Note 62 — CHARLECOTE, WARWICKSHIRE.
Reading edition
Mr. Wheeler, a most intelligent gentleman of Stratford, who has given much time and thought to all subjects connected with Shakspere’s history,—and by whom we had the advantage of being accompanied to the church—directed our attention to the fact, that formerly a charnel-house adjoined the chancel, from which there was a communicating door. Here the bones of the neglected or forgotten were gathered:
“The vault To whose foul mouth no healthsome air comes in, * * * * * * an ancient receptacle, Where for these many hundred years, the bones Of all my buried ancestors are packed.”
And it is by no means unlikely that the frequent contemplation of a scene so humiliating, and of objects so revolting, may have induced the anathema,
“Cvrst be he yt moves my bones.”