320 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



the attempt of some whimsical persons, about forty years ago, to force 

 Dovor, with an o in the second syllable, on the public as the name of 

 the ancient, ever-memorable English town which confronts Calais, in 

 France. A coach-jjroprietor of the day had the name, spelt in the 

 new way, painted on all his coaches running on the great Kentish 

 highway. But the familiar word Dover, imbedded in the English' 

 language and the English heart, retained its old form. So surely 

 will it be with the name of the great national poet. It is difficult to 

 conceive what the gratification can be in departing from the customary 

 orthography, received not only within the British Islands, but in 

 France and Germany, and, as I suppose, in all foreign nations, wher- 

 ever the literature of England is discussed, — an orthography author- 

 ized by the poet himself on the title-page of every production of his 

 printed in his lifetime, adopted by his " Fellows " when they pub- 

 lished his collected plays, and by his executors when the tablets to 

 his memory and to that of his wife were engraved and set up in the 

 church at Stratford. Even the Messrs. Harper, of New York, with 

 all their deformations of the English language, have not ventured on 

 a new rendering of " Shakspeare." 



I pass on now to another historical autograph. To appreciate the 

 interest which attaches to it, I mvist recall a painful scene — the execu- 

 tion of Charles the First. While the King was preparing himself on 

 the scaffold, for the block, Bishop Juxon, of London, who was in 

 attendance, sought to cheer him with these words : " There is. Sir, 

 but one stage more, which, though turbulent and troublesome, is yet 

 a very short one. Consider," he continued, " it will carry you a 

 great way ;" and so" on. The King placed in the hands of the bishop 

 his " George," so called • i. e. the badge attached to the collar of the 

 Order of St. George ; and the last word which he uttered as he stretched 

 out his neck to the headsman, was addressed to the bishop. That last 

 word was " Remember !" the particular meaning of which the repub- 

 lican generals insisted on knowing from the bishop. " Juxon told 

 them" — I adopt Hume's narrative of the incident — "that the' Kihg 

 having frequently charged him to inculcate on his son the forgiveness . 

 of his murderers, had taken this opportunity, in the last moment of 

 his life, when his commands, he supposed, would be regarded as sacred 

 and inviolable, to reiterate that desire ; and that his mild spirit thus 

 terminated its present course by an act of benevolence towards his 

 greatest enemies." It is a document in the handwriting of this 



