“In a lower room of the public-house, which is part of the premises wherein Shakspeare was born, is a curious ancient ornament over the chimney, relieved in plaster, which, from the date 1606, that was originally marked on it, was probably put up at the time, and possibly by the poet himself; although a rude attempt at historic representation, I have yet thought it worth copying. In 1759 it was repaired and painted in a variety of colours by the old Mr. Thomas Harte before mentioned, who assured me the motto then round it had been in the old black-letter, and dated 1606. The motto runs thus:
Golith comes with sword and spear, And David with a sling; Although Golith rage and sweare, Down David doth him bring.
“Mr. Harte, of Stratford, before mentioned, told me there was an old oak chair, that had always in his remembrance been called Shakspeare’s courting chair, with a purse that had been likewise his, and handed down from him to his grand-daughter Lady Barnard, and from her through the Hathaway family to those of the present day. From the best information I was able to collect at the time, I was induced to consider this account as authentic, and from a wish to obtain the smallest trifle appertaining to our Shakspeare, I became a purchaser of these relics. Of the chair I have here given a sketch; it is of a date sufficiently ancient to justify the credibility of its history; and as to farther proof, it must rest on the traditional opinion and the character of this poor family.”
CHAPTER II. SHAKSPERE’S AFTER-RESIDENCE AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON.
The nearest _reliable_ authority we have for any story connected with William Shakspere is the Vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, a man of literary tastes, who kept a voluminous journal, and it is he who gives us the account of “as I have heard, Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merrie meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a feavour there contracted” (was it at the house in Blackfriars? they are hardly all likely to have been at Stratford). Also in his Diary, “Remember to peruse Shakespeare’s plays and bee much versed in them, that I may not be ignorant in that matter. . . . Whether Dr. Heylin does well in reckoning up the dramatick poets which have been famous in England to omit Shakespeare?” Note here that Mr. Ward, although Vicar of the parish, and a man of high education, was not acquainted with the works of Shakespeare simply because he had not before realized the point that his parishioner, whose descendants and relatives lived in humble guise, was really the illustrious Shakespeare, whose praise was in all mouths, and that therefore it was not necessary he should be “up in them,” as they were not the subject of conversation in the town of his birth and youth and burial, clearly the pressure upon him to get them up came later on from without. He was not appointed to the Vicarage until 1662.