PREFACE. xi 



have been painted some years prior to 1616, the year of 

 Shakespeare's death. 



It would be impossible, within the compass of this 

 preface, to review all that has been said for and against 

 these four portraits. Neither will space permit me to 

 give the history of each in detail. I can only briefly 

 allude to the chief facts in connection with each, and state 

 the reasons which have influenced me in selecting the 

 Chandos portrait. 



Mr. Boaden, who was the first to examine into the 

 authenticity of reputed Shakespeare portraits,* has 

 evinced a preference for the so-called " Jansen portrait," 

 in the collection of the Duke of Somerset, considering it 

 to have been painted by Cornelius Jansen, in 1610, for 

 Lord Southampton, the great patron, at that date, of art 

 and the drama. 



The picture, indeed, bears upon the face of it an inscrip- 

 tion AL te 46 which gives much weight to the views 



1610 

 expressed by Mr. Boaden. 



It is certain that, in the year mentioned, Jansen was in 

 England, and that he painted several pictures for Lord 

 Southampton ; it is equally true, that at that date Shake- 

 speare was in his forty-sixth year. But Mr. Boaden fails 

 to prove that this particular picture was painted by 



* "An Inquiry into the Authenticity of various Pictures and Prints, which, from 

 the decease of the Poet to our own times, have been offered to the public as 

 Portraits of Shakespeare." By James Boaden. London, 1824. 



