Television
By Edward Gallivant
Since before the age of technology, both Wizards and Muggles have been entertained by stories and story-tellers. They were a means to pass along legends and history through oral tradition in cultures where a system of writing had not been developed or was relegated to the clerical elite of society. In time, as technology advanced, the television was introduced to the Muggle home as a modern replacement of the bard. It is this form of entertainment which is my personal favourite. Television is, in many ways, as wondrous as magic. With the mere flick of a switch, one can watch miniature people singing and dancing, acting out stories on elaborate sets or announcing events occurring around the world.
The television was not invented instantly. It was a technology that was developed over the course of roughly fifty years, beginning in 1884 with Paul Gottlieb Nipkow. This native of Germany developed a rotating-disc to transmit pictures over wire, which became known as the Nipkow disc. This system was abandoned early in history in favour for the electronic systems later developed. In 1897, the true base of the electronic television system was laid when another German scientist, Karl Braun, invented the cathode ray tube (CRT) oscilloscope. Even today, the CRT is in use. Another breakthrough came about in the 1920s when British scientist John Logie Baird invented the mechanical television, whilst across the Atlantic in the United States of America, Charles Francis Jenkins made a similar invention and called it radiovision. Mr. Jenkins claims to have transmitted the earliest moving silhouette images on the 14th of June, 1923.
Since those days, television technology has progressed to where the appliance is available in nearly every home. Programmes are broadcasted on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation - established in 1922) at every hour of the day, allowing families to sit together and watch stories, just as their ancestors sat about the fire listening to the shaman of the tribe tell epic tales of history. In more modern times, however, the programmes have branched out to offer more than the news and history or nature documentaries. Dramas, soap operas, cartoons (animated programmes, usually lasting only five to ten minutes) and science fiction are wildly popular choices.
It is science fiction programming which is my personal favourite, when it comes to the television, especially the show called Doctor Who, which has been on the air since 1963. The Doctor, who has no known last name (thus prompting the occasional ignoramus to ask Doctor Who?), is a time traveller from the future who crosses time and space in his TARDIS. The TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) resembles a blue police phone box on the outside, but upon entering opens up into a vast control room that is far larger than what human technology can explain. The Doctor was originally played by William Hartnell, who portrayed him as a crotchety anti-hero who sometimes got himself and his companions into trouble. In 1966, the Doctor was replaced by Patrick Troughton. To explain the sudden switch, the writers at the BBC claimed that when the alien Doctor died, he regenerated into a new form, with a new appearance and a new personality. It was this plot twist that kept the series going, keeping the show fairly fresh with a change every few years. Currently, the Doctor is portrayed by Jon Pertwee, an actor who places more emphasis on derring-do rather than pure wit and deception to outmanoeuvre his enemies.
Though programmes come and go and shall in time be regarded by younger generations with some chortling and ridicule, there can be no denying that television will have a long-lasting appeal for Muggles. It is the modern-day storyteller, and though the technology may change and improve, the basic premise will always remain the same. People will gather together to hear a ripping good story and find an escape from reality, if only for a little while.
Music
By Charisma Glass
In every culture, there is something special and unique that differentiates itself from another. Whether the separation is found within the customs, the religion, or even the fashion, there is truly something special that may be noted with each one. But, perhaps even more amazing then this, there is often times a connection that links these cultures together, spanning across land and time. One such example is music. From the fast pace rhythm of the flamenco to the smooth and slower tempo of a soothing Mozart, music has continued to enrich people's lives for hundreds of years.
With these impressive truths, it is easy to see why music might become one's favorite form of muggle entertainment. There is such a large selection these days that it is becoming impossible for someone to find nothing that pleases him or her. From heavy rock, to cool jazz, to even the more exotic melodies of different countries, the diversity found is incredibly magnanimous. Even more important, perhaps, is the fact that music is something that isn't simply watched or admired from a distance. Anyone can make music, and thus appreciate it in his own way.
Music also goes beyond being a nice tune that an individual can listen to and feel happy because of. It also allows various opinions and beliefs to be shared in an artistic manner. There are many lyrics found with modern artists that portray true and utter poetry that is merely accompanied by the instruments. Where else can you find such a mixture of beauty that provides both mental and auditory stimulation? True expression is encouraged, and thrives within each pluck of the guitar and each pound on a drum. It is here, in these soaring and tantalizing music notes, that we as a culture can form bonds.
