on of Shakespeare by the nation at large.]

At any rate, the ancient objection to the erection of a national
monument in London, which was based on the absence of any memorial in
Stratford, is no longer of avail. In 1821, in 1847, and in 1864, when
the acquisition of the Stratford property was unattempted or
uncompleted, it was perfectly just to argue that Stratford was
entitled to have precedence of London when the question of
commemorating Shakespeare was debated. It is no just argument in 1906,
now that the claims of Stratford are practically satisfied.

Byron, when writing of the memorial to Petrarch at Arqua, expressed
with admirable feeling the sentiment that would confine outward
memorials of a poet in his native town to the places where he was
born, lived, died, and was buried. With very little verbal change
Byron's stanza on the visible memorials of Petrarch's association with
Arqua is applicable to those of Shakespeare's connexion with
Stratford:--

They keep his dust in Stratford, where he died;
The midland village where his later days
Went down the vale of years; and 'tis their pride--
An honest pride--and let it be their praise,
To offer to the passing stranger's gaze
His birthplace and his sepulchre; both plain
And venerably simple, such as raise
A feeling more accordant with his strain
Than if a pyramid form'd his monumental fane.[47]

[Footnote 47: Cf. _Childe Harold_, Canto IV., St. xxxi.]

Venerable simplicity is hardly the characteristic note of
Shakespeare's "strain" any more than it is of Petrarch's "strain." But
there can be no just quarrel with the general contention that at
Stratford, where Shakespeare gave ample proof of his characteristic
modesty, a pyramidal fane would be out of harmony with the
environment. There his birthplace, his garden, and tomb are the
fittest memorials of his great career.

V

It may justly be asked: Is there any principle which justifies another
sort of memorial elsewhere? On grounds of history and sentiment, but
in conditions which demand most careful definition, the right answer
will, I think, be in the affirmative. For one thing, Shakespeare's
life was not confined to Stratford. His professional career was spent
in London, and those, who strictly insist that memorials to great men
should be erected only in places with which they were personally
associated, can hardly deny that London shares with Stratford a title
to