I'.tl4] on Some Portraits of Shakespeare and Burns 25 



documents relating to Shakespeare which have a special interest for me 

 One of these is the Davenant bust now in the Garrick Club, London. 

 It was discovered in 1849, when the Duke's Theatre in Portugal Row, 

 Lincoln's Inn Fields, was demolished to make room for an extension 

 of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. It was, at one 

 time, in the possession of my predecessor, Sir Richard Owen. In 

 the same year (18-49) Dr. Becker came from Germany, bringing with 

 him the " Kesselstaclt mask " of Shakespeare, which he submitted to 

 Owen for examination. I do not think that either the bust or the 

 mask * can be regarded as " original documents." 



If, then, we are to know 'the outward appearance of Shakespeare 

 — to measure those characters of the head which are of particular 

 interest to students of the human body, we must deduce them from 

 either the Droeshout portrait or the Stratford Monument. If the 

 bust represented on the Monument is largely imaginary, then the 

 ''imaginings" of the sculptor will become manifest when we apply to 

 it the various criteria which are used when heads and skulls are 

 examined by modern anthropological methods. The remarkable 

 dimensions which the sculptor of the Stratford bust has given to 

 Shakespeare's head become evident when an exact drawing is made 

 of the crown from above (Fig. 1). Within a drawing of the crown, 

 I have placed a drawing of a skull of a modern Englishman — poised 

 in the same position and drawn to the same scale as the Shakes- 

 pearean bust. It is at once seen that there is a double contrast^ — 

 one of shape and one of size. The skull of the Englishman, slightly 

 under average dimensions, is 188 millimetres long : when covered 

 with flesh, the head would have been 8 millimetres more — 196 milli- 

 metres. Shakespeare's head is 212 millimetres long ; his skull should 

 have measured 204 millimetres — a long skull — reaching well towards 

 the maximum limit of cranial length. In width, there is a much 

 greater difference ; the modern skull is 137 millimetres wide ; in 

 life, the width of the head would have measured 10 millimetres more 

 — 147 millimetres. The width of Shakespeare's head, as represented 

 in his bust, is 168 millimetres. His skull should have measured 

 158 millimetres — a wide skull — reaching well towards the limits of 

 maximum width. In the modern skull, the width represents 7o per 

 cent of the length ; in Shakespeare's bust, the width represents 

 77-5 per cent of the length. As tested by measurement, Shakes- 

 peare's head falls neither into the long-headed group nor into the 

 round or short-headed, but within the intermediate group. Yet, 

 when we come to examine the bust in profile, all the features which 

 characterize the short-headed or round-headed type of men become 

 manifest. 



* I have not seen this mask, but from the drawing and measurements 

 given by Mr. William Page (" Study of Shakespeare's Portraits," 1877), I have 

 come to the conclusion tlaat the mask is not that of Shakespeare. 



