat stone which covers his grave bears an inscription which tradition ascribes to the poet himself. The grave is near that part of the wall against which the charnel-house was erected, and to that the inscription is supposed to allude, by whomsoever it was written.

With regard to Shakespeare's personal appearance, Aubrey says, "He was a handsome, well-shaped man.” It has been inferred from some expressions in his Sonnets that he was lame. In the 37th

"As a decrepit father takes delight

To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite,
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth."

And in the 89th

"Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt."

*Halliwell, p. 270.

† See page 103.

Suppose these allusions are not metaphorical, still we conclude, if he was lame, his lameness was not such as to impair his activity. The bust in the chancel of Stratford church bears in itself the evidence of its genuineness. The forehead is at once broad and high, and the general development is what we would expect in such a man. In the original colouring, the eyes were painted a light hazel, and the hair and beard auburn. These were probably the natural colours. The bust was repainted in 1748, but the original colours were retained. In 1793, Malone had it painted white by a common house-painter, and in that state it now remains. Another likeness of Shakespeare, which is probably authentic, is a half-length engraving on the title-page of the folio edition of his works, published in 1623. An engraving from that is to be found in vol. i. of Collier's edition of Shakespeare's Works. There is a considerable difference between the features in this and those of the bust. Possibly the latter, which is more full in the lower part of the face, represents the poet at a later period in life; but it must be remarked that there is a family likeness in all old engravings, and they are not to be trusted for the exact delineation of particular features.

In finishing this sketch of the great dramatist's life, the reflection is forced upon us that, after all the research that has been made, and all the materials which have been accumulated, it must be evident to any one who has studied the results with care, that we know little of Shakespeare from them all. Owing to the diligent and persevering investigations of Malone, and more recently of

Collier, Knight, and Halliwell, we have something like a consistent fabric of the external events of his life. But, with the exception of some valuable hints from Ben Jonson, how little do we know from all these materials regarding the real opinions and the inner life of Shakespeare! For the real life of the man we must look to a totally different source, and one which has not yet been investigated in this point of view-his dramas.

We must not, indeed, confound the Man with the Poet. It is one thing what a man is, another thing what characters he can conceive, comprehend, and express. Still there are many of Shakespeare's characters that utter sentiments and speak in a language far removed above the level of themselves. We are to look on these as having an individuality of their own, and speaking in character for the most part, and yet occasionally being used as a mouthpiece, whereby the dramatist gives utterance to his most private thoughts. Thus Prospero in the "Tempest," when he says

"And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."

or Isabella in "Measure for Measure:"

"Oh, but man, proud man!

Drest in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assured,

His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven,

As makes the angels weep: who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal."

There are also other characters in his dramas, which are the expression of the poet's own individuality, although no one an embodiment of the whole of it, for Shakespeare is many-sided. More could be learned regarding the character of this wonderful man from a comprehensive study of these, than from those semi-fabulous traditions which have come down to us, and the mere external events of his life.