in
1884, from the original, now in the Bodleian Library Oxford.

{274} Mr. Charles Elton, Q.C., has been kind enough to give me a legal
opinion on this point. He wrote to me on December 9, 1897: 'I have
looked to the authorities with my friend Mr. Herbert Mackay, and there is
no doubt that Shakespeare barred the dower.' Mr. Mackay's opinion is
couched in the following terms: 'The conveyance of the Blackfriars estate
to William Shakespeare in 1613 shows that the estate was conveyed to
Shakespeare, Johnson, Jackson, and Hemming as joint tenants, and
therefore the dower of Shakespeare's wife would be barred unless he were
the survivor of the four bargainees.' That was a remote contingency,
which did not arise, and Shakespeare always retained the power of making
'another settlement when the trustees were shrinking.' Thus the bar was
for practical purposes perpetual, and disposes of Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps's assertion that Shakespeare's wife was entitled to
dower in one form or another from all his real estate. Cf. _Davidson on
Conveyancing_; Littleton, sect. 45; _Coke upon Littleton_, ed. Hargrave,
p. 379 _b_, note I.

{276a} A hundred and fifty pounds is described as a substantial jointure
in _Merry Wives_, III. iii. 49.

{276b} Leonard Digges, in commendatory verses before the First Folio of
1623, wrote that Shakespeare's works would be alive

[When] Time dissolves thy Stratford monument.

{277} Cf. Dugdale, _Diary_, 1827, p. 99; see under article on Bernard
Janssen in the _Dictionary of National Biography_.

{278a} 'Timber,' in _Works_, 1641.

{278b} John Webster, the dramatist, made vague reference in the address
before his 'White Divel' in 1612 to 'the right happy and copious industry
of M. Shakespeare, M. Decker, and M. Heywood.'

{280} The words run: 'Heere lyeth interred the bodye of Anne, wife of
Mr. William Shakespeare, who depted. this life the 6th day of August,
1623, being of the age of 67 yeares.

'Vbera, tu, mater, tu lac vitamq. dedisti,
Vae mihi; pro tanto munere saxa dabo!
Quam mallem, amoueat lapidem bonus Angel[us] ore,
Exeat ut Christi Corpus, imago tua.
Sed nil vota valent; venias cito, Christe; resurget,
Clausa licet tumulo, mater, et astra petet.'

{281} Cf. Hall, _Select Observations_, ed. Cooke, 1657.

{282} Baker, _Northamptonshire_, i. 10; _New Shaksp. Soc. Trans._
1880-5, pt. ii. pp. 13--15.

{283} Halliwell-Phillipps, _Hist. of