After the death in his native Stratford, Shakespeare unpretentious carved tombstone, which was probably paid by his relatives. This monument opponents of the traditional story brought down a hail of ridicule that, save it as untouched to this day, unhappy statue, like a stone commander, left to their own niche to stand up for their honor. For non-stratfordiants this primitive way of late SHaksper – further proof that he simply could not have been a great poet, and here come the arguments in turn: and his face was too round, bald head and disgraceful, and his nose snub-nosed, in one word – too little and too demonic many everyday for a genius. Moreover, – this is more proof that he was not a writer! – He is depicted without a pen and paper, but relies on a strange package.
But let us ask ourselves, and how could this bust look different? His vayal, six years after Shakespeare’s death-SHaksper, third-rate sculptor. In this case, of making the headstone, it did not follow the coast of his imagination, and carried out the will of the customers – relatives, which determines what and how the world will see their deceased kinsman. How long deserted them, and remain illiterate family has done everything to maintain its reputation as the prodigal son: Shakespeare portrayed exactly as they saw a respectable citizen. The notorious as a bag – the best that they could invest in his hands, because it is – a symbol of a family a respectable occupation – wool trade, which in England is treated with great trepidation (remember a similar bag of hair in the British Parliament).
Thus, this sculpture reflects the presentation of Shakespeare on the prestigious family tomb, and has little relationship to the deceased himself, powerless to change anything and, as Hamlet would say, not having “nothing in reserve to scoff over their own toothless. At the same time, it is natural that change the attributes in his tomb at a later restoration: after all revisions have committed only after the light came in “The First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, and his works began to disperse large editions. Perhaps the posthumous fame and commercial success of kin reconciled with the idea that being a famous writer no less prestigious than the simple burghers, and they are allowed to replace the bag with the wool on a sheet of paper and a pen? In any case, a monument or in its original or in modified form can not serve to identify the real SHaksper as it helpless attempt to portray Shakespeare’s contemporaries, as he saw them.