28 



Professor Arthur Keith 



[Feb. 20, 



7 miliimetres for the thickness of the scalp on the crown — should 

 have measured 143 millimetres — almost a maximum amount. When 

 I first noted those maximum dimensions of the head of Shakespeare, 

 as portrayed by Gerrard Johnson, I was inchned to suppose the 

 good sculptor had wished to give the poet a head which would be 

 in keeping with a brain of marvellous power. Either that, or he 

 had taken a sculptor's licence with the absolute dimensions of 

 Shakespeare's head, and enlarged them to give to his subject that 



Pig. 3. — Profile of Shakespeare's bust, with drawing of a skuU of a Bronze 

 Age man inset. The dimensions of the skull have been enlarged 10 per cent. 



imposing dignity which increased size can give a modelled head. 

 The width of the forehead, at the level of the eyebrows, is repre- 

 sented in the Stratford bust as 120 millimetres — quite 10 millimetres 

 beyond what a forehead, shaped as Shakespeare's is, should measure. 

 The face is 15 millimetres longer than one would expect. If we 

 suppose that the sculptor had added 8 to 10 per cent to the exact 

 measurements of the head he actually portrayed, then, in every 

 respect, the head represented in the Stratford ^lonument as that of 

 Shakespeare becomes a representative specimen of the short-headed 

 type. I had reason, when seeking for an explanation of certain 



