Chapter I: Part 1

[Picture: Book cover]

[Picture: Shakespeare on his death-bed]

SHAKESPEARE’S BONES

* * * * *

_THE PROPOSAL TO DISINTER THEM_,

CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THEIR POSSIBLE BEARING
ON HIS PORTRAITURE:

ILLUSTRATED BY INSTANCES OF

VISITS OF THE LIVING TO THE DEAD.

BY
C. M. INGLEBY, LL.D., V.P.R.S.L.,

Honorary Member of the German Shakespeare Society,
and a Life-Trustee of Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Museum, and New Place,
at Stratford-upon-Avon.

[Picture: Decorative graphic]

_LONDON_:
TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59, _Ludgate Hill_.
1883.

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

* * * * *

“Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs.”

_Richard II_, a. iii, s. 2.

* * * * *

This Essay
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED TO
THE MAJOR AND CORPORATION OF STRATFORD-UPON-AVON,
AND THE VICAR
OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY THERE,

BY THEIR FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE,

THE AUTHOR.

INDEX TO BIBLIOGRAPHY.

PAGE
Anonymous Articles _Argosy_ 46 October, 1879.
_Atlantic Monthly_ 45 June, 1878.
_Birmingham Daily 43 August 23, 1876.
Mail_
,, ,, ,, ,, _Post_ 44 September 29,
1877.
,, ,, ,, ,, _Gazette_ 47 December 17, 1880.
,, ,, ,, _Town Crier_ 44 November, 1877.
_Cincinnati 48 May 26, 1883.
Commercial Gazette_
_Daily Telegraph_ 43 August 24, 1876.
_New York Nation_ 45 May 21, 1878.
Letter _Birmingham Daily 45 October 10, 1877.
Post_
Gower, Lord Ronald _Antiquary_ 46 August, 1880.
Halliwell-Phillipps, 46 1881.
J. O.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel _Atlantic Monthly_ 41 January, 1863.
Ingleby, C. M. 48 June, 1883.
Norris, J. Parker _N. Y. American 41 April, 1876, and
Bibliopolist_ August 4, 1876.
Schaafhausen, Hermann _Shakespeare 43 1874–5.
Jahrbuch_
Timmins, Sam. _Letter to J. Parker 42 _Circa_ 1874 and
Norris_ 1876.

SHAKESPEARE’S BONES.

THE sentiment which affects survivors in the disposition of their dead, and which is, in one regard, a superstition, is, in another, a creditable outcome of our common humanity: namely, the desire to honour the memory of departed worth, and to guard the “hallowed reliques” by the erection of a shrine, both as a visible mark of respect for the dead, and as a place of resort for those pilgrims who may come to pay him tribute. It is this sentiment which dots our graveyards with memorial tablets and more ambitious sculptures, and which still preserves so many of our closed churchyards from desecration, and our {1a} ancient tombs from the molestation of careless, curious, or mercenary persons.

But there is another sentiment, not inconsistent with this, which prompts us, on suitable occasions, to disinter the remains of great men, and remove them to a more fitting and more honourable resting-place. The Hôtel des Invalides at Paris, and the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura at Rome, {1b} are indebted to this sentiment for the possession of relics which make those edifices the natural resort of pilgrims as of sight-seers. It were a work of superfluity to adduce further illustration of the position that the mere exhumation and reinterment of a great man’s remains, is commonly held to be, in special cases, a justifiable proceeding, not a violation of that honourable sentiment of humanity, which protects and consecrates the depositaries of the dead. On a late occasion it was not the belief that such a proceeding is a violation of our more sacred instincts which hindered the removal to Pennsylvania of the remains of William Penn; but simply the belief that they had already a more suitable resting-place in his native land. {2}

There is still another sentiment, honourable in itself and not inconsistent with those which I have specified, though still more conditional upon the sufficiency of the reasons conducing to the act: namely, the desire, by exhumation, to set at rest a reasonable or important issue respecting the person of the deceased while he was yet a living man. Accordingly it is held justifiable to exhume a body recently buried, in order to discover the cause of death, or to settle a question of disputed identity: nor is it usually held unjustifiable to exhume a body long since deceased, in order to find such evidences as time may not have wholly destroyed, of his personal appearance, including the size and shape of his head, and the special characteristics of his living face.

It is too late for the most reverential and scrupulous to object to this as an invasion of the sanctity of the grave, or a violation of the rights of the dead or of the feelings of his family. When a man has been long in the grave, there are probably no family feelings to be wounded by such an act: and, as for his rights, if he can be said to have any, we may surely reckon among them the right of not being supposed to possess such objectionable personal defects as may have been imputed to him by the malice of critics or by the incapacity of sculptor or painter, and which his remains may be sufficiently unchanged to rebut: in a word we owe him something more than refraining from disturbing his remains until they are undistinguishable from the earth in which they lie, a debt which no supposed inviolable sanctity of the grave ought to prevent us from paying.

It is, I say, too late to raise such an objection, because exhumation has been performed many times with a perfectly legitimate object, even in the case of our most illustrious dead, without protest or objection from the most sensitive person. As the examples, more or less analogous to that of Shakespeare, which I am about to adduce, concern great men who were born and were buried within the limits of our island, I will preface them by giving the very extraordinary cases of Schiller and Raphael, which illustrate both classes: those in which the object of the exhumation was to give the remains a more honourable sepulture, and those in which it was purely to resolve certain questions affecting the skull of the deceased. The following is abridged from Mr. Andrew Hamilton’s narrative, entitled “The Story of Schiller’s Life,” published in _Macmillan’s Magazine_ for May, 1863.

