Milton's Tomb Desecrated, Exhibited; Bone, Teeth Taken

1904

There are probably many, even among the subscribers to Milton's statue — which, as just arranged, is to be unveiled on November 2 — who will be surprised to hear that the body of the great poet was once on view at a charge of threepence a head within a few yards from the site chosen for this splendid tribute to his memory, says the Westminister Gazette.

It was in 1790, after a little carousal, that two overseers and a carpenter entered the Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, where Milton lay buried, and, having discovered the leaden coffin which contained his body, put open its top with a mallet and chisel. "When they disturbed the shroud," Neve says, when telling the story of the ghoulish deed, "the ribs fell. Mr. Fountain confessed that he pulled hard at the teeth, which resisted until some one hit them with a stone. Fountain secured all the fine teeth in the upper jaw, and generously gave one to one of his accomplices. Altogether the scoundrels stole a rib bone, ten teeth and several handfuls of hair; and, to crown the diabolical business, the female gravedigger afterward exhibited the body to any one willing to pay threepence for the spectacle."