Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 68

LXVIII. SHAKESPEARE’S DEATH AND BURIAL (1616).

Stratford Burial Register.

1616 April 25 Will. Shakspere, gent.


Note. The date of Shakespeare’s death, April 23, is indicated by the inscription on his monument in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford:

Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem
Terra tegit, populus moeret, Olympus habet.

Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath placed
Within this monument: Shakespeare, with whom
Quick nature died; whose name doth deck his tomb
Far more than cost; sith all that he hath writ
Leaves living art but page to serve his wit.

Obiit an[n]o do[min]i 1616. Ætatis 58. Die 23 Ap.

Shakespeare’s brother-in-law, William Hart, husband of his sister Joan (who survived till 1646), was buried in the same church on April 17, during the previous week.