Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/45

 the Reformer at a more advanced age, though somewhat less advanced than in what are known as the Dorset and Denbigh portraits. At any rate there is less of an impression of feebleness than in the latter two, both of which show Wyclif leaning on a staff. There is certainly a family likeness in these three pictures. The deep-set eyes, prominent nose, shrunken cheeks, full grey beard, grave yet tender mouth, and slightly stooped shoulders are common to all. The Moro portrait was engraved by Edward Finden for Mr. John Murray, and published by him in 1827.

The Dorset canvas, now kept at Knole Park, has been engraved and reproduced more frequently than any of the rest. In this picture Wyclif holds the staff in his right hand; the face is turned slightly to his left, and the beard divides by a hand's-breadth on the chest. Like the Denbigh portrait, it is half-length, whilst Moro's is a bust. The Dorset (engraved by George White) is set in an oval frame, with the legend: "Joannes Wiclif S. T. P., Rector de Lutterworth | A tabula penes Nobilissimum Ducem Dorsettiae." The first Duke of Dorset died in 1765, and the portrait does not seem to be earlier than the eighteenth century. The Dorset family, it may be mentioned, were in possession of the Groby (Leicestershire) estates; and the portrait of course professes to represent the Reformer as he appeared in the last year or two of his tenure of the rectory of Lutterworth. There is another engraving of the same picture signed by Jan Vanhaecken.

Of the Denbigh portrait we have a fine engraving