Nobody knows the real cause of Shakespeare's death but the most popular story is that he contracted a fever after a heavy drinking session with his old friends Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton. This is probably not true.
However, he died in 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, on the 25th April. The Epitaph on his grave (shown lower right), which he wrote himself, reads:
'Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To digg the dust encloased heare,
Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones
And curst be he yt moves my bones.'
The curse worked, no one has ever dared to disobey Shakespeare's last wish.
His family commissioned a bust in his honour - sculpted by Gerrard Johnson. Shakespeare is shown with a quill pen in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other.
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William Shakespeares Grave
