So Then Where is William Shakespeare Buried? p. 2.

Returning to Judith’s monument inscription, read literally it must mean that her body is buried in the monument itself or the wall below it.  Between 1840 and 1891, an extremely literal researcher would have to present that as his incontrovertible finding.  Moreover, even being able to see the gravestone inscription, on the floor, he would have to declare the grave on the floor below the monument  to house an anonymous occupant.

Inter'd beneath this marble, lyes at rest,

Vntimely pluckt from her beloued's brest;

Desires nil vltra nature's quintessence,

In whom, perfections in their excellence,

Their stations kept:—her life unspotted was;

Her soule vnstained, unto heauen did pas.

Could birth or beauty, loue or to be lov'd.

Of powers diuine, this sad decree have mov'd;

Might many thousand sighs, large streams of tears

Brought fourth vvith prayers, haue added to her yeares;

Epithalamions might have joy'd our eares.

No name appears on the stone.  The antiquaries have pronounced the grave to belong to Judith Combe for these centuries without proof perfect.

On the south wall of the chancel, directly across from Judith, appears a wall plaque from much the same  time.  It is a memorial to a number of Combe family members:

NEAR VNTO THIS PLACE, LIE INTERRED THE BODIES OF WILL. COMBE, OF OVLD STRATFORD ESQ.. WHO DIED THE 3oth DAY OF JANVARY ANº. 1666. & OF KATHERINE HIS WIFE, DAVGHTER OF EDWARD BOVGHT ON OF LAW FORD IN THIS COVNTY OF WARWICK ESQ. BY WHOM HE HAE ONE SONNE & NINE, DAVGHTERS, OF WHICH TVO ONLY HAD ISSVE, VIZ. MARY WHO MARRIED WITH THOMAS WAGSTAFF OF TACHBROOK IN THIS COVNTY ESQ. AND CATHERINE, WHO MARRIED WITH Sr. THOMAS STEPHENS OF SODBVRY IN THE COVNTY OF GLOVC. Kt. THE SONNE, AND ALL THE, OTHER DAVGHTERS DECEASED VNMARRIED, WHEREOF FIVE LYE. HERE ALSO INTERRED WITH ONE DAVGHTER of Sr THOMAS STEPHENS BVRIED IN THE SAME GRAVE WITH HER GRANDMOTHER.[1]

The perfectly literal researcher can only take from this that there are a number of the aforementioned persons buried in the wall.  What can be made of “near unto this place,” regarding others named, even the more interpretive investigator cannot be perfectly sure.  Presumably all the bodies mentioned on the plaque are buried in the chancel under one or another layer of pavement.  What can be said with absolute certainty is that the further back into history the researcher goes the less consistency (s)he will find in the memorials or the church records.

Check out the Virtual Vanaprastha Author Page!

In the final analysis, then, by best evidence and methods, the Stratford Monument is meant to rise above the traditional grave of Shakspere of Stratford.  Why the grave is not directly against the wall, no one can yet be perfectly certain.  Anne, Shakspere’s wife, may have requested to be buried on his right hand, the position of highest honor in an age that such symbols greatly mattered.[2]  Anne’s grave may have displaced a previous occupant (the size of the available space suggests a physically much bigger person) while the graves on the other side may not yet have been available.

As for the lack of a nameplate on the Shakspere grave, I have pointed out that the grave was partially overlaid with the edging of the expanded altar apron.[3]  Objections have been made that the church clergy and vestry would not possibly choose to cover over the name of The Bard as part of any expansion.  As I have pointed out, in my Edward de Vere was Shakespeare: at long last the proof, there is no sign  that anyone in Stratford thought the Stratford man could write much less write great plays.

xxix.  Prior to 1623, the playwright and poet Shake-speare had no flesh and blood.  Shakspere’s frauds were known only by a very few, among the general public, and probably believed by fewer still.  With the publication of a “collected plays,” questions were sure to be asked, and persisted in, about who this Shake-speare had been, why there was no record at all of the man behind the name.  For this reason, and several others, Pavier was effectively ordered to cease publication and the Herberts set about “doing the thing right”.

xxx.  It was probably at this time, while checking out the actual fate of the player, since his exit from London, that the group became aware that he had a funerary monument and a crypt in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.  A plaque was struck declaring him to have been the Immortal Bard and quietly appeared below the likeness.[4]

It seems to have taken the locals until the 1630s to begin to understand the business opportunity that had fallen in their lap.  The clergy did not know, in mid-1623, that the man in the grave was passing for the popular playwright, therefore they would have felt no particular compunction.

Regardless, there were no names on the floor graves associated with the wall monuments or plaques of any of the other graves in the chancel at Holy Trinity.  The swatch of embarrassing doggerel on the floor grave is so expressive that I am delighted to have Shakspere’s body in the grave.  It screams out that the body is not William Shakespeare, the greatest writer in the English language.

So then, do I claim that the Stratford Monument as it exists now is the monument as it has always existed?  That there’s nothing to find?  Of course not.  I’ve just mentioned the one most important change.  There are others.  But that’s a matter for another day.

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[1] Dugdale, 686.

[2] On the floor-tomb effigies at Holy Trinity, it must be admitted, the wife is portrayed uniformly on the left.

[3] Purdy, Gilbert Wesley. “Stratford Shakespeare’s Undersized Grave” Virtual Grub Street, http://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2018/07/stratford-shakespeares-short-grave.html [Accessed 7/29/18].

[4] Purdy, Gilbert Wesley. Edward de Vere was Shakespeare: at long last the proof.  Richmond, VA: The Virtual Vanaprastha, 2013.  xxix – xxx.

• Thomas Churchyard in The Merry Wives of Windsor. June 04, 2018. “The idea of this stratagem, &c. might have been adopted from part of the entertainment prepared by Thomas Churchyard for Queen Elizabeth at Norwich:…”

• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

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