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—AEZ* 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. 
