X 
PREFACE. 
convenience, in the order in which they occur in the plays 
and poems. 
In spelling Shakespeare’s name, I have adopted the- 
orthography of his friends Ben Jonson and the editors of 
the first folio.* 
As regards the illustrations, it seems desirable also to 
say a few words. 
In selecting for my frontispiece a portrait of Shake¬ 
speare as a falconer (a character which I am confident 
could not have been foreign to him), I have experienced 
considerable difficulty in making choice of a likeness. 
Those who have made special inquiries into the authen¬ 
ticity of the various portraits of Shakespeare, are not 
agreed in the results at which they have arrived. This is 
to be attributed to the fact that, with the exception of the 
Droeshout etching, to which I shall presently state my 
objection, no likeness really exists of which a reliable 
history can be given without one or more missing links in 
the chain of evidence. 
There are four portraits which have all more or less 
claim to be considered authentic. These are “the Jansen 
portrait,” 1610 ; “the Stratford bust,” prior to 1623 ; “the 
Droeshout etching,” 1623; and “the Chandos portrait,” 
of which the precise date is uncertain, but which must 
* Amongst the entries in the Council Book of the Corporation of Stratford, 
during the period that John Shakespeare, the Poet’s father, was a member of the 
Municipal body (he filled the office of Chamberlain in 1573), the name occurs 
one hundred and sixty-six times under fourteen different modes of spelling. 
