New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-12-04
Toe Wash OF Shakespeare.

y. !. T,i5,,q,.
Toe Wash at SbakpspearT
VIM. Page, the artist, IN a recent lecture
IA New \ orS, said that in ISiS he haJ II com.
mission {" paint a head uf Shakespeare. amt
found only three, rs hc believed, genuine por.
TRAITS, the one known as the Chandas picture.
The Droc>haTt etching, and the hust at Strat-
toTd-on- Avon. There was some talk Of 4 Ger
man mask, which some asserted t. hc taken
from the very face of Shakespeare after death.
lie obtained photographs Of those at older
rut times, presenting different views OF the
face to the number ct L. and from that he at
tempted To model mask at the face y.
them he was enabled TO distinguished what
was true and what was false in the three DO
traits mentioned above as authentic, and
| found beyond the shadow of a doub. lhlt
the picture and the etching were c-r;ainl,
from Shakespcare's face. aud the bust iro,.
the plaster cast. The latter with its ARTIFICIAL
~ shortened nose. done BY an accident in tn.
/ printing, bore evidence to the breadth OF
the cheek aud the chin As the ocean
/ To the river, however, 81 is the German
/ mask To all other attempts TO reproduce the
I features al the immortal bard; aud us the rivers
| How to the sea, so must the three portraituras
I borrow from the mask i'll their attempts H.
represent the likeness of this man of men
/ This face was God-male, and as unmatchable
Is the man himself. 1t was perfectly made
/ quatc 10 fulfill all the conditions required by
! the case, nor could the whole art world. from
| fhid:ls downward, produce such one II
! contained internal evidence of its truth, hay-
| ng in itself all that is needed to show thatit
has really all that the three poor portraitures
were trying To show. so inadequate were
! they that people disguised with them began
to doubt that such man could have written
L WNF La ~ - t.,l.
make hypotheses about Lord Bacon and
others. Words fail to describe accurately the
conditions shown in this mask, if one does
not take those of Shakespeare himself in the
play ot "llamlct,' where he speaks Of his
fathers face, beginning, "Iook on this pic
| ture and on that
Mr.. Page then went into a tull argument
"i the scar which he believes hr has oisco,-
cred over the right temple of the mask. de-
mon>tratinG his propositions hy the ENLARGED
drawing ct the photograph which the Ar,,n-
del Society took OF the Chandos portrait after
II was SCrapcd and before il was rrpointc1
lie acknowledged that two persons who had
examined the mask had not been able To tinl
the scar, and he imagined that perhaps mcaus
had been taken to obiiterate the scar by the
Herman rosNcsSor, possibly, rs he thought,
II might initiate against the sale of il as "A
mask ol Shakespeare. He then alyertcd to
proofs that the first mold was of hceSwox.
ana that the cast was attcrward taken from
that. This was proved by the pressure upon
the nose, which had battered it ON one side
andralScd it on the other, maxim. il less Ro-
man in the first and more Roman ia the
second. Had the east been taken from the
flesh this could not have been, because the
bones would have supported the llr,h 10
persons "t experience this will amount toa
perfect demonstration. The injury to the
way might have taken place when the plaster
mold was beng made from it, because tho
weight would have been sufficient The con
sequences of this proof are curious. The
wax mask went up from Stratford-On- Avon
to the house of t'irarh jason, the tomb
maker, aud afterwards came back again to
Stratinrd, aud was exhibited there after the
funeral OF Shakespeare, for he wa, buried
three days after his death. 1t was the Gus
tom OF those days to exhibit such cliigic3,
and the Won kcsselstadt of those days, who
was Ambassador at the Court OF England
from Cologne. obtained permission to have
plaster east taken from it. Eighteen years
attcrwarh he ordered not too clever artist
To depict the scene of this exhibition OF
ohakrspearc's ciligv, and hi5 death-bcd, as 1t
was alterwari described. Th. little picture
represents the wax mask lying on a bed and
crowned with laurcls. IL was purchased at
the sale OF the Won hc5salsttdt Museum
when the family became extinct, by tho Hon
J.. Becker, who took it H. EnElni AMI cs-
h.bItcd 1t IN the British Mu-run, but found
no persons who would believe that II wa.
genuine. After the Hon. 10 Er,Err's death
IN Australia, IL became the property Of Ernst
Becker, the private secretary Of Princess
Alice, the wife Of Prince Louis, OF IIessc
Dannstadt. All the fact, about II are per
lectly authenticated, but authorization were
tar less important than the Internal evidence
which the mask itself afforded. These could
only be Judged Of by experts portrait paint
cr5, sculptors, etc. Had such examined it ia
England, their verdict would uEquestonably
have been that it was the face VI Shakes
pcarc. But they dill not see it. i for him
self, il all the kc,asatadt facts were UNI
known, ii it bad been ishcd up out uf the
German Ocean, he would have known it, Tor
it contained such characteristic, a. made it
shakespcrean. Nature never repeats herself,
nor does she frame twice snch face as this
maxi shows.
Mr.. Page now reverted again g. the scar,
and quoted from several sonnet which he
thong t had reference 10 the matter, specially
that one commencing:
80 i"ur lose Nud pity doth TIE i,Gprr-..Du ~
Nh'"l. utsnf n"hndti h"ip"d upon M brow
He quoted others 10 prove that in these
s0nncts Shakespeare wa speaking personal
~, and not a. some people supposed, that
they were mere poems written Tor money
arrows shot in the air and not at the butts.
Finally, going 10 the bust, which vas Oh a
dumb waiter, lac twrlcI II arOund rather con
temptuou-ly, and pointed out that the person
ality of shakespeare was wanting ia 1t, aud
that the only thing that showed this wa. the
mask.
Good Views For Advance Readers
The ADVANCE takes pleasure in announcing