24 Professor Arthur Keith [Feb. 20, 



Stratford — the original — bust appeared to me to be modelled about 

 10 per cent above the dimensions of an average Englishman's face. 

 In Mr. Oatway's mask the features come witliin the normal range. 

 In particular the nose is smaller and more compressed than in the 

 original — in taking a death mask the nose and lips are always com- 

 pressed by the weight of the plaster, ^\e also found, how(;ver, that 

 a terra-cotta mask shrinks as it dries, and its various parts do not 

 shrink equally. Although the origin of Mr. Oatway's mask cannot 

 be regarded as finally settled, yet it is not unlikely that it represents 

 a cast from the monument at Stratford- on- Avon, and that its 

 peculiarities are due to unequal shrinkage. In this manner I was 

 introduced to the mysteries of Shakespeare's portraits. 



It was a fortunate circumstance that at the time I was investi- 

 gating Mr. Oatway's mask, Mr. M. H. Spielmann * was finishing a 

 systematic examination of the evidence relating to the history of the 

 monument at Stratford-on-Avon, and to the authenticity of the 

 numerous portraits of Shakespeare. His final opinion is that only 

 the monument itself and the Droeshout portrait can be regarded as 

 well authenticated — as having been in existence soon after Shake- 

 speare's death in 1616. As regards the monument, even Mr. 

 Spielmann has reservations ; he is of opinion that its sculptor, 

 Gerrard Johnson, " evolved " the head and neck, and that there is 

 an inconsistency between the proportions of the head and face. In 

 his exciting book, entitled " Bacon is Shakespeare," the late Sir E. 

 Durning Lawrence refused to regard either the monument or the 

 Droeshout portrait as an authentic document. As regards the 

 portrait, he has written (The Shakespeare Myth, 1012) : — 



" It is almost inconceivable that people with eyes to see, should have 

 looked at the so-called portrait for 287 years without perceiving that it con- 

 sists of a ridiculous, putty-faced mask, fixed upon a stuffed dummy, clothed in 

 a thick coat." 



The monument, in Sir Edward's opinion, represents a flat-headed 

 Chinaman, and was made, he believes, more than a century after 

 Shakespeare's death. The doubts cast on the authenticity of the 

 Monument, first by Mrs. Stopes ("Monthly Review," 1904), and 

 later, by Sir Edward Durning Lawrence, have been cleared away by 

 the late Mr. Andrew Lang ("Morning Post," 5th July, 1912),"'and 

 by lectm*es given at the Royal Institution by Mr. M. H. Spielmann 

 in the same year. Anything we can know concerning the personal 

 appearance, and of the racial character of the greatest Englishman 

 has to be gathered from these two sources : the Monument at 

 Stratford-on-Avon, and the Droeshout portrait. There are two other 



* Mr. Spielmann is now preparing for publication a work which gives the 

 results of his enquiries into the Shakespeare portraits. See his " Essay," 

 reprinted from the Stratford Edition, 



