PREFACE. xiii 



jonson knew Shakespeare well, and he says of this 

 picture :■ — 



" This figure that thou here seest put, 

 It was for gentle Shakespeare cut ; 

 Wherein the graver had a strife 

 With Nature to outdoo the life. 

 O, could he but have drawne his wit 

 As well in brasse as he hath hit 

 His face, the print would then surpasse 

 All that was ever writ in brasse ; 

 But since he cannot, reader, looke 

 Not on his picture, but his booke." 



As a work of art it is by no means skilful, and is con- 

 fessedly inferior not only to other engravings of that day, 

 but also to other portraits by Martin Droeshout. 



That it bore some likeness to Shakespeare as an actor, 

 I do not doubt, but that it resembled him as a private 

 individual when off the stage, I cannot bring myself to 

 believe. The straight hair and shaven chin which are not 

 found in other portraits having good claims to be 

 considered authentic, and the unnaturally high forehead, 

 which would be caused by the actor's wearing the wig of 

 an old man partially bald, suggest at once that when 

 the original portrait was taken, from which Droeshout 

 engraved, Shakespeare was dressed as if about to sustain 

 a part in which he was thought to excel as an actor. 



Boaden has conjectured that this portrait represents 

 Shakespeare in the character of old Knowell, in Ben 



