That he became the
private Gentleman at least three Years before his Decease, is pretty
obvious from another Circumstance: I mean, from that remarkable and
well-known Story, which Mr. _Rowe_ has given us of our Author's
Intimacy with Mr. _John Combe_, an old Gentleman noted thereabouts
for his Wealth and Usury: and upon whom _Shakespeare_ made the
following facetious Epitaph.
Ten in the hundred lies here in-grav'd,
'Tis a hundred to ten his Soul is not sav'd;
If any Man ask who lies in this Tomb,
Oh! oh! quoth the Devil, 'tis my _John-a-Combe_.
This sarcastical Piece of Wit was, at the Gentleman's own Request,
thrown out extemporally in his Company. And this Mr. _John Combe_
I take to be the same, who, by _Dugdale_ in his Antiquities of
_Warwickshire_, is said to have dy'd in the Year 1614, and for whom
at the upper End of the Quire, of the Guild of the Holy Cross at
_Stratford_, a fair Monument is erected, having a Statue thereon cut
in Alabaster, and in a Gown with this Epitaph. "Here lyeth enterr'd
the Body of _John Combe_ Esq; who dy'd the 10th of _July_, 1614, who
bequeathed several Annual Charities to the Parish of _Stratford_,
and 100_l._ to be lent to fifteen poor Tradesmen from three years to
three years, changing the Parties every third Year, at the Rate of
fifty Shillings _per Annum_, the Increase to be distributed to the
Almes-poor there."--The Donation has all the Air of a rich and
sagacious Usurer.
_Shakespeare_ himself did not survive Mr.
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