Shakespeare Monument in Church at Stratford-on-Avon

Art Historical Context

This engraving captures the funerary monument to William Shakespeare in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, the poet’s final resting place. between 1751 and 1775 by James Neagle after a design by Josiah Boydell, the print records the familiar figure of Shakespeare with quill in hand, flanked by allegorical figures of Labor and Rest. The monument itself dates to the early seventeenth century, installed shortly after the playwright’s death in 1616. By the mid-eighteenth century, Stratford had become a site of literary pilgrimage, and images of the monument circulated widely through prints...