“At the time of his death Schiller left his widow and children almost
penniless, and almost friendless too. The duke and duchess were
absent; Goethe lay ill; even Schiller’s brother-in-law Wolzogen was
away from home. Frau von Wolzogen was with her sister, but seems to
have been equally ill-fitted to bear her share of the load that had
fallen so heavily upon them. Heinrich Voss was the only friend
admitted to the sick-room; and when all was over it was he who went
to the joiner’s, and, knowing the need of economy, ordered ‘a plain
deal coffin.’ It cost ten shillings of our money.

“In the early part of 1805, one Carl Leberecht Schwabe, an
enthusiastic admirer of Schiller, left Weimar on business. Returning
on Saturday the 11th of May, between three and four in the afternoon,
his first errand was to visit his betrothed, who lived in the house
adjoining that of the Schillers. She met him in the passage, and
told him, Schiller was two days dead, and that night he was to be
buried. On putting further questions, Schwabe stood aghast at what
he learned. The funeral was to be private and to take place
immediately after midnight, without any religious rite. Bearers had
been hired to carry the remains to the churchyard, and no one else
was to attend.

“Schwabe felt that all this could not go on; but to prevent it was
difficult. There were but eight hours left; and the arrangements,
such as they were, had already been made. However, he went straight
to the house of death, and requested an interview with Frau von
Schiller. She replied, through the servant, ‘that she was too
greatly overwhelmed by her loss to be able to see or speak to any
one; as for the funeral of her blessed husband, Mr. Schwabe must
apply to the Reverend Oberconsistorialrath Günther, who had kindly
undertaken to see done what was necessary; whatever he might direct,
she would approve of.’ With this message Schwabe hastened to
Günther, and told him, his blood boiled at the thought that Schiller
should be borne to the grave by hirelings. At first Günther shook
his head and said, ‘It was too late; everything was arranged; the
bearers were already ordered.’ Schwabe offered to become responsible
for the payment of the bearers, if they were dismissed. At length
the Oberconsistorialrath inquired who the gentlemen were who had
agreed to bear the coffin. Schwabe was obliged to acknowledge that
he could not at that moment mention a single name; but he was ready
to guarantee his Hochwürde that in an hour or two he would bring him
the list. On this his Hochwürde consented to countermand the
bearers.

“Schwabe now rushed from house to house, obtaining a ready assent
from all whom he found at home. But as some were out, he sent round
a circular, begging those who would come to place a mark against
their names. He requested them to meet at his lodgings ‘at half-past
twelve o’clock that night; a light would be placed in the window to
guide those who were not acquainted with the house; they would be
kind enough to be dressed in black; but mourning-hats, crapes and
mantles he had already provided.’ Late in the evening he placed the
list in Günther’s hands. Several appeared to whom he had not
applied; in all about twenty.

“Between midnight and one in the morning the little band proceeded to
Schiller’s house. The coffin was carried down stairs and placed on
the shoulders of the friends in waiting. No one else was to be seen
before the house or in the streets. It was a moonlight night in May,
but clouds were up. The procession moved through the sleeping city
to the churchyard of St. James. Having arrived there they placed
their burden on the ground at the door of the so-called
_Kassengewölbe_, where the gravedigger and his assistants took it up.
In this vault, which belonged to the province of Weimar, it was usual
to inter persons of the higher classes, who possessed no
burying-ground of their own, upon payment of a _louis d’or_. As
Schiller had died without securing a resting-place for himself and
his family, there could have been no more natural arrangement than to
carry his remains to this vault. It was a grim old building,
standing against the wall of the churchyard, with a steep narrow
roof, and no opening of any kind but the doorway which was filled up
with a grating. The interior was a gloomy space of about fourteen
feet either way. In the centre was a trap-door which gave access to
a hollow space beneath.

“As the gravediggers raised the coffin, the clouds suddenly parted,
and the moon shed her light on all that was earthly of Schiller.
They carried him in: they opened the trap-door: and let him down by
ropes into the darkness. Then they closed the vault. Nothing was
spoken or sung. The mourners were dispersing, when their attention
was attracted by a tall figure in a mantle, at some distance in the
graveyard, sobbing loudly. No one knew who it was; and for many
years the occurrence remained wrapped in mystery, giving rise to
strange conjectures. But eventually it turned out to have been
Schiller’s brother-in-law Wolzogen, who, having hurried home on
hearing of the death, had arrived after the procession was already on
its way to the churchyard.

“In the year 1826, Schwabe was Bürgermeister of Weimar. Now it was
the custom of the _Landschaftscollegium_, or provincial board under
whose jurisdiction this institution was placed, to _clear out_ the
Kassengewölbe from time to time—whenever it was found to be
inconveniently crowded—and by this means to make way for other
deceased persons and more _louis d’or_. On such occasions—when the
Landschaftscollegium gave the order ‘aufzuräumen,’ it was the usage
to dig a hole in a corner of the churchyard—then to bring up _en
masse_ the contents of the Kassengewölbe—coffins, whether entire or
in fragments, bones, skulls, and tattered graveclothes—and finally to
shovel the whole heap into the aforesaid pit. In the month of March
Schwabe was dismayed at hearing that the Landschaftscollegium had
decreed a speedy ‘clearing out’ of the Gewölbe. His old prompt way
of acting had not left him; he went at once to his friend Weyland,
the president of the Collegium. ‘Friend Weyland,’ he said, ‘let not
the dust of Schiller be tossed up in the face of heaven and flung
into that hideous hole! Let me at least have a permit to search the
vault; if we find Schiller’s coffin, it shall be reinterred in a
fitting manner in the New Cemetery.’ The president made no
difficulty.

“Schwabe invited several persons who had known the poet, and amongst
others one Rudolph, who had been Schiller’s servant at the time of
his death. On March 13th, at four o’clock in the afternoon, the
party met in the churchyard, the sexton and his assistants having
received orders to be present with keys, ladders, &c. The vault was
opened; but, before any one entered it, Rudolph and another stated
that the coffin of the deceased Hofrath von Schiller must be one of
the longest in the place. After this the secretary of the
Landschaftscollegium was requested to read aloud from the records of
the said board the names of such persons as had been interred shortly
before and after the year 1805. This being done, the gravedigger
Bielke remarked that the coffins no longer lay in the order in which
they had originally been placed, but had been displaced at recent
burials. The ladder was then adjusted, and Schwabe, Coudray the
architect, and the gravedigger, were the first to descend. Some
others were asked to draw near, that they might assist in recognising
the coffin. The first glance brought their hopes very low. The
tenants of the vault were found ‘over, under and alongside of each
other.’ One coffin of unusual length having been descried underneath
the rest, an attempt was made to reach it by lifting out of the way
those that were above it; but the processes of the tomb were found to
have made greater advances than met the eye. Hardly anything would
bear removal, but fell to pieces at the first touch. Search was made
for plates with inscriptions, but even the metal plates crumbled away
on being fingered, and their inscriptions were utterly effaced. Two
plates only were found with legible characters, and these were
foreign to the purpose. Probably every one but the Bürgermeister
looked on the matter as hopeless. They reascended the ladder and
closed the vault.

“Meanwhile these strange proceedings in the Kassengewölbe began to be
noised abroad. The churchyard was a thoroughfare, and many
passengers had observed that something unusual was going on. There
were persons living in Weimar whose near relatives lay in the
Gewölbe; and, though neither they nor the public at large had any
objection to offer to the general ‘clearing out,’ they did raise very
strong objections to this mode of anticipating it. So many pungent
things began to be said about violating the tomb, disturbing the
repose of the departed, &c., that the Bürgermeister perceived the
necessity of going more warily to work in future. He resolved to
time his next visit at an hour when few persons would be likely to
cross the churchyard at that season. Accordingly, two days later he
returned to the Kassengewölbe at seven in the morning, accompanied
only by Coudray and the churchyard officials.

“Their first task was to raise out of the vault altogether six
coffins, which it was found would bear removal. By various tokens it
was proved that none of these could be that of which they were in
search. There were several others which could not be removed, but
which held together so long as they were left where they lay. All
the rest were in the direst confusion. Two hours and a half were
spent in subjecting the ghastly heap to a thorough but fruitless
search: not a trace of any kind rewarded their trouble. Only one
conclusion stared Schwabe and Coudray in the face—their quest was in
vain: the remains of Schiller must be left to oblivion. Again the
Gewölbe was closed, and those who had disturbed its quiet returned
disappointed to their homes. Yet, that very afternoon, Schwabe went
back once more in company with the joiner who twenty years before had
made the coffin: there was a chance that he might recognise one of
those which they had not ventured to raise. But this glimmer of hope
faded like all the rest. The man remembered very well what sort of
coffin he had made for the Hofrath von Schiller, and he certainly saw
nothing like it here. It had been of the plainest sort, he believed
without even a plate; and in such damp as this it could have lasted
but a few years.

“The fame of this second expedition got abroad like that of the
first, and the comments of the public were louder than before.
Invectives of no measured sort fell on the mayor in torrents. Not
only did society in general take offence, but a variety of persons in
authority, particularly ecclesiastical dignitaries, began to talk of
interfering. Schwabe was haunted by the idea of the ‘clearing out,’
which was now close at hand. That dismal hole in the corner of the
churchyard once closed and the turf laid down, the dust of Schiller
would be lost for ever. He determined to proceed. His position of
Bürgermeister put the means in his power, and this time he was
resolved to keep his secret. To find the skull was now his utmost
hope, but for that he would make a final struggle. The keys were
still in the hands of Bielke the sexton, who, of course, was under
his control. He sent for him, bound him over to silence, and ordered
him to be at the churchyard at midnight on the 19th of March. In
like manner, he summoned three day-labourers whom he pledged to
secrecy, and engaged to meet him at the same place and at the same
hour, but singly and without lanterns. Attention should not be
attracted if he could help it.

“When the night came, he himself, with a trusty servant, proceeded to
the entrance of the Kassengewölbe. The four men were already there.
In darkness they all entered, raised the trap-door, adjusted the
ladder, and descended to the abode of the dead. Not till then were
lanterns lighted; it was just possible that some late wanderer might,
even at that hour, cross the churchyard. Schwabe seated himself on a
step of the ladder and directed the workmen. Fragments of broken
coffins they piled up in one corner, and bones in another. Skulls as
they were found were placed in a heap by themselves. The work went
on from twelve o’clock till about three, for three successive nights,
at the end of which time twenty-three skulls had been found. These
the Bürgermeister caused to be put into a sack and carried to his
house, where he himself took them out and placed them in rows on a
table.

