Yes, William’s father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare’s funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. Does Shakespeare have descendants? Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717-1797), was the fourth son of Sir Robert Walpole. A prominent antiquarian, art historian and Gothic novelist, he was descended from a family of Catholic recusants and martyrs. Walpole was also related to Francis Seymour-Conway, 2nd Marquess of Hertford. According to Langston’s account of How Shakespeare’s Skull was Stolen and Found, it was at Ragley Hall, Lord Hertford’s Palladian mansion near Alcester, that Dr Frank Chambers was inspired to steal Shakespeare’s skull: Walpole had apparently offered 300 guineas to anyone who could bring him the skull of William Shakespeare. The principal witnesses against its authenticity are a respected antiquarian who left an eyewitness description of the original monument, an eighteenth-century artist whose engraving is the first to depict a writer in it, and a famous painter who called it “a silly smiling thing.” The evidence includes the letters of a Stratford curate who protests far too much about how he “refurbished” it, his mention of a mysterious “Heath the carver” whose role has not heretofore been sufficiently recognized, and the records of those who at various times complained of the wear and tear on a monument that today looks like it has survived over four centuries untouched by time. Underlying the faulty rationale of orthodoxy is a mistaken standard of accuracy.

a half-hearted, belated mention of the Stratford man as the great poet-dramatist. Another sign of Dugdale’s peculiar reticence is the title he gave to Hollar’s engraving in his book. It does not identify the monument as Shakespeare’s. It says simply: “In the North wall of the Chancell is this Monument fixt.” The only mention of “Shakspeare” in the illustration is in his transcript of the verse epitaph. [3] All in all, Dugdale appears less than enthusiastic that “our late famous poet” was from his home county. A statue was created for Logan Circle, Philadelphia in 1926, designed by Alexander Stirling Calder. It does not depict Shakespeare himself, but rather the figures of Touchstone the jester from As You Like It, representing comedy, and Hamlet, representing tragedy. Touchstone is lounging with his head tilted laughing, his feet hanging over the top of the tall stone pedestal and his left arm resting on Hamlet's legs. Hamlet is seated, brooding, his knife dangling over Touchstone's body. [22] The opening lines of the famous All the world's a stage speech from As You Like It are inscribed on the pedestal beneath the figures. Greene then draws a contrast with the Stratford bust. Its thoughtfulness, he says, “seems to arise from a chearfulness of thought.” The Bard retired “and liv’d chearfully amongst his friends.” His disposition was “ chearful” (Greene’s emphases). At another point, he refers to him fondly and not a little possessively as “old Billy our Bard” (115). His cheerful Shakespeare can only have been the result of his repair and “re-beautification” of the gloomy visage that Dugdale saw and sketched for Hollar’s engraving. Figure 6: R.B. Wheler’s engraving from his 1806 book.The painted effigy is a half-height depiction of Shakespeare holding a quill, with a sheet of paper on a cushion in front of him. In the 17th century, a Jacobean sculptor called Gerard Johnson was identified as the artist behind it. Orlin believes that the limestone monument was in fact created by Nicholas Johnson, a tomb-maker, rather than his brother Gerard, a garden decorator.

By the nineteenth century Shakespeare's reputation had advanced to the point of what came to be known as bardolatry. Statues and other memorials began to appear outside Britain, while in Britain itself Shakespeare's status as national poet was consolidated.

The same sharp pointed instrument, incidentally, would probably have made the two deep scratches running up the right side of the skull. What kind of sharp pointed instrument would have made these scratches? Ben Jonson might have provided a clue. Jonson was never very good at keeping a secret. He had already referred to 'the Graver' having 'hit [Shakespeare's] face in his short poem commending the Droeshout engraving [16], and in his longer prefatory poem for the First Folio he wrote: