, and was troublesome.
The document of November 20, 1748, was drawn up to be signed, but was
not signed, by the persons who appear to be chiefly concerned in the
matter. It directed that Mr. Hall, a local limner or painter, is to
"take care, according to his ability, that the monument shall become
as like as possible to what it was when first erected." This appears
to have been the idea of Mr. Greene. Another form of words was later
adopted, directing Mr. Hall, the painter, "to repair and beautify, or
to have the direction of repairing and beautifying, THE ORIGINAL
MONUMENT of Shakespeare the poet." Mrs. Stopes infers, justly in my
opinion, that Hall "would fill up the gaps, restore what was amissing
as he thought it ought to be, and finally repaint it according to the
original colours, traces of which he might still be able to see." In
his History and Antiquities of Stratford-on-Avon, {182a} Mr. Wheler
tells us that this was what Hall did. "In the year 1748 the monument
was carefully repaired, and the original colours of the bust, &c., as
much as possible preserved by Mr. John Hall, limner, of Stratford."
It follows that we see the original monument and bust, but the
painting is of 1861, for the bust, says Wheler, was in 1793 "painted
in white," to please Malone. It was repainted in 1861.
Mrs. Stopes, unluckily, is not content with what Hall was told to do,
and what, according to Wheler, he did.
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