“It was hardly done ere he exclaimed, ‘_That_ must be Schiller’s!’
There was one skull that differed enormously from all the rest, both
in size and in shape. It was remarkable, too, in another way: alone
of all those on the table it retained an entire set of the finest
teeth, and Schiller’s teeth had been noted for their beauty. But
there were other means of identification at hand. Schwabe possessed
the cast of Schiller’s head, taken after death by Klauer, and with
this he undertook to make a careful comparison and measurement. The
two seemed to him to correspond, and, of the twenty-two others, not
one would bear juxtaposition with the cast. Unfortunately the lower
jaw was wanting, to obtain which a fourth nocturnal expedition had to
be undertaken. The skull was carried back to the Gewölbe, and many
jaws were tried ere one was found which fitted, and for beauty of
teeth corresponded with, the upper jaw. When brought home, on the
other hand, it refused to fit any other cranium. One tooth alone was
wanting, and this was said by an old servant of Schiller’s had been
extracted at Jena in his presence.

“Having got thus far, Schwabe invited three of the chief medical
authorities to inspect his discovery. After careful measurements,
they declared that among the twenty-three skulls there was but one
from which the cast could have been taken. He then invited every
person in Weimar and its neighbourhood, who had been on terms of
intimacy with Schiller, and admitted them to the room one by one.
The result was surprising. Without an exception they pointed to the
same skull as that which must have been the poet’s. The only
remaining chance of mistake seemed to be the possibility of other
skulls having eluded the search, and being yet in the vault. To put
this to rest, Schwabe applied to the Landschaftscollegium, in whose
records was kept a list of all persons buried in the Kassengewölbe.
It was ascertained that since the last ‘clearing out’ there had been
exactly twenty-three interments. At this stage the Bürgermeister saw
himself in a position to inform the Grand Duke and Goethe of his
search and its success. From both he received grateful
acknowledgments. Goethe unhesitatingly recognised the head, and laid
stress on the peculiar beauty and evenness of the teeth.

“The new cemetery lay on a gently rising ground on the south side of
the town. Schwabe’s favourite plan was to deposit what he had
found—all that he now ever dreamed of finding—of his beloved poet on
the highest point of the slope, and to mark the spot by a simple
monument, so that travellers at their first approach might know where
the head of Schiller lay. One forenoon in early spring he led Frau
von Wolzogen and the Chancellor von Müller to the spot. They
approved his plan, and the remaining members of Schiller’s family—all
of whom had left Weimar—signified their assent. They ‘did not
desire,’ as one of themselves expressed it, ‘to strive against
Nature’s appointment that man’s earthly remains should be reunited
with herself;’ they would prefer that their father’s dust should rest
in the ground rather than anywhere else. But the Grand Duke and
Goethe decided otherwise.

“Dannecker’s colossal bust of Schiller had recently been acquired for
the Grand Ducal library, where it had been placed on a lofty pedestal
opposite the bust of Goethe; and in this pedestal, which was hollow,
it was resolved to deposit the skull. The consent of the family
having been obtained, the solemnity was delayed till the arrival of
Ernst von Schiller, who could not reach Weimar before autumn. On
September the 17th the ceremony took place. A few persons had been
invited, amongst whom, of course, was the Bürgermeister. Goethe,
_more suo_, dreaded the agitation and remained at home, but sent his
son to represent him as chief librarian. A cantata having been sung,
Ernst von Schiller, in a short speech, thanked all persons present,
but especially the Bürgermeister, for the love they had shown to the
memory of his father. He then formally delivered his father’s head
into the hands of the younger Goethe, who, reverently receiving it,
thanked his friend in Goethe’s name, and having dwelt on the
affection that had subsisted between their fathers vowed that the
precious relic should thenceforward be guarded with anxious care. Up
to this moment the skull had been wrapped in a cloth and sealed: the
younger Goethe now made it over to the librarian, Professor Riemer,
to be unpacked and placed in its receptacle. All present subscribed
their names, the pedestal was locked, and the key carried home to
Goethe.

“None doubted that Schiller’s head was now at rest for many years.
But it had already occurred to Goethe, who had more osteological
knowledge than the excellent Bürgermeister, that, the skull being in
their possession, it would be possible to find the skeleton. A very
few days after the ceremony in the library, he sent to Jena, begging
the Professor of Anatomy, Dr. Schröter, to have the kindness to spend
a day or two at Weimar, and to bring with him, if possible, a
functionary of the Jena Museum, Färber by name, who had at one time
been Schiller’s servant. As soon as they arrived, Goethe placed the
matter in Schröter’s hands. Again the head was raised from its
pillow and carried back to the dismal Kasselgewölbe, where the bones
still lay in a heap. The chief difficulty was to find the first
vertebra; after that all was easy enough. With some exceptions,
comparatively trifling, Schröter succeeded in reproducing the
skeleton, which then was laid in a new coffin ‘lined with blue
merino,’ and would seem (though we are not distinctly told) to have
been deposited in the library. Professor Schröter’s register of
bones recovered and bones missing has been both preserved and
printed. The skull was restored to its place in the pedestal. There
was another shriek from the public at these repeated violations of
the tomb; and the odd position chosen for Schiller’s head, apart from
his body, called forth, not without reason, abundant criticism.

