sat, and the cupboard in which he kept his books. A tobacco-stopper also was shewn us, said to be that which he had been accustomed to use for some years; but as we found this inestimable relic might have been purchased for 1s. 6d. and that parts of the chair and cupboard might be procured upon similar reasonable terms, we were as much inclined to give credit to their genuineness, as we had felt ourselves willing to believe the traditions of Guy Earl of Warwick, his shield, sword, and porridgepot. Homely as the tenement was, however, we had much gratification in recollecting that it had been the birth-place of our great poet, and the scene where the first dawning of his gigantic intellect was displayed. We were naturally led to a recollection. of the circumstance (ill-starred as it was thought at the time) that, throwing the young bard upon his own exertions for subsistence, evolved those sparks of genius, which had they not been elicited by necessity, would probably have remained latent and unknown, and never kindled into a meteor that for upwards of a century has surprised and delighted the civilized world; and will continue to surprise and delight, as long as sense, feeling, and taste, influence the human mind.

Shakespeare, you know, had quietly settled himself in his father's trade of a wool-dealer, and to

ensure greater steadiness in his pursuit of business, had taken unto himself a wife, the daughter of one Hathaway, in the neighbourhood of Stratford. Good-nature or incaution, however, led him into the society of some idle youths, who committed occasional depredations in the parks of the surrounding gentry. Being detected in a nocturnal adventure of this kind upon the property of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Chalcot near Stratford, he was prosecuted for the offence; and irritating the prosecutor to a still greater degree of violence, by an abusive ballad, he was under a necessity of avoiding the effects of the criminal process, by quitting his business and family at Stratford, and hiding himself in the metropolis. As his usual means of living were now at an end, Shakespeare was obliged to adopt some new ones for his future support. His situation required promptitude of decision, and the stage no capital and little preparation; he, therefore, determined upon that line, and accordingly immedi ately engaged himself upon low terms, and for the most subordinate parts. But the omnipotence of exalted genius is not to be controled for any length of time by the frowns of fortune; Shakespeare soon emerged from the obscurity in which necessity had for a moment involved him; and though his histrionical talents never raised our poet to capital

characters, his powers as a writer soon gained the admiration of his own profession, and the unbounded approbation of the public. Now was the meridian of Shakespeare's life, and for some years his sun shone with noontide glory; pouring upon him praise, popularity, and opulence. Still more pleasing, however, was the evening of his day, when it beamed with weaker, indeed, but with steadier light; when returning full of honour, and blessed with competence, to his native place Stratfordupon-Avon, he built a handsome house, and passed some few remaining years in social intercourse and kind reciprocities. Here he died on his birth-day, having exactly completed the fifty-third year of his age, as universally lamented as he was generally beloved. Good-nature was the chief ingredient in his disposition; and if ever he bordered upon any thing severe, the satire was always justified by the worthlessness of the object at which he levelled it. Some instances of his poetical sarcasms are upon record, but local tradition confirms the assertion now made of their just application. They are written on John Coombe and his brother Tom, both notorious for penury and usury. The former, in a party at which Shakespeare was present, had sportively observed, that he apprehended the poet meant to write his epitaph in case he outlived him,

but as he should lose the benefit of the composition if it were deferred till his death, he begged it might be done whilst he lived, that he might admire the tribute, and thank the writer; Shakespeare immediately presented him with the following lines:

"Ten in the hundred lies here engrav'd,

""Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not sav'd;

"If any man ask, Who lies in this tomb?'

"Oh! oh! quoth the Devil, 'tis my John a Coomb."

The epitaph upon the brother, whether called for or not, I cannot say, is of a similar spirit:

"Thin in beard, and thick in purse,

"Never man beloved worse;

"He went to the grave with many a curse;
"The Devil and he had both one nurse."

The house in which the social happiness of Shakespeare's latter years was displayed, stood near the chapel. Here his mulberry-tree flourished, a venerable monument of the bard, and would have pointed out the residence of " Fancy's child" for many years after the edifice had fallen into decay, but a man by the name of Gastrell, out of spleen, malignity, or perhaps from the motive that actuated the fiend who fired the temple of Ephesus, cut the former down, and levelled the latter with the dust. Would to heaven the same fate had attended him

as the incendiary experienced, and his name had been blotted out of the book of memory for ever! The tomb of Shakespeare makes one of the remarkables of Stratford, and we considered it of course as a sufficient inducement to lead us to the church, which stands in a situation particularly beautiful, at the southern extremity of the town. The Avon laves the eastern side of the large church-yard, and no meaner building introduces itself to take off the attention from the fine Gothic structure before the eye. The style of architecture which chiefly prevails (for it has been built at different times) in this edifice, is that of the Norman age, and marks out the era of its erection to be about the 12th or

13th century. Nothing is certainly known of the time when, or of the person by whom, it was founded; but as the arms of the Bishops of Worcester are discovered in many of the ancient Mosaic tiles scattered over its pavement, it has been thought that the founder was one of that see. The chancel is by far the most beautiful member of this building. This was erected by Dr. Thomas Balsall, about the year 1474, partly from the funds of the college here, of which he was warden, and partly out of his own private fortune. The windows are fine and the roof light. In the north aile, at the eastern end, is a small chapel de