CURSE OF THE TOMB.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 155, 4 July 1927, Page 17

CURSE OF THE TOMB.

SHAKESPEARE SKULL MYSTERY. EXHUMATION PLAN. A number of literary men in Britain and America propose to petition the authorities for power to open the supposed grave of Shakespeare in the church of Stratford-on-Avon. Most people know that in the chancel of the Parish Church of Stratford-on-Avon there is a memorial to Shakespeare above his grave. Thousands of people pilgrimage there every year to gaze at it. Upon the gravestone itself on the floor of the Church are engraved the lines: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones. And cursed be be that moves my bones. For over three hundred years these lines, which have been called doggerel, have had the power of preventing people from desecrating the supposed grave of Shakespeare. Braving the Curse. Now scholars and scientists, spurred by curiosity and the desire to know everything possible about Shakespeare, are anxious to brave the curse that Shakespeare pronounced on anybody who would disturb his bones. They contend that the age-long controversy as to whether Shakespeare was really the author of the plays that bear his name would be settled by the opening of the tomb. If, they say, it could be possible to examine the skull of the body within the tomb, and if this were found to be of exceptionally fine shape and development it would go far to explain why the obscure Stratford tradesman's son might have written the immortal plays. If the skull is commonplace and with small brain cavity it would strengthen the theory still held by many that Francis Bacon wrote the works attributed to Shakespeare.