Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/288

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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 imme- diately 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 Shake- speare's latter years was displayed, stood near the chapel. Here his mulberry-tree flourished, a vene- rable 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, malig- nity, or perhaps from the motive that actuated the fiend who fired the temple of Ephesus, cut the for- mer down, and levelled the latter with the dust. Would to heaven the same fate had attended him

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