PREFACE. 



XV 



(our poet's Hamlet), by whom, or by Richard Burbage, 

 it was painted.* 



Taylor dying about the year 1653, at the advanced 

 age of seventy,f left this picture by will to Davenant.J 

 At the death of Davenant, who died intestate in 1663, 

 it was bought, probably at a sale of his effects, by 

 Betterton, the actor. 



While in Betterton's possession, it was engraved by 

 Van der Gucht, for Rowe's edition of Shakespeare, in 

 1709. Betterton dying without a will and in needy 

 circumstances, his pictures were sold. Some were bought 

 by Bullfinch, the printseller, who sold them again to 

 a Mr. Sykes. The portrait of Shakespeare was pur- 

 chased by Mrs. Barry, the actress, who afterwards sold it 

 for forty guineas to Mr. Robert Keck, of the Inner Temple. 



While in his possession, an engraving was made from 

 it, in 1 7 19, by Vertue, and it then passed to Mr. 

 Nicholls, of Southgate, Middlesex, who acquired it on 

 marrying the heiress of the Keck family. 



The Marquis of Caernarvon, afterwards Duke of 

 Chandos, marrying the daughter of Mr. Nicholls, it 



* We have, unfortunately, no proof that Joseph Taylor, the player, ever 

 painted portraits. There was a contemporary, however, named John Taylor, who 

 was an artist, and it is possible that these two have been confounded. 



Boaden refers the picture to Burbage, "who is known to have handled the 

 pencil." Op. cit. , p. 49. 



f Taylor was thirty-three when Shakespeare died in 1616, and survived him 

 thirty-seven years. 



X This will, it appears, is not to be found (Wivell, Op. cit., p. 49), but it matters 

 little, if we are assured that Davenant possessed the picture. 