Look at Woodstock! It is estimated that between 235,000 and 350,000 people showed up to appreciate the music of their favorite bands. God, isn't that amazing? All those people, creating a stronger harmony then that which was performed by the musicians! Music is beauty, and beauty is music. I weep for the person who can find nothing in the tune of a live band or vinyl record.
This is why I hold music in such a high regard, because it is an intangible and beautiful thing, as well as a connection for generations, races, and culture. So, with this in mind, I will continue to find the blissful escape of my violin and fiddle, or in the stroking of the black and white piano keys that always seem to beckon my attention. Music will continue to be part of my world, and your world, mingling between both the muggle and the magical realms. It cannot be stopped, and never would I wish it to be.
History of Jazz
By Charisma Glass
The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What differentiated Jazz from these earlier styles was the widespread use of improvisation, often by more than one player at a time. Jazz represented a break from Western musical traditions, where the composer wrote a piece of music on paper and the musicians then tried their best to play exactly what was in the score. In a Jazz piece, the song is often just a starting point or frame of reference for the musicians to improvise around. The song might have been a popular ditty or blues that they didn't compose, but by the time they were finished with it they had composed a new piece that often bore little resemblance to the original song.
Many of these virtuoso musicians were not good sight readers and some could not read music at all, nevertheless their playing thrilled audiences and the spontaneous music they created captured a joy and sense of adventure that was an exciting and radical departure from the music of that time. The first Jazz was played by African-American and Creole musicians in New Orleans. The cornet player, Buddy Bolden is generally considered to be the first real Jazz musician. Other early players included Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson and Clarence Williams. Although these musicians' names are unknown to most people, then and now, their ideas are still being elaborated on to this day. Most of these men could not make a living with their music and were forced to work menial jobs to get by. The second wave of New Orleans Jazz musicians like Joe "King" Oliver, Kid Ory and Jelly Roll Morton formed small bands that took the music of these older men and increased the complexity and dynamic of their music, as well as gaining greater commercial success.
This music became know as "Hot Jazz", because of the often breakneck speeds and amazing improvised polyphony that these bands produced. A young virtuoso cornet player named Louis Armstrong was discovered in New Orleans by King Oliver. Armstrong soon grew to become the greatest Jazz musician of his era and eventually one of the biggest stars in the world. The impact of Armstrong and other Jazz musicians altered the course of both popular and Classical music. African-American musical styles became the dominant force in 20th century music.
Today's jazz is known as "Groove". It is inclusive of various jazz styles ranging from the early 1960s to current musical trends. The singular musical characteristic that ties these styles together is the importance of the underlying and continuous funky backbeat. Included in this category may be elements of hard bop, soul jazz, R&B, funk, fusion, rap, hip-hop, and acid jazz. During the 1960s, groove styles were labeled soul jazz. The combination of popular soul and gospel tinged, dance-oriented music - fused with improvisation - offered an accessible approach to jazz, which broadened its appeal to a wider audience.
Less cerebral than the avant garde and hard bop styles, soul jazz drew from and reacted to the rich cultural experience that defines the African-American culture. Soul music laid the rhythmic groove and emotional foundation for this style including influences by Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin. Musicians like saxophonist King Curtis and Hammond organist Jimmy Smith often portray the experiences of African-Americans by tying their music to cultural themes. Song titles alone could offer a context for the music. Smith's recordings including "Back at the Chicken Shack", "The Sermon", and Curtis's "Memphis Soul Stew" helped to convey earthy and down home images of the African-American lifestyle of the 1960s.
Smith's grooving style has been influential to new generations of organ players including Barbara Dennerlein, Larry Goldings, and John Medeski. Jazz musicians spawned from hard bop styles often ventured into soul jazz. Artists including guitarist Wes Montgomery, multi-reed player Roland Kirk, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, and alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, developed styles based on the groove of soul music. In 1966 Eddie Harris developed a funky approach to jazz, incorporating the electrified tenor saxophone. Joining Les McCann's soul jazz group in 1969, Harris would later record with rock musicians Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, and post-fusion guitarist John Scofield. Scofield has continued to explore funk in a recent collaboration with organ-groove trio Medeski, Martin & Wood. Influenced by funk groups including George Clinton and Parliament, keyboardist Herbie Hancock released the album Headhunters in 1973, marking the beginning of his exploration of more commercial types of music.
From the early jazz of the 1920s, to the modern, funky beat of today's more swinging version, this music has set itself into pop culture. It is without a doubt that it will undergo further changes in the future, although it is just as certain that it will continue to hold its popular and exciting hold on the public as it did in the past -and- the present. So, long live rock, the blues, and all that jazz.
Muggle Writing Instruments
By Linanthus Castille
While we wizards use simple quills and inkwells to write with, the Muggles use a bewildering variety of complicated devices to accomplish the same task. Once, a long time ago, they also used quills and inkwells, but they seem to have chosen to use these more complex devices instead in recent years. "Why?" is a question that mystifies many wizards - our quills generally work better than these muggle alternatives and are more reliable.
One device used by the Muggles to write is called a "marker". These come in a variety of colours, sizes, and widths. They are usually purchased in packages of six to a dozen, and are made with a flexible "plastic" shell. Inside the shell is a cylander of something called "felt". This felt is soaked in ink, and serves as an inkwell for the marker. The end of the felt is shaped to a point and protrudes from the end of the marker, and is used to write with. A small plastic cap usually covers it when not in use.
Muggles also use "pencils". These are made from a type of stone called "graphite", which is encased in a wooden shell. The graphite rubs off on paper, leaving marks, though this also wears down the pencil, which must be periodically "sharpened" to ensure that it retains a point. The advantage of these is that mistakes are easily corrected - a mark can be removed with a rubbery material (usually attached to the other end of the pencil) called an "eraser".
The most common device muggles use when writing is a "pen". Pens that drew ink from inkwells (internal or external) and used specially-shaped metal "nibs" to write in the same way that quills did were once common, but have since been replaced by "ballpoint pens". These pens have an internal reservoir to hold the ink. A metal tip with a tiny hole in it allows the ink to exit the pen, and the flow is regulated by a small ball stuck in the hole. When the pen is rolled along paper, the ball rotates, allowing the ink to flow around it and onto the paper. Like markers, these come in a variety of colours and widths. Black, red, and blue inks are the most common, and pens are usually rated in how "fine" their tips are.
All of these devices have serious disadvantages compared to a simple quill. While having an internal inkwell is very convenient, ballpoint pens are prone to blotting and are hard or impossible to refill once they run out of ink, requiring a new pen to be purchased. The tips of markers tend to be soft, and so are prone to deforming if pressed heavily or used to write often. And markers, like ballpoint pens, aren't refillable. Pencils wear down quite quickly and so must be sharpened and eventually replaced. Quills, or at least, wizardly quills have none of these problems and are a far superior tool to use for writing.
Gravity
By Charisma Glass
Although people have always been aware of the existence of gravity, many centuries passed before the big picture began to be understood. The ancient Greek philosophers attributed the lightness or heaviness of objects to their relative mix of four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Earth was the heaviest element, and fire was the lightest, while air and water occupied an intermediate position. Earth had a "natural motion" downward, whereas fire's natural motion was upward. Consequently, a rock fell to the ground because it was largely earth, whereas smoke rose because fire was its chief constituent. One logical conclusion of this belief was that objects fell (i.e., were attracted to the Earth) at different rates of speed, depending on their relative mix of earth and other elements.
It is commonly believed that this notion was rejected by Galileo (1564-1642) when he dropped from the tower of Pisa two objects with different weights in order to demonstrate that both reached the ground at the same time. Galileo may have performed such an experiment, but he wasn't the first to do so. Among those preceding Galileo was the Flemish engineer, mathematician, and scientist Simon Stevin (1548- 1620), who in 1586 used two lead spheres, one 10 times heavier than the other, in order to show that they both hit the ground at the same time when dropped from a height of 9 m (30 ft).
Here is an example: Lets say that a certain happening Muggles Studies teacher decides to take a stroll along a romantic cliffside with his main squeeze. Being the suave fellow that he is, he pulls out a comb to brush through his afro to make his appearance even more funky fresh for his date. If the wind resistance were taken away, and he were to accidentally drop that comb at the same time as, say a large rock that his foxy mama kicked off the side of the cliff, both the heavy rock and the light comb would land at the same time.
