From the birth-place of Shakespeare a few paces brought me to his grave. He lies buried in the chancel of the parish church, a large and venerable pile, mouldering with age, but richly ornamented. It stands on the banks

of the Avon, on an embowered point, and separated by adjoining gardens from the suburbs of the town. Its

situation is quiet and retired; the river runs murmuring at the foot of the churchyard, and the elms which grow upon its banks droop their branches into its clear bosom. An avenue of limes, the boughs of which are curiously interlaced, so as to form in summer an arched way of foliage, leads up from the gate of the yard to the church

porch. The graves are overgrown with grass; the grey tombstones, some of them nearly sunk into the earth, are half covered with moss, which has likewise tinted the reverend old building.

The

The tomb of Shakespeare is in the chancel. place is solemn and sepulchral. Tall elms wave before

the pointed windows, and the Avon, which runs at a short distance from the walls, keeps up a low perpetual murmur. A flat stone marks the spot where the bard is buried. There are four lines inscribed on it, said to have been written by himself, and which have in them something extremely awful. If they are indeed his own, they

show that solicitude about the quiet of the grave, which seems natural to fine sensibilities and thoughtful minds.

Just over the grave, in a niche of the wall, is a bust of Shakespeare, put up shortly after his death, and considered a resemblance. The aspect is pleasant and serene, with a finely arched forehead, and I thought I could read in it clear indications of the cheerful, social disposition by which he was as much characterized among his contemporaries as by the vastness of his genius. The inscription mentions his age at the time of his decease, fifty-two years; an untimely death for the world for what fruit might not have been expected from the golden autumn of such a mind, sheltered as it was from the stormy vicissitudes of life, and flourishing in the sunshine of popular and royal favour?

The inscription on the tombstone has not been without its effect. It has prevented the removal of his remains from the bosom of his native place to Westminster Abbey, which was at one time contemplated. A few years since, also, as some labourers were digging to make an adjoining vault, the earth caved in, so as to leave a vacant space almost like an arch, through which one might have reached into his grave. No one, however, presumed to meddle with his remains, and lest any of the idle or curious, or any collector of relics should be tempted to commit depredations, the old sexton kept watch over the place for two days, until the vault was finished and the aperture closed again. He told me that he had made bold to look into the hole, but could see neither coffin nor bones; nothing but dust. It was something, I thought, to have seen the dust of Shakespeare.

10 Irving.

Garrick. Shakespeare was the greatest of dramatic authors, Garrick the greatest of English actors. Garrick's acting met

with prodigious applause, and multitudes thronged to see it. He was born in 1716, and died in 1779. territorial consequence, a feeling of importance arising from possessing territory, or owning land. monarch, etc., this phrase occurs in Cowper's poem on Alexander Selkirk (Robinson Crusoe). 4 Stratford-on-Avon is situated on the right bank of the river Avon, eight miles southwest of Warwick. The town is neatly built, and has quite a modern look, most of the old houses having disappeared. Some trade is carried on in corn and malt. 5jubilee, a season of great public festivity and rejoicing. Shakespeare's birthday, the 23rd of April, is always a grand day in Stratford; but every centenary, that is, hundredth year from his birth, a grand jubilee, extending over some weeks, is held. In 1769, Garrick projected and conducted a grand jubilee. It was the second centenary of Shakespeare's birthday. quickening, reviving; life-giving; making alive. garrulous, talkative. 8 assiduous, unwearied, untiring. chancel, that part of a church where the altar or communiontable is placed. 10 Irving, see App.

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CHARLES LAMB has written a book entitled "Tales from Shakespeare." In the preface he says, "These tales are designed for the use of young people, as an introduction to the study of Shakespeare, and therefore the poet's words are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in. I trust," he continues, "these tales will give my young readers foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their older years, when they come to the rich treasures from which these small and valueless coins are extracted. They are indeed but faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare's matchless image, because the

beauty of his language is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of his excellent words into others far less expressive of his true sense.

"It has been my wish to make these tales easy reading for children, especially young ladies, because boys have frequently the best scenes of Shakespeare by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look into this manly book ; and therefore, instead of recommending them to the perusal of young gentlemen, who can read the stories so much better in the originals, I must rather beg their kind assistance in explaining to their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand.

"What influence these tales may have over you in childhood, that and much more may the plays of Shakespeare do for you in older years,-enrich your imagination, strengthen your virtue, teach you to shun all mercenary thoughts and actions, and to cultivate courtesy, benignity, generosity, and humanity; for of examples teaching these virtues his pages are full."

Of these tales we have selected two-King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In King Lear most of the virtues above enumerated are taught. In the character of Cordelia is shown the nobleness of truth, generosity, humanity, and filial affection; while that of her sisters exhibits falsehood, cruelty, covetousness, selfishness, and ingratitude. We learn to love virtue as we admire Cordelia, and to hate vice as we condemn the conduct of the cruel sisters.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, our young readers will see that the great Shakespeare could tell a fairy tale.