Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/394

 seventeenth century; the picture belonged at one time to the Clopton family.

The engraved portrait—nearly a half-length—which was prefixed to the folio of 1623, was by Martin Droeshout [q. v.] On the opposite page lines by Ben Jonson congratulate ‘the graver’ on having satisfactorily ‘hit’ the poet's ‘face.’ Jonson's testimony must be accepted, but the expression of countenance is very crudely rendered. The face is long and the forehead high; the top of the head is bald, but the hair falls in abundance over the ears. There is a scanty moustache and a thin tuft under the lower lip. A stiff and wide collar, projecting horizontally, conceals the neck. The coat is closely buttoned and elaborately bordered, especially at the shoulders. In the unique proof copy which belonged to Halliwell-Phillipps (now with his collection in America), the tone is clearer than in the ordinary copies, and the shadows are less darkened by cross-hatching and coarse dotting. A copy of the Droeshout engraving, by William Marshall, was prefixed to Shakespeare's ‘Poems’ in 1640, and Faithorne made another copy for separate issue in 1655. A portrait painted on a panel, with ‘Will Shakespeare 1609’ in the upper left-hand corner (since 1892 in the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at Stratford), bears close resemblance to the engraving, and was doubtless executed in the seventeenth century, but the contention that it was the original painting whence the engraving was made has not been established; it was more probably painted from the engraving. The same remark applies to a somewhat similar picture, the ‘Ely House’ portrait (now the property of the Birthplace Trustees at Stratford), which formerly belonged to Thomas Turton [q. v.], bishop of Ely; it is inscribed ‘æ. 39 x. 1603’ (Harper's Mag., May 1897).

Of the numerous extant paintings which have been described as portraits of Shakespeare, only the three at Stratford already mentioned resemble either the bust or the folio engraving. Of those presenting other features of interest, the most famous is the Chandos portrait. It is now in the National Portrait Gallery, and may possibly have been painted by Janssens or Van Somer. Its pedigree suggests that it was designed to represent the poet, but some conspicuous divergences from the two authenticated likenesses show that it was painted from fanciful descriptions of him after his death. The face is bearded, and rings adorn the ears. Oldys reported that it was from the brush of Burbage and had belonged to Joseph Taylor, an actor contemporary with Shakespeare. Later owners are said to have been D'Avenant, Betterton, and Mrs. Barry the actress. In 1693 Sir Godfrey Kneller made a copy as a gift for Dryden. At length it reached the hands of James Brydges, third duke of Chandos, through his father-in-law, John Nichols, and it subsequently passed, through Chandos's daughter, to her husband, the Duke of Buckingham, at the sale of whose heir's effects at Stowe in 1848 it was purchased by the Earl of Ellesmere. The latter presented it to the nation. Edward Capell presented a copy by R. Barret to Trinity College, Cambridge, and other copies are assigned to Sir Joshua Reynolds and Ozias Humphrey (1783). It was engraved for Pope's edition (1725), and often later, one of the best engravings being by Vandergucht. The Baroness Burdett-Coutts purchased in 1874 a portrait of similar type, which had at one time belonged to John, lord Lumley (1534?–1609) [q. v.]; it was chromolithographed by Vincent Brooks. At Hampton Court is a wholly unauthentic portrait of the same type, which was at one time at Penshurst; it bears the legend ‘Ætatis suæ 34’ (, Cat. of Hampton Court, p. 234).

The so-called ‘Jansen’ or Janssens portrait, which belongs to the Duke of Somerset, was first doubtfully identified about 1770, when in the possession of Charles Jennens [q. v.] Janssens did not come to England before Shakespeare's death. A fine mezzotint by R. Earlom was issued in 1811.

The ‘Felton’ portrait, a small head on a panel (now belonging to the Baroness Burdett-Coutts) was purchased by S. Felton of Drayton, Shropshire, in 1794 of J. Wilson, the owner of the Shakespeare Museum in Pall Mall; it bears a late inscription, ‘Gul. Shakespear 1597, R. B.’ [i.e. Richard Burbage]. It was engraved by Josiah Boydell for George Steevens in 1797, and by J. Neagle for Isaac Reed's edition in 1803.

Three portraits are assigned to Zucchero, who left England in 1580, and cannot have had any relations with Shakespeare. One is in the Art Museum, Boston, U.S.A.; another, formerly the property of Richard Cosway, R.A., and afterwards of Mr. J. A. Langford of Birmingham, was engraved in mezzotint by H. Green; a third, purchased in 1862, belonged to the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

The ‘Soest’ or ‘Zoust’ portrait—in the possession of Sir John Lister-Kaye of Denby Grange, Wakefield—was in the collection of T. Wright, painter, of Covent Garden, in 1725, when I. Simon engraved it. Soest was born twenty-one years after