Shakespeares Bones | Page 3

he had not applied; in all about
twenty.
"Between midnight and one in the morning the little band proceeded to
Schiller's house. The coffin was carried down stairs and placed on the
shoulders of the friends in waiting. No one else was to be seen before
the house or in the streets. It was a moonlight night in May, but clouds
were up. The procession moved through the sleeping city to the
churchyard of St. James. Having arrived there they placed their burden
on the ground at the door of the so-called Kassengewolbe, where the
gravedigger and his assistants took it up. In this vault, which belonged
to the province of Weimar, it was usual to inter persons of the higher
classes, who possessed no burying-ground of their own, upon payment
of a louis d'or. As Schiller had died without securing a resting-place for
himself and his family, there could have been no more natural
arrangement than to carry his remains to this vault. It was a grim old
building, standing against the wall of the churchyard, with a steep
narrow roof, and no opening of any kind but the doorway which was
filled up with a grating. The interior was a gloomy space of about
fourteen feet either way. In the centre was a trap-door which gave
access to a hollow space beneath.
"As the gravediggers raised the coffin, the clouds suddenly parted, and
the moon shed her light on all that was earthly of Schiller. They carried
him in: they opened the trap-door: and let him down by ropes into the
darkness. Then they closed the vault. Nothing was spoken or sung. The
mourners were dispersing, when their attention was attracted by a tall
figure in a mantle, at some distance in the graveyard, sobbing loudly.
No one knew who it was; and for many years the occurrence remained
wrapped in mystery, giving rise to strange conjectures. But eventually
it turned out to have been Schiller's brother-in-law Wolzogen, who,

having hurried home on hearing of the death, had arrived after the
procession was already on its way to the churchyard.
"In the year 1826, Schwabe was Burgermeister of Weimar. Now it was
the custom of the Landschaftscollegium, or provincial board under
whose jurisdiction this institution was placed, to CLEAR OUT the
Kassengewolbe from time to time--whenever it was found to be
inconveniently crowded--and by this means to make way for other
deceased persons and more louis d'or. On such occasions--when the
Landschaftscollegium gave the order 'aufzuraumen,' it was the usage to
dig a hole in a corner of the churchyard--then to bring up en masse the
contents of the Kassengewolbe--coffins, whether entire or in fragments,
bones, skulls, and tattered graveclothes--and finally to shovel the whole
heap into the aforesaid pit. In the month of March Schwabe was
dismayed at hearing that the Landschaftscollegium had decreed a
speedy 'clearing out' of the Gewolbe. His old prompt way of acting had
not left him; he went at once to his friend Weyland, the president of the
Collegium. 'Friend Weyland,' he said, 'let not the dust of Schiller be
tossed up in the face of heaven and flung into that hideous hole! Let me
at least have a permit to search the vault; if we find Schiller's coffin, it
shall be reinterred in a fitting manner in the New Cemetery.' The
president made no difficulty.
"Schwabe invited several persons who had known the poet, and
amongst others one Rudolph, who had been Schiller's servant at the
time of his death. On March 13th, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the
party met in the churchyard, the sexton and his assistants having
received orders to be present with keys, ladders, &c. The vault was
opened; but, before any one entered it, Rudolph and another stated that
the coffin of the deceased Hofrath von Schiller must be one of the
longest in the place. After this the secretary of the
Landschaftscollegium was requested to read aloud from the records of
the said board the names of such persons as had been interred shortly
before and after the year 1805. This being done, the gravedigger Bielke
remarked that the coffins no longer lay in the order in which they had
originally been placed, but had been displaced at recent burials. The
ladder was then adjusted, and Schwabe, Coudray the architect, and the

gravedigger, were the first to descend. Some others were asked to draw
near, that they might assist in recognising the coffin. The first glance
brought their hopes very low. The tenants of the vault were found 'over,
under and alongside of each other.' One coffin of unusual length having
been descried underneath the rest, an attempt was made to reach it by
lifting out of the way those that were above it; but the