“Schwabe’s idea of a monument in the new cemetery was, after a while,
revived by the Grand Duke, Carl August, but with an important
alteration, which was, that on the spot indicated at the head of the
rising ground there should be erected a common sepulchre for Goethe
and Schiller, in which the latter’s remains should at once be
deposited—the mausoleum to be finally closed only when, in the course
of nature, Goethe should have been laid there too. The idea was,
doubtless, very noble, and found great favour with Goethe himself,
who entering into it commissioned Coudray, the architect, to sketch
the plan of a simple mausoleum, in which the sarcophagi were to be
visible from without. There was some delay in clearing the ground—a
nursery of young trees had to be removed—so that at Midsummer, 1827,
nothing had been done. It is said that the intrigues of certain
persons, who made a point of opposing Goethe at all times, prevailed
so far with the Grand Duke that he became indifferent about the whole
scheme. Meanwhile it was necessary to provide for the remains of
Schiller. The public voice was loud in condemning their present
location, and in August, 1827, Louis of Bavaria again appeared as a
_Deus ex machina_ to hasten on the last act. He expressed surprise
that the bones of Germany’s best-beloved should be kept like rare
coins, or other curiosities, in a public museum. In these
circumstances, the Grand Duke wrote Goethe a note, proposing for his
approval that the skull and skeleton of Schiller should be reunited
and ‘provisionally’ deposited in the vault which the Grand Duke had
built for himself and his house, ‘until Schiller’s family should
otherwise determine.’ No better plan seeming feasible, Goethe
himself gave orders for the construction of a sarcophagus. On
November 17th, 1827, in presence of the younger Goethe, Coudray and
Riemer, the head was finally removed from the pedestal, and Professor
Schröter reconstructed the entire skeleton in this new and more
sumptuous abode, which we are told was seven feet in length, and bore
at its upper end the name

SCHILLER

in letters of cast-iron. That same afternoon Goethe went himself to
the library and expressed his satisfaction with all that had been
done.

“At last, on December 16th, 1827, at half-past five in the morning, a
few persons again met at the same place. The Grand Duke had
desired—for what reason we know not—to avoid observation; it was
Schiller’s fate that his remains should be carried hither and hither
by stealth and in the night. Some tapers burned around the bier: the
recesses of the hall were in darkness. Not a word was spoken, but
those present bent for an instant in silent prayer, on which the
bearers raised the coffin and carried it away. They walked along
through the park: the night was cold and cloudy: some of the party
had lanterns. When they reached the avenue that led up to the
cemetery, the moon shone out as she had done twenty-two years before.
At the vault itself some other friends had assembled, amongst whom
was the Mayor. Ere the lid was finally secured, Schwabe placed
himself at the head of the coffin, and recognised the skull to be
that which he had rescued from the Kassengewölbe. The sarcophagus
having then been closed, and a laurel wreath laid on it, formal
possession, in the name of the Grand Duke, was taken by the Marshal,
Freiherr von Spiegel. The key was removed to be kept in possession
of his Excellency, the Geheimrath von Goethe, as head of the
Institutions for Art and Science. This key, in an envelope,
addressed by Goethe, is said to be preserved in the Grand Ducal
Library, where, however, we have no recollection of having seen it.

“The ‘provisional’ deposition has proved more permanent than any
other. Whoever would see the resting-place of Goethe and Schiller
must descend into the Grand Ducal vault, where, through a grating, in
the twilight beyond he will catch a glimpse of their sarcophagi.”

The other case of exhumation, and reinterment with funeral rites, which I deem of sufficient importance to be recorded here, is that of the great Raphael. In this the motive was not, as in that of Schiller, to give his bones a worthier resting-place, nor yet, as in so many other cases, to gratify a morbid curiosity, but to set at rest a question of disputed identity. In this respect the case of Raphael has a special bearing upon the matter in hand. I extract the following from _Mrs. Jameson’s Lives of Italian Painters_, ed. 1874, p. 258:

“In the year 1833 there arose among the antiquarians of Rome a keen
dispute concerning a human skull, which on no evidence whatever,
except a long-received tradition, had been preserved and exhibited in
the Academy of St. Luke as the skull of Raphael. Some even expressed
a doubt as to the exact place of his sepulchre, though upon this
point the contemporary testimony seemed to leave no room for
uncertainty.

“To ascertain the fact, permission was obtained from the Papal
Government, and from the canons of the Church of the Rotunda (_i.e._,
of the Pantheon), to make some researches; and on the 14th of
September in the same year, after five days spent in removing the
pavement in several places, the remains of Raphael were discovered in
a vault behind the high altar, and certified as his by indisputable
proofs. After being examined, and a cast made from the skull and
[one] from the right hand, the skeleton was exhibited publicly in a
glass case, and multitudes thronged to the church to look upon it.
On the 18th of October, 1833, a second funeral ceremony took place.
The remains were deposited in a pine-wood coffin, then in a marble
sarcophagus, presented by the Pope (Gregory XVI), and reverently
consigned to their former resting-place, in presence of more than
three thousand spectators, including almost all the artists, the
officers of government, and other persons of the highest rank in
Rome.”

This event, as will appear in the sequel, is our best precedent for not permitting a sentimental respect for departed greatness to interfere with the respectful examination of a great man’s remains, wherever such examination may determine a question to which “universal history is _not_ indifferent.”

