Shakespeares Bones | Page 7

Mayor. Ere the lid was finally
secured, Schwabe placed himself at the head of the coffin, and
recognised the skull to be that which he had rescued from the
Kassengewolbe. The sarcophagus having then been closed, and a laurel
wreath laid on it, formal possession, in the name of the Grand Duke,
was taken by the Marshal, Freiherr von Spiegel. The key was removed
to be kept in possession of his Excellency, the Geheimrath von Goethe,
as head of the Institutions for Art and Science. This key, in an envelope,
addressed by Goethe, is said to be preserved in the Grand Ducal
Library, where, however, we have no recollection of having seen it.
The 'provisional' deposition has proved more permanent than any other.
Whoever would see the resting-place of Goethe and Schiller must
descend into the Grand Ducal vault, where, through a grating, in the
twilight beyond he will catch a glimpse of their sarcophagi."
The other case of exhumation, and reinterment with funeral rites, which
I deem of sufficient importance to be recorded here, is that of the great
Raphael. In this the motive was not, as in that of Schiller, to give his
bones a worthier resting-place, nor yet, as in so many other cases, to
gratify a morbid curiosity, but to set at rest a question of disputed
identity. In this respect the case of Raphael has a special bearing upon
the matter in hand. I extract the following from Mrs. Jameson's Lives of
Italian Painters, ed. 1874, p. 258:
"In the year 1833 there arose among the antiquarians of Rome a keen
dispute concerning a human skull, which on no evidence whatever,
except a long-received tradition, had been preserved and exhibited in
the Academy of St. Luke as the skull of Raphael. Some even expressed
a doubt as to the exact place of his sepulchre, though upon this point
the contemporary testimony seemed to leave no room for uncertainty.
"To ascertain the fact, permission was obtained from the Papal
Government, and from the canons of the Church of the Rotunda (i.e., of
the Pantheon), to make some researches; and on the 14th of September

in the same year, after five days spent in removing the pavement in
several places, the remains of Raphael were discovered in a vault
behind the high altar, and certified as his by indisputable proofs. After
being examined, and a cast made from the skull and [one] from the
right hand, the skeleton was exhibited publicly in a glass case, and
multitudes thronged to the church to look upon it. On the 18th of
October, 1833, a second funeral ceremony took place. The remains
were deposited in a pine-wood coffin, then in a marble sarcophagus,
presented by the Pope (Gregory XVI), and reverently consigned to their
former resting-place, in presence of more than three thousand
spectators, including almost all the artists, the officers of government,
and other persons of the highest rank in Rome."
This event, as will appear in the sequel, is our best precedent for not
permitting a sentimental respect for departed greatness to interfere with
the respectful examination of a great man's remains, wherever such
examination may determine a question to which "universal history is
NOT indifferent."
Toland tells us that Milton's body was, on November 12, 1674, carried
"to the Church of S. Giles, near Cripplegate, where he lies buried in the
Chancel; and where the Piety of his Admirers will shortly erect a
Monument becoming his worth, and the incouragement of Letters in
King William's Reign." {19} It appears that his body was laid next to
that of his father. A plain stone only was placed over the spot; and this,
if Aubrey's account be trustworthy, was removed in 1679, when the
two steps were raised which lead to the altar. The remains, however,
were undisturbed for nearly sixteen years. On the 4th of August, 1790,
according to a small volume written by Philip Neve, Esq. (of which two
editions were published in the same year), Milton's coffin was removed,
and his remains exhibited to the public on the 4th and 5th of that month.
Mr. George Steevens, the great editor of Shakespeare, who justly
denounced the indignity INTENDED, not offered, to the great Puritan
poet's remains by Royalist landsharks, satisfied himself that the corpse
was that of a woman of fewer years than Milton. Thus did good
Providence, or good fortune, defeat the better half of their nefarious
project: and I doubt not their gains were spent as money is which has

been "gotten over the devil's back." Steevens' assurance gives us good
reason for believing that Mr. Philip Neve's indignant protest is only
good in the general, and that Milton's "hallowed reliques" still "rest
undisturb'd within their peaceful shrine." I have adduced this instance
to serve as