Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-07-06
SHAKSPEARE'S MASK.
Prof. Schaafhausen Claims that the
DEATH Mask is GeHuine-Interesting
story Of the Finding OF the Mask I'm

Z
story OF the Finding OF the Mask I'm
kaEenee.
Frankfurter zeitung.
The death mask Of Shakespeare be-
longs in itself to the most interesting
of things; but this interest, must be
greatly increased when we see the
hitherto unknown death mask suddenly
found in the midst of Germany, while
no one is able to say how itcame there.
The first idea is, that it may be a
counterfeit, as there have been somany
Shakespeare counterfeits, partly the
work of malicious people seeking
amusement IN the wise commentaries
of the learned, partly of literary van
ity, and partly Of fraudulentgreed a
genuine death mask of Shakespeare
would be invaluable, and our death
mask is genuine. At least such is the
opinion of Prof. Schaafhausen, of
Bonn, who has devoted toit a very pro-
found essay, recently published in the
Tenth Year Book of the German Shaks-
peare Society. His most important
reasons are the following:
l. The mask was taken from a dead
face and is not the product of art.
This is proved by the expression of the
skin, by certain peculiar irregularities
which hardly any artist could invent,
and by the hairs of the moustache and
beard, which remain sticking IN the
plaster, and which, according to the
opinion of the famous English anato-
mist, Richard Owen, correspond in
their peculiar structure to those fea-
lures of the mask where they are
found. These hairs out of the beard
Of Shakespeare also correspond IN their
reddish brown with the color in which
the beard Of the Stratford bust was
painted. The dirty yellow color of the
oil with which the mask is saturated is
such as might be expected IN plaster
cast two centuries old.
2. Upon the back of the mask there
is upon the edge the inscription, "a. D.
1885, the year of Shakspeare's death. |
According to the opinion of experts. /
the figures are such as were used at
that time They have not sharp, but
round edges, indicating that they were
not cut in afterward, but were written
with a stick in the plaster while it was
yet soft.
3. Although Goethe was in error
when he praised the beauty Of the for
nation of Raphael's skull and it after
ward proved to be that Of Canon Adiu- |
tori, Schaffhausen Is confident that the |
alleged death mask of Shakespeare !
must in any event have been that of a |
man Of very great Importance. He |
gives all its measurements, and espe-
cially dwehs upon the unusual breadth |
of the forehead, which is las milleme-
tres. The features OF the mask are /
also those of 4 man Of the age Of fifty /
two, as Shakespeare was when he died.
4. One would suppose that the re-
semblance of the mask would be the
most important point about it; but un-
fortunately the portraits of Shaks-
peare are so perfectly dissimilar to
each other that the investigation Of
this subject is difficult. The Stratford
bust, however, which to judge from
the eyes, must have been executed |
after a death mask, and whose artist
probably attempted to give life to the
sunken features of the corpse by an
exaggeratedfullness Of. outline, has very
little resemblance TO our mask, but It
has, like this, "a beard on the chin,
while tn most trustworthy portraits of
the poet, and the copperplate of D roe
shout, which is prefxed to his works
and sung by Ben johnson, does not ac-
cord with the bust at all, but does ac-
cord with our death mask in a very
high degree, except that IN the copper
plate the poet is represented with
full beard.
The mask was found in l849 By
Louis Becker, the painter, IN the pos
session Of a brac-a-brac dealer in May
ence. From lS49 till 1866 it was IN the
Of Prof. Owen in London,
and after the death of Louis Becker
was restored to his family in Darn
stadt, in whose hands it now is. Prof,
who, as we have said,
has made the most Jealous investiga-
tons and the most careful inquiries on
all sides, also Investigated the history
Of the mask, but his essay gives only
the chief pOin is IN it, and Is not COM
plete. He is, however, thoroughly con-
WINