Shakespeares Bones | Page 9

the Duchess of Brunswick, in the presence of
his R. H. himself, who guaranteed thereby THE MOST RESPECTFUL
CARE AND ATTENTION TO THE REMAINS OF THE DEAD,
during the enquiry. His R. H. was accompanied by his R. H. the Duke
of Cumberland, Count Munster, the Dean of Windsor, Benjamin
Charles Stevenson, Esq., and Sir Henry Halford."
"The vault was accordingly further opened and explored, and the palled
coffin, which was of lead, and bore the inscription 'King Charles, 1648,'
was opened at the head. A second Charles I, coffin of wood was thus
disclosed, and, through this, the body carefully wrapped up in
cere-cloth, into the folds of which a quantity of unctuous or greasy
matter, mixed with resin, as it seemed, had been melted, so as to
exclude, as effectually as possible, the external air. The coffin was
completely full; and, from the tenacity of the cere-cloth, great difficulty
was experienced in detaching it successfully from the parts which it
enveloped. Wherever the unctuous matter had insinuated itself, the
separation of the cere- cloth was easy; and when it came off, a correct
impression of the features to which it had been applied was observed in
the unctuous substance. {23} At length the whole face was disengaged
from its covering. The complexion of the skin was dark and
discoloured. The forehead and temples had lost little or nothing of their
muscular substance; the cartilage of the nose was gone; but the left eye,
in the first moment of exposure, was open and full, though it vanished
almost immediately: and the pointed beard, so characteristic of the
reign of King Charles, was perfect. The shape of the face was a long
oval; many of the teeth remained; and the left ear, in consequence of
the interposition of the unctuous matter between it and the cere-cloth,
was found entire."
The head was found to be loose, and was once more held up to view;
and after a careful examination of it had been made, and a sketch taken,
and the identity fully established, it was immediately replaced in the
coffin, which was soldered up and restored to the vault. Of the other
two coffins, the larger one had been battered in about the middle, and

the skeleton of Henry VIII, exhibiting some beard upon the chin, was
exposed to view. The other coffin was left, as it was found, intact.
Neither of these coffins bore any inscription.
In the Appendix to Allan Cunningham's Life of Burns {24} we read of
an examination of the poet's Tomb, made immediately after that life
was published:
"When Burns' Mausoleum was opened in March, 1834, to receive the
remains of his widow, some residents in Dumfries obtained the consent
of her nearest relative to take a cast from the cranium of the poet. This
was done during the night between the 31st March and 1st April. Mr.
Archibald Blacklock, surgeon, drew up the following description:
"The cranial bones were perfect in every respect, if we except a little
erosion of their external table, and firmly held together by their sutures,
&c., &c. Having completed our intention [i.e., of taking a plaster cast
of the skull, washed from every particle of sand, &c.], the skull,
securely closed in a leaden case, was again committed to the earth,
precisely where we found it.--Archd. Blacklock.'"
The last example I shall adduce is that of Ben Jonson's skull. On this
Lieut.-Colonel Cunningham thus writes:
"In my boyhood I was familiar with the Abbey, and well remember the
'pavement square of blew marble, 14 inches square, with O Rare Ben
Jonson,' which marked the poet's grave. When Buckland was Dean, the
spot had to be disturbed for the coffin of Sir Robert Wilson, and the
Dean sent his son Frank, now so well known as an agreeable writer on
Natural History, to see whether he could observe anything to confirm,
or otherwise, the tradition about Jonson being buried in a standing
posture. The workmen, he tells us, 'found a coffin very much decayed,
which from the appearance of the remains must have originally been
placed in the upright position. The skull found among these remains,
Spice, the gravedigger, gave me as that of Ben Jonson, and I took it at
once into the Dean's study. We examined it together, and then going
into the Abbey carefully returned it to the earth.' In 1859, when John
Hunter's coffin was removed to the Abbey, the same spot had to be dug

up, and Mr. Frank Buckland again secured the skull of Jonson, placing
it at the last moment on the coffin of the great surgeon. So far, so good;
but not long afterwards, a statement appeared in the 'Times' that the
skull of Ben Jonson was in the possession of a blind gentleman