Although he was not the first to show that the weight of an object did not affect the speed at which it fell (provided, of course, that the effects of air resistance are disregarded), Galileo did effect a substantial advance in experimental physics by determining the rate at which a falling body accelerates. Galileo's experimental apparatus consisted of nothing more elaborate than an inclined plane, some balls to roll down it, and a water clock to time their progress. By measuring the distances traveled over given time intervals, Galileo was able to determine that the distances covered by a falling object increase in accordance with their traveling time raised to the second power.
Perhaps another example will make this easier to understand. Lets say that a certain Hogwarts student becomes so tired of studying, she decides to climb the battlements and drop her Potions book off the side of the wall. The text begins to topple downward, and after 2 seconds it will have covered 4 times the distance it did in the first second. After 3 seconds, it will have covered 9 times the distance, while after 4 seconds it will have covered 16 times the distance, and so on. Let us hope she called out, "Look out below!" or something along those lines.
For Galileo and his contemporaries, gravity was a force solely residing in the Earth. An important step forward was Johannes Kepler's (1571-1630) theory of gravity as a force that inhered in all bodies and in amounts relative to the size of these bodies. As he put it, "Gravity is the mutual bodily tendency between cognate bodies towards unity or contact . . . so that the Earth draws a stone much more than the stone draws the Earth.
Building on the foundation laid down by Galileo and Kepler, Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was able to show that the orbit of a planet came from the interaction of two forces: the planet's momentum along a path perpendicular to the radius of its orbit, and the gravitational attraction between that body and the sun. In the course of developing this idea, Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation in 1687: Two objects will attract each other with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Such strong attraction always - does- seem to occur to those with those having heavenly bodies.
Newton's theories of celestial mechanics are among the greatest scientific achievements of all time. Still, there was something troubling about gravity as it was represented in these theories. To Newton's critics, gravity was being treated as an "occult property" that had the ability to act as a force while lacking any mechanical connection to the objects being acted upon. Newton himself was at a loss to explain what the actual cause of gravitational attraction might be. All that could be said was that it was a useful explanatory concept, even though its true nature remained a mystery: In Newton's own words, ". . . to us it is enough that gravity does really exist, and acts according to the laws which we have explained, and abundantly serves to account for all the motions of the celestial bodies, and of our sea."
It was not until the 20th century that a fresh insight into the nature of gravity emerged. But to accept it required nothing less than a complete reconceptualization of the physical universe. In 1915, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) presented his General Theory of Relativity, which hypothesized the existence of four-dimensional space-time. In this formulation, gravity was not really a force but a creation from the movement of bodies through a curved space-time continuum. Among other things, this theory predicted that light from the stars would be bent as it passed by the sun; this prediction was confirmed in the course of an observation of a solar eclipse in 1919.
Einstein's explanation of gravity is not easily grasped. At the same time, it is not necessary to have a deep understanding of the nature of gravity in order to make effective use of technologies that rely on its physical properties. One such technology entails the use of instruments known as gravimeters. These instruments take advantage of the fact that different kinds of rock (and no, not the musical sort!) produce slightly different amounts of gravitational attraction.
From flying to falling, gravity is indisputably one of the main factors of what holds this world together. It keeps the planets spinning, and the attraction between them as steady and predictable as an old married couple. Thanks to the numerous experiments and mathematical geniuses connected to this fascinating study, the value of gravity will forever be known and accepted.
History of Automobiles
By Edward Gallivant
The development of the modern automobile did not occur overnight, nor within the span of a few years. It came about over the course of two centuries and more than one hundred thousand patents. Although there were theoretical plans for an automobile drawn up by Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci, it was not until 1769 that the very first self-propelled road vehicle was invented by Frenchman Nicolas Cugnot. It was a military tractor designed to carry heavy weaponry, it was powered by steam and ran on three wheels, and its top speed was a less-than-amazing two and one half miles per hour. Every ten to fifteen minutes, the operators were forced to stop and rebuild steam power. The following year, in 1770, Monsieur Cugnot developed a steam-powered tricycle that carried four passengers, and in 1771, he somehow managed to crash his slow-moving roadster into a stone wall. This gave him the dubious honour of being the first person in history to get into a motor vehicle accident.
