8-3Death&Grave

How and When did Shakespeare Die? What Is his Grave like? //Answer prepared by Jake W.//

After a long life (at the time) of writing, William Shakespeare died on April 23 rd, 1616 at the age of 52. Some believe he died on his birthday! The way he died remains unknown but a legend has arisen from an entry in John Ward’s diary which came half a century after the death. John Ward was an English composer, attorney, and musician. In the diary, Ward states that Shakespeare died of a fever the came from drinking too much at a meeting with Ben Johnson, an English renaissance dramatist, poet, and actor who was at one point a contemporary of William Shakespeare himself. Shakespeare’s son-in-law, Dr. Hall attended him prior to his death. He died before his wife, Anne Hathaway. His surviving works consist of 28 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and several other poems. Shakespeare also used around two thousand neologisms. He certainly contributed a great deal to the entertainment of people from then on. For that reason he was given a memorial statue in Poets’ Corner in Westminister Abbey, London. Poets’ Corner is the name given to the south transept of the Westminister Abbey because there are memorials and even graves of the most famous poets, playwrights, and writers of all time. William Shakespeare has a memorial in Poets’ corner. He is not buried there though. William Shakespeare was buried in the chancel, the area around the altar for the clergy and choir which is often closed off, of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford next to his wife, Anne Hathaway Shakespeare who died in 1623, and several other of his family members. A bust was made of William in 1623 by Gerard Janses and can be seen in the church. Shakespeare wrote his own epitaph because, at the time, when the graveyard was full, people would dig up someone’s corpse and burn it so that another could be buried in that person’s place. This disgusted Shakespeare. To assure that this type of disrespect would not happen to him, his epitaph reads: “Good Friends, for Jesus’ sake forbear, To dig the bones enclosed here! Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.” Some believe that this epitaph is the reason why his bones have never been moved.

Works Cited: = "Poets' Corner." Poets' Corner Editorial Staff. 19 Apr 2009 []. Self, Camron. "William Shakespeare." //Poets' Graves//. 15 Apr 2009 []. = = "The Death of William Shakespeare." //The Death of WIlliam Shakespeare//. 2 Apr 2009 . =