Toland tells us that Milton’s body was, on November 12, 1674, carried “to the Church of S. Giles, near _Cripplegate_, where he lies buried in the Chancel; and where the Piety of his Admirers will shortly erect a Monument becoming his worth, and the incouragement of Letters in King William’s Reign.” {19} It appears that his body was laid next to that of his father. A plain stone only was placed over the spot; and this, if Aubrey’s account be trustworthy, was removed in 1679, when the two steps were raised which lead to the altar. The remains, however, were undisturbed for nearly sixteen years. On the 4th of August, 1790, according to a small volume written by Philip Neve, Esq. (of which two editions were published in the same year), Milton’s coffin was removed, and his remains exhibited to the public on the 4th and 5th of that month. Mr. George Steevens, the great editor of Shakespeare, who justly denounced the indignity _intended_, not offered, to the great Puritan poet’s remains by Royalist landsharks, satisfied himself that the corpse was that of a woman of fewer years than Milton. Thus did good Providence, or good fortune, defeat the better half of their nefarious project: and I doubt not their gains were spent as money is which has been “gotten over the devil’s back.” Steevens’ assurance gives us good reason for believing that Mr. Philip Neve’s indignant protest is only good in the general, and that Milton’s “hallowed reliques” still “rest undisturb’d within their peaceful shrine.” I have adduced this instance to serve as an example of what I condemn, and should, in any actual case, denounce as strongly as Mr. Philip Neve or George Steevens. To expose a man’s remains after any interval for the purpose of treating his memory with indignity, or of denouncing an unpopular cause which he espoused, or (worst of all) “to fine his bones,” or make money by the public exhibition of his dust, deserves unmeasured and unqualified reprobation, and every prudent measure should be taken to render such an act impossible.

To take another example of the reprehensible practice of despoiling the grave of a great enemy: Oliver Cromwell was, as is proved by the most reliable evidence, namely, that of a trustworthy eye-witness, buried on the scene of his greatest achievement, the Field of Naseby. Some Royalist _Philister_ is said to have discovered, and stolen from its resting-place, the embalmed head of the great Protector. It found its way to London towards the end of the last century, where it was exhibited at No. 5, Mead Court, Old Bond Street. {20} It is said to have been acquired by Sir Joshua Reynolds in September, 1786, and to be now or late in the collection of Mr. W. A. Wilkinson, of Beckenham. It is recorded in one of the _Additional Manuscripts_ in the British Museum, under date April 21, 1813, that “an offer was made this morning to bring it to Soho Square, to show it to Sir Joseph Banks, but he desired to be excused from seeing _the remains of the old villanous Republican_, _the mention of whose very name makes his blood boil with indignation_. The same offer was made to Sir Joseph forty years ago, which he also refused.” What a charming specimen was Banks of the genus Tory! But after all it is a comfort to think that on this occasion he was right: for while this head was undoubtedly that which did duty for the Protector at Tyburn, and was afterwards fixed on the top of Westminster Hall, it was almost certainly not that of Oliver Cromwell: whose remains probably still lie crumbling into dust in their unknown grave on Naseby Field. {21a}

I give one more example of robbing the grave of an illustrious man, through the superstition of many and the cupidity of one. Swedenborg was buried in the vault of the Swedish Church in Prince’s Square, on April 5, 1772. In 1790, in order to determine a question raised in debate, viz., whether Swedenborg were really dead and buried, his wooden coffin was opened, and the leaden one was sawn across the breast. A few days after, a party of Swedenborgians visited the vault. “Various relics” (says White: _Life of Swedenborg_, 2nd ed., 1868, p. 675) “were carried off: Dr. Spurgin told me he possessed the cartilage of an ear. Exposed to the air, the flesh quickly fell to dust, and a skeleton was all that remained for subsequent visitors. {21b} At a funeral in 1817, Granholm, an officer in the Swedish Navy, seeing the lid of Swedenborg’s coffin loose, abstracted the skull, and hawked it about amongst London Swedenborgians, but none would buy. Dr. Wählin, pastor of the Swedish Church, recovered what he supposed to be the stolen skull, had a cast of it taken, and placed it in the coffin in 1819. The cast which is sometimes seen in phrenological collections is obviously not Swedenborg’s: it is thought to be that of a small female skull.”

In the latter part of the reign of George III a mausoleum was built in the Tomb House at Windsor Castle. On its completion, in the spring of 1813, it was determined to open a passage of communication with St. George’s Chapel, and in constructing this an opening was accidentally made in one of the walls of the vault of Henry VIII, through which the workmen could see three coffins, one of which was covered with a black velvet pall. It was known that Henry VIII and Queen Jane Seymour were buried in this vault, but a question had been raised as to the place of Charles the First’s interment, through the statement of Lord Clarendon, that the search made for the late King’s coffin at Windsor (with a view to its removal to Westminster Abbey) had proved fruitless. Sir Henry Halford, in his _Account_, appended to his _Essays and Orations_, 1831, {22} thus describes the examination of the palled coffin.

“On representing the circumstance to the Prince Regent, his R. H. perceived at once that _a doubtful point in history might be cleared up by opening this vault_; and accordingly his R. H. ordered an examination to be made on the first convenient opportunity. This was done on the First of April last [_i.e._, 1813], the day after the funeral of the Duchess of Brunswick, in the presence of his R. H. himself, who guaranteed thereby _the most respectful care and attention to the remains of the dead_, during the enquiry. His R. H. was accompanied by his R. H. the Duke of Cumberland, Count Munster, the Dean of Windsor, Benjamin Charles Stevenson, Esq., and Sir Henry Halford.”