Steam engines, being so bulky and heavy, proved unwieldy for road vehicles. They powered cars by burning fuel and heating water in a boiler, which produced steam that expanded and pushed pistons to turn the crankshaft, thus causing the wheels to turn. While they may have failed as practical power sources for cars, they were used extensively during the development of train engines.
It was not until the 1830s that an electric engine was developed to replace the steam engine for the automobile, pioneered by Scotsman Robert Anderson. Like their predecessors, these new vehicles were slow-moving, heavy, expensive and required frequent recharging. In 1842, American Thomas Davenport and Scotsman Robert Davidson developed more successful vehicles, which operated on non-rechargeable electric cells. When Frenchman Gaston Plante invented a better storage battery in 1865 and Camille Faure improved upon that once again in 1881, the increased capacity paved the way for electric vehicles to flourish.
France and Great Britain were the first nations to support the widespread development of electric vehicles in the late 1800s. In 1899, a Belgian by the name of Camille Jenatzy developed a land-based racing car he dubbed "La Jamais Contente", which, translated into English means, "Never Satisfied". Its top speed was sixty-eight miles per hour, and it set a new world record.
The early electric vehicles of the 1900s were little more than electrified horseless carriages and surreys. The 1902 Wood's Phaeton had a range of eighteen miles, a top speed of fourteen mph and cost roughly two thousand dollars (or thirteen hundred pounds or two hundred-sixty Galleons). Despite its limitations, electric, steam and petrol vehicles were gaining immense popularity, especially in the United States of America. The electric vehicle remained the most popular variety until several factors began to cause its decline: longer roads required longer-ranged vehicles, the discovery of Texas crude oil reduced the price of petrol, the invention of the electric starter by Charles Kettering in 1912 eliminated the need for a hand crank and the mass production of combustion engines by Henry Ford made petrol-powered cars much more affordable.
By 1935, the electric car had all but disappeared. The years following until 1960s were dead for their development and use for personal transportation. However, in more recent years, they are seeing a revival as ecological activists have begun searching for alternative sources to fuel vehicles and reduce the amount of exhaust emissions released into the atmosphere.
From its humble beginnings in the late 1700s, the automobile has undergone an immense metamorphosis to become one of the most popular methods of transportation for Muggles. Though its earliest versions could now be considered artefacts of a long-gone age, there is little doubt that the automobile will continue to endure for centuries to come.
Diesel Engines
By Cain Blackroot
The well-known Muggle, Rudolf Diesel, was born in Paris in 1858. The man was educated at Munich Polytechnic, a great Muggle school of technology, much like Hogwarts to the Wizarding community. Mr. Diesel began working on ways to keep food cold, without the use of magic, however, he true love lay in what Muggles call "engine design." In 1898, Rudolf Diesel invented an "internal combustion engine" the Diesel engine.
The diesel engines of today are refined and improved versions of Rudolf Diesel's original concept. They are often used in submarines (muggle ships that can actually dive underwater, without the use of a variation on the Bubble-head charm), ships, trains, and the Muggle carriges that require no creatures to pull them.
At the city of Augsburg, on August 10, 1893, the first model of the engine, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time, although this may not seem like much to you an me, it was a great accomplishment for Mugglekind. Rudolf Diesel spent two more years making improvements and in 1896 demonstrated another model, that ran much more efficiently, in contrast to the wasteful method of the first. (Off the record, I think Muggles really need to learn how to use things in Moderation, after researching this paper). Soon after, the man became rich. His engines were used to power the aforementioned machines, as well as pipelines, mines and factories.
The Life of William Shakespeare
By Edward Gallivant
The baptismal register of the Holy Trinity parish, in Stratford, shows the following entry for April 26, 1564: Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakespeare. The actual date of Shakespeare's birth is not known, but traditionally, April 23rd, St. George's Day, has been accepted and a house on Henley Street owned by his father John and his mother Mary in the same town is regarded as his place of birth. While the reality is that no one can say for certain when he was born, the dramatist William Shakespeare is undoubtedly one of the greatest playwrights and poets in English literature.
England in the sixteenth-century was wracked with plagues and pestilence. Anyone able to survive past childhood was considered very fortunate, indeed, and though William lived into adulthood, he lost several sisters - Joan, Margaret and Anne. His other brothers and sisters - Gilbert, Joan (named for the first child who died), Richard and Edmund - lived long enough to come of age but only Joan's branch of the family continued past the seventeenth century into today.
