A charnel house is a building or vault where the bones of the dead were kept.

During Shakespeare's time, the population was growing and churchyards were often short of burial space. Old graves were dug up and bones were placed in a charnel house to make room for a new body. In some instances, charnel houses were under the floor of a church, while other times they were an entirely separate building in a churchyard.

The epitaph on Shakespeare's tomb asks that his body not be removed. Perhaps he feared the charnel house. The epitaph reads:

Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

Copyright © ProjectExplorer 2003-2006
Text: Kristina DeSantis