“The vault was accordingly further opened and explored, and the palled coffin, which was of lead, and bore the inscription ‘King Charles, 1648,’ was opened at the head. A second Charles I, coffin of wood was thus disclosed, and, through this, the body carefully wrapped up in cere-cloth, into the folds of which a quantity of unctuous or greasy matter, mixed with resin, as it seemed, had been melted, so as to exclude, as effectually as possible, the external air. The coffin was completely full; and, from the tenacity of the cere-cloth, great difficulty was experienced in detaching it successfully from the parts which it enveloped. Wherever the unctuous matter had insinuated itself, the separation of the cere-cloth was easy; and when it came off, a correct impression of the features to which it had been applied was observed in the unctuous substance. {23} At length the whole face was disengaged from its covering. The complexion of the skin was dark and discoloured. The forehead and temples had lost little or nothing of their muscular substance; the cartilage of the nose was gone; but the left eye, in the first moment of exposure, was open and full, though it vanished almost immediately: and the pointed beard, so characteristic of the reign of King Charles, was perfect. The shape of the face was a long oval; many of the teeth remained; and the left ear, in consequence of the interposition of the unctuous matter between it and the cere-cloth, was found entire.”

The head was found to be loose, and was once more held up to view; and after a careful examination of it had been made, and a sketch taken, and the identity fully established, it was immediately replaced in the coffin, which was soldered up and restored to the vault. Of the other two coffins, the larger one had been battered in about the middle, and the skeleton of Henry VIII, exhibiting some beard upon the chin, was exposed to view. The other coffin was left, as it was found, intact. Neither of these coffins bore any inscription.

In the Appendix to Allan Cunningham’s _Life of Burns_ {24} we read of an examination of the poet’s Tomb, made immediately after that life was published:

“When Burns’ Mausoleum was opened in March, 1834, to receive the remains of his widow, some residents in Dumfries obtained the consent of her nearest relative to take a cast from the cranium of the poet. This was done during the night between the 31st March and 1st April. Mr. Archibald Blacklock, surgeon, drew up the following description:

“The cranial bones were perfect in every respect, if we except a
little erosion of their external table, and firmly held together by
their sutures, &c., &c. Having completed our intention [_i.e._, of
taking a plaster cast of the skull, washed from every particle of
sand, &c.], the skull, securely closed in a leaden case, was again
committed to the earth, precisely where we found it.—Archd.
Blacklock.’”

The last example I shall adduce is that of Ben Jonson’s skull. On this Lieut.-Colonel Cunningham thus writes:

“In my boyhood I was familiar with the Abbey, and well remember the ‘pavement square of blew marble, 14 inches square, with O Rare Ben Jonson,’ which marked the poet’s grave. When Buckland was Dean, the spot had to be disturbed for the coffin of Sir Robert Wilson, and the Dean sent his son Frank, now so well known as an agreeable writer on Natural History, to see whether he could observe anything to confirm, or otherwise, the tradition about Jonson being buried in a standing posture. The workmen, he tells us, ‘found a coffin very much decayed, which from the appearance of the remains must have originally been placed in the upright position. The skull found among these remains, Spice, the gravedigger, gave me as that of Ben Jonson, and I took it at once into the Dean’s study. We examined it together, and then going into the Abbey carefully returned it to the earth.’ In 1859, when John Hunter’s coffin was removed to the Abbey, the same spot had to be dug up, and Mr. Frank Buckland again secured the skull of Jonson, placing it at the last moment on the coffin of the great surgeon. So far, so good; but not long afterwards, a statement appeared in the ‘Times’ that the skull of Ben Jonson was in the possession of a blind gentleman at Stratford-upon-Avon. Hereupon Mr. Buckland made further inquiries, and calmly tells us that he has convinced himself that the skull which he had taken such care of on two occasions, [such care as not so much as to measure or sketch it!] was not Jonson’s skull at all; that a Mr. Ryde had anticipated him both times in removing and replacing the genuine article, [!] and that the Warwickshire claimant [!] was a third skull which Mr. Ryde observed had been purloined from the grave on the second opening. Mr. Buckland is a scientific naturalist, and an ardent worshipper of the closest of all observers, John Hunter. Now mark what satisfies such a man on such an occasion as this. He was wrong and Mr. Ryde was right, because Mr. Ryde described _his_ skull as having _red hair_; and in Aubrey’s _Lives of Eminent Men_, ‘I find evidence quite sufficient for any medical man to come to the conclusion that Ben Jonson’s hair was in all probability of a red colour, though the fact _is not stated in so many words_.’ In so many words! I think not! Actually all that Aubrey says on the subject is, ‘_He was_, _or rather had been_, _of a cleare and faire skin_’! (_Lives_, ii, 414.) And this, too, in spite of our knowing from his own pen, and from more than one painting, that his hair was as black as the raven’s wing! Besides, he was sixty-five years old when he died, and we may be sure that the few locks he had left were neither red nor black, but of the hue of the ‘hundred of grey hairs’ which he described as remaining eighteen years before. Mr. Buckland’s statement will be found in the _Fourth Series_ of his _Curiosities of Natural History_, one of the most entertaining little volumes with which we are acquainted.” {26}

In reviewing the various incidents connected with the foregoing cases of exhumation one is perhaps most struck with the last two. That an illustrious man of science, and his son, who at that time must already have been a scientific naturalist, should have coöperated in so stupendous a blunder as the mere inspection of Ben Jonson’s skull, without taking so much as a measurement or drawing of it, would be incredible, but for the fact that both are dead, and nothing of the sort has come to light: and it is scarcely less surprising that the Swedenborgians, who believed themselves to be in possession of their founder’s skull, should not have left on record some facts concerning its shape and size.