It is most likely that William began his education at roughly six or seven years of age at the Stratford grammar school, which still exists today and has been placed into the care of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. This school, built two hundred years prior to William's birth, taught lessons that were dictated primarily by the reigning monarch's beliefs. When Protestant Elizabeth I took the reins of Great Britain from Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, several of William's Catholic headmasters stepped down from their positions.
Though it is said by some scholars that he attended school up until the age of thirteen, William Shakespeare nevertheless had a profound grasp of Latin and of Latin stories, as told by Ovid, Seneca, Cicero and Virgil. Whilst the years following his departure from school are shrouded in mystery, known as "the lost years," there is one vital piece of information that is able to be obtained. He had married a pregnant orphan girl named Anne Hathaway.
Here some controversy arises. According to the records of the Episcopal register at Worcester, Shakespeare desired to marry a girl named Anne, yet two documents exist with the woman's last name being Whateley in the first and Hathaway in the second. This has led scholars to believe three possible explanations. First, that these are the same woman and the recording clerk was careless in his writing. Second, the Wm Shaxpere and the Annam Whateley who wished to marry in Temple Grafton were different people from the Wm Shagspere and Anne Hathwey who were married in Stratford. Third, the woman Shakespeare loved and the woman he married were two different people, and he chose Anne Hathaway out of a sense of duty and obligation to the child that she carried.
Whatever theory one chooses to believe, it remains a fact that Shakespeare - whilst still a minor - married twenty-six year old Anne Hathaway who was already several months pregnant. The child was a daughter, named Susanna, and she was followed by twins Judith and Hamnet a few years later. His only son, Hamnet Shakespeare, was lost to an unknown cause at the age of eleven, which caused William such great sorrow that it was reflected in his later works.
Another span of time in Shakespeare's life is lost to historical record, occurring between 1585 and 1592 - which are also referred to as "the lost years." Many assume that, during this time, the Bard perfecting his acting skills and did much reading and research into the materials that would later be used as the basis for his plays. Whatever the case, it was known that by 1592, he was a well-known and established actor in the great city of London. Several of his own plays were already gaining popularity, including Henry VI, The Comedy of Errors and Titus Andronicus. The company that staged most of his plays was Pembroke's Men, sponsored by the Earl of Pembroke, Henry Herbert. The troupe was very popular and performed regularly at the court of Queen Elizabeth.
A turning point in Shakespeare's career came in 1593, when after the theatres had been closed due to an outbreak of the plague, he caught the attention of the Earl of Southampton. With the new Earl as his patron, he was able to release his first book called Venus and Adonis, thus making his debut as a poet. Though there is no substantial proof that Southampton and Shakespeare maintained a close friendship, most scholars agree that this was the case, given his writings (particularly his early sonnets).
It is surmised that with his wife Anne living in Stratford, he had left his family in order to pursue and perfect his craft in London. This would certainly explain the unusual fact that, in a time when mortality rates were so high, his family was quite small in comparison to others. How often he visited, or if he visited at all, is unable to be confirmed.
Records with the College of Heralds reveal that William's father John applied for a coat-of-arms in 1596, and though his earlier requests had been denied, the success of his son persuaded them to grant his request. The coat-of-arms, being a status symbol, could be displayed on their doors and possessions, and their family motto became "non sanz droict" or "not without right."
Though he was already a wealthy landowner, he made his greatest financial gain in 1605 when he purchased leases of real estate near Stratford. This investment of some four hundred and forty pounds doubled in value and earned him sixty pounds income each year. Some academics speculate that this investment gave the Bard the time he needed to write his plays uninterrupted.
It is not recorded just what the Bard died of, but on the 25th of March, 1616, he revised his will to give most of his estate to his eldest daughter Susanna who had married a prominent and distinguished physician by the name of John Hall. Less than a month later, on April 23rd, 1616, he died at the age of 52 and was buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-on-Avon. Written upon his tombstone is an appeal that he be left in peace with a curse on those who would move his bones, which reads:
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare
To digg the dust enclosed here!
Blest be ye man that spares thes stones
And curst be he that moues my bones.