Читать книгу The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 332, September 20, 1828 - Various - Страница 1

This is another of Mr. Rider's beautiful "Views to Illustrate the Life of SHAKSPEARE,"1—it being the exterior of the cottage in which the poet's wife (whose maiden name was Hathaway) is said to have resided with her parents, in the village of Shottery, about a mile from Stratford-upon-Avon.

Neither the exterior nor interior of this humble abode, says Mr. Rider, appears to have been subjected to any renovating process; and as there exists no reasonable ground for distrusting the fact of its having been the abode of Anne Hathaway, previous to her marriage with Shakspeare, it must ever be regarded as one of the most interesting relics connected with his history. The occupier of the cottage in July, 1827, was an old woman, the widow of John Hathaway Taylor, whose mother was a Hathaway, and the last of the family of that name.

The widow Taylor showed Mr. Rider the old carved bedstead, mentioned by "Ireland," and assured him she perfectly recollected his purchasing of her mother-in-law the piece of furniture which had always been known by the designation of Shakspeare's Courting-Chair. From the wood-cut of this chair, given by Ireland in his "Views on the Avon," Mr. Rider has been enabled to introduce it in his representation of the interior of the cottage.

We have accordingly detached it for a vignette, and as the throne where

it will probably be acceptable to the most enthusiastic of Shakspeare's admirers; not doubting that scores of our lady-friends will provide themselves with a chair of the same construction, if they would insure the fervour and sincerity of the poet's love, or by association become more susceptible of his inspirations of the master-passion of humanity.