Before addressing myself to the principal matter of this essay, namely the question whether we should not attempt to recover Shakespeare’s skull, I may as well note, that the remains of the great philosopher, whom so many regard as Shakespeare’s very self, or else his _alter ego_, were not allowed to remain unmolested in their grave in St. Michael’s Church, St. Albans. Thomas Fuller, in his _Worthies_, relates as follows: “Since I have read that his grave being occasionally opened [!] his scull (the relique of civil veneration) was by one King, a Doctor of Physick, made the object of scorn and contempt; but he who then derided the dead has since become the laughingstock of the living.” This, being quoted by a correspondent in _Notes and Queries_ {27a} elicited from Mr. C. Le Poer Kennedy, of St. Albans, {27b} an account of a search that had been made for Bacon’s remains, on the occasion of the interment of the last Lord Verulam. “A partition wall was pulled down, and the search extended into the part of the vault immediately under the monument, but no remains were found.” On the other hand, we have the record of his express wish to be buried there. I am afraid the doctor, who is said to have become the laughingstock of the living, has entirely faded out of men’s minds and memories.

Among the many protests against the act of exhumation, I select that of Capel Lofft, as representative of the rest. He writes—

“It were to be wished that neither superstition, affectation, idle curiosity, or avarice, were so frequently invading the silence of the grave. Far from dishonouring the illustrious dead, it is rather outraging the common condition of humanity, and last melancholy state in which our present existence terminates. Dust and ashes have no intelligence to give, whether beauty, genius, or virtue, informed the animated clay. A tooth of Homer or Milton will not be distinguished from one of a common mortal; nor a bone of Alexander acquaint us with more of his character than one of Bucephalus. Though the dead be unconcerned, the living are neither benefited nor improved: decency is violated, and a kind of instinctive sympathy infringed, which, though it ought not to overpower reason, ought not without it, and to no purpose, to be superseded.” Notwithstanding the right feeling shewn in this passage, it is quite sufficient to condemn Capel Lofft as a _Philister_. Let us for a moment examine some of these very eloquent assertions. Agreeing as I cordially do with his wish, that neither superstition, affectation, whatever that may mean, idle curiosity, or avarice, were the motives which actuate those who molest the relics of the dead, I cannot allow that neither dust and ashes, bones, nor teeth, have any intelligence to give us; nor yet that by the reverential scrutiny of those relics the living can be neither benefited nor improved. All that depends upon the intelligence of the scrutineer. Doubtless your _Philister_ would turn over the skull or the bones, or make hay with the dust, just as Peter Bell could see nothing in a primrose but a weed in flower. What message a bone or a weed may have for the man or the race depends wholly upon the recipient. Your Shakespeare or Goethe, your Owen or Huxley, would find in it an intelligible language; while your Capel Lofft would denounce what he found there as dirt and indecency. How true is the proverb of Syr Oracle Mar-text: “To the wise all things are wise.” In the case of Schiller, the skull spoke for itself, and claimed to be that of Schiller; the bones, like those in the 37th chapter of _Ezekiel_, aggregated themselves around their head, and submitted to an accurate articulation; and the teeth gave their evidence, too, at least the place of one, which was not in the jaw, bore its testimony to the fact that the jaw in question was that which Schiller had submitted to dentistry. In the case of Raphael, the discovery of the skull disproved the claims of the spurious relic, and arrested a stupid superstition. {29} Beyond question, the skull of Shakespeare, might we but discover it in anything like its condition at the time of its interment, would be of still greater interest and value. It would at least settle two disputed points in the Stratford Bust; it would test the Droeshout print, and every one of the half-dozen portraits-in-oils which pass as presentments of Shakespeare’s face at different periods of his life. Moreover it would pronounce decisively on the pretensions of the Kesselstadt Death-Mask, and we should know whether that was from the “flying-mould” after which Gerard Johnson worked, when he sculptured the Bust. Negative evidence the skull would assuredly furnish; but there is reason for believing that it would afford positive evidence in favour of the Bust, one or other of the portraits, or even of the Death-Mask: and why, I ask, should not an attempt be made to recover Shakespeare’s skull? Why should not the authorities of Stratford, to whom this brochure is inscribed, sanction, or even themselves undertake, a respectful examination of the grave in which Shakespeare’s remains are believed to have been buried?

Two grounds have always been assigned for abstention: (1) the sentiment which disposes men to leave the relics of the dead to their rest in the tomb: (2) the prohibition contained in the four lines inscribed upon Shakespeare’s gravestone. With the former of these I have sufficiently dealt already. As for the latter; the prohibitory lines, whether they proceeded from our Poet himself, as Mr. William Page, and many before him, believed, or from the pen of Ben Jonson, or of an inferior writer (which is to me the more probable authorship), I am most desirous to respect them; not that I stand in awe of Shakespeare’s curse, but because I think they proceeded from a natural and laudable fear. I have no more doubt that “moves,” in the quatrain, means “_re_moves,” than I have that “stones” means “_grave_stones.” The fear which dictated these curious lines, was, I believe, lest Shakespeare’s remains should be carried, whither so many of his predecessors in the churchyard had been carried, to the common charnel-house hard-by. I do not read in those lines a prohibition against an examination of the grave, say for purposes of knowledge and history, but against the despoiling of that grave, to make room for some local knight, squire, or squireen, who might have been deemed a worthier tenant of the Chancel room. Shakespeare’s body was carried to the grave on Thursday, April 25, 1616 (O. S.); and, beyond question, his son-in-law, Dr. John Hall, made all the arrangements, and bore all the expenses. We have no proof whatever that the grave has remained closed from that time: on the contrary there is some slight _scintilla_ of proof that it has been explored; and it would never astonish me to learn that Shakespeare’s skull had been abstracted! There may yet be some among us who have a personal interest in preventing such an exploration, and in thus maintaining the general belief, that Shakespeare’s relics still rest in the mould in which they were buried.