Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-27


scarlet, and covered with loose black gown,
or tabard, without sleeves; the upper part of the
cushion was green, the under part crimson, and
the taSSelS gilt. Such appear to have been the
original features OF this important but neglected
or insuIted bust. After remaining in this state
above one hundred and twenty years, Mr.. John
Ward, grandfather Of Mrs. Sddons and MIR.
Kemble, caused it to be repaired and the orgi-
nal coors preserved, in 174S, from the profits
OF a representation of OthellO. This was gen
erous and apparently judicious act; and, there
fore, very unlike the next alteration il was sub.
iected to in 1898. In that year AIR. Malone
caused the bust to be covered over with one or
more coats of white paint; and thus at once de-
stroyed its original character, and greatly in
jured the expression of the face" There was
some excuse for tue abuse which was showered
upon Malone in whtewashing Shakespeare, but,
as this blunder no Longer exists, il is time the
abuse ceased. The bust has now been restored
to its last coat of color, Mr. Hahn Friswel assures
us, and the clerk who shows it AYERS that, with
the exception of d very little Tetouching, it is
now in the same state in which il was left by
Mr.. Hall, the Inner of StratiOrd.
The Droeshout portrait is endorsed by Ben
Jonson:
"This figure, that thou here see'st put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut
Wherein the Graver had strife
With Nature to out-doe the life:
o. could he but have drawne his wit
As well in brasse as he hath hit
Ills lace. the PRINT NOulu Nnen suTpasse
All, that was ever writ in brasse,
But. since he cannot, Reader, locke
Not on his Picture, but his Booke"
The portrait from which Droeshout made his
etching has never been traced. 1t is supposed
TO represent Shakespeare in Il theatrical char
acter, and it is supposed that this character was
that of Old knowell, in JOnsOn's "Every Man
in his Humor,' which Shakespeare played in
| 1898. This, however, is mere conjecture, which
| who will may believe. The value OF the DroeShout
| portrait lies in the endorsement OF Jonson,
| that it was good likeness of Shakespeare
The portrait and the bust, whatever we may
think of them, are authentic. Next comes the
Chdndos portrait, which is the one by which
Shakespeare is most widely known. 1t is said
TO have been the property of Taylor, player in
| Shakespeare's own company (whoSe name how
ever, in the earliest account of the head is stated
| to have been John, when il was really Joseph,
and ii is thought to have been painted by him or
| by Richard Burbage, his fellow player who was
the leading actor of the time and the original
representative of all ShakespeareS greatest
parts. "rhe picture was left by the former in
his will to Sir VIM. Davenant. After hi; death
it was bought by Betterton, the actor, upon
whose decease, Mr.. Keck, of the Temple, pur-
chased it for forty guineas, from whom ii was in
herited by Mr.. Nichols, of Michenden House,
SOutbgate, MiddleseX, whose only daughter
married James, marquis of Caernarvon. after
wards duke of Chandus, father to Anna Eliza
duchess of Buckingham The duke of Buck
ngham making ducks and brakes of his money
this picture was sold, with others, in Septem-
ber 1913. Ii was purchased for three hundred
and ifty-hve guineaS by the late earl of Files
mere, who in March, 1856, presented it to the
trustees of the national portrait gallery of En-
gland,
Such is the history Of the Chandos portrait,
which had at least the silent endorsement of
Davenant, and the presumed endorsement of
some OF ShakeSpeares contemporaries. The
former is entitled TO considerable weight we
think, for Davenant was old enough TO have re-
membered Shakespeare when he died, aud vain
enough TO wish 10 be thought his sou. Sir God
frey Kueler copied this head for Dryden, who
paid for it in a mOnStrOus pOetcal puff in which
he did not forget to mention himself, and his
alteration of Shakespeare:
Shakespeare, thy gift place before my sight;
With awe l ask his blessing as write;
With reverence look on his majestic face,
Proud to be less, but of his godke race,
His soul inspires me, while thy praise 1 write
And like Teucer under Ajax fight"
Next came the Jansen head. This has no ped.
igree, aud cannot be traced back, with anv Ger
tainty, much earlier than 1870 when it was in
the possession of Mr. Charles Jennens, of Cop
sal, i'll Worcestershire who allowed it to be copied
by an engraver named Earlom, aud published
in an edition Of "klng Lear" Where Mr. Jen-
mems obtained it is nowhere stated. Ii is said to
have belonged to Prince Rupert and 10 have
been left by him to his natural daughte Rupetta.
| whose descendants sold it, with other pictures
| OF his, to picture dealer named Spackman
| who sold it to Mr.. Woudburn, who sold il to
the Duke OF Hamilton, who gave it TO his
daughter, the Duchess of Somerset. 1t bears
| some resemblance to the authentic portraits
aud purports TO have been painted in 1910, when
Shakespeare was tortyslx years old
The FELTON, portrait which was the next that
appeared. was first heard OF in 1882 when il was
purchased for five guIneas, by Mr.. FELTON, of
CurzOn street, May Fair London, al an auction
It,,,.t sIa
street. Mr.. FELTON, wanted its pedigree, and the
auctioneer furnished One-tO the effect that the
picture was purchased out of an old house
known by the sign OF the Boar" in Easteheap
where the poet and his friends used TO resort;
aud report said that il was painted bv player
OF that lime, whose name the auctioneer pro-
lessed he h2d not been able to learn. Two years
later he had another happy thought, which
helped him TO trace the portrait back two or
three years earlier, and to a brokers' shop in
the MnOries, where it was found by man of
fashion, whose name must be concealed The
FELTON, head purports to have been painted in
1891 when Shakespeare was thirty.three, and
by ''R. ~, who has since turned out TO he Or
H." whom we are to suppose TO be Richard Bur-
bagel
Heads of Shakespeare Of all ages now he
came the rage, the demand creating the supply,
which has not ceased vet. daubcr named
Hllder fabricated them for few pounds each
aud INSCRIPTIONS dealers sold them for what
they would fetch, which was occasionally hun
dreds Of pounds. Ialma, the French tragediaD,
had Shakespeare portrait, which was so ad.
muable that charles Lamb, when he saw il
went down on his knees apd kissed il. Il was
forged 10y Mr. +. w Zincke--it being origin
my I'm old mahogany tea board The climax
OF aOsuf1iiy was capped by the Bellows nor.
lrait, winch was discovered at Caen. in France
aud taGento Paris, where purchaser was found
| upon cleaning II, the beard monstacbe NM
ample forehead of Shakespeare disannna,"d
aud the original aud more appropriate nor,rnii
Of an old nurse came to light" rV''''''
The Stratlord bust having been made .e,o, q
cast Of Shakspeares face II was in Tho natv,a u
order of things that this cast, or a cast purnor,'
ing 70 be this cast, should be Forthcoming. /,
came IN due time and was placed Ia the custody
Of Professor Owen, at theIBritish museum. "rh,
forehead is delicate aud fine, aud fully deyel
oped, and certainly capacious, although by n,
means equal Ia size TO the forebeads Of the bust
or the Droeshout, the FELTON, portrait, or III
newly discovered Stratlord head. The mask
for II is merely that Of u face and iOrehead-is I
glass case, carefully and doubly locked. Hair
Of the mOustache, eyelasbes aud beard still nd
hear TO the plaster. The eyes are closed, an
7 Que Of them leit-indcales that Il process
Of decay had set in before the cast was taken
part Of the corner protruding from beneath III
eyelid,' The history Of this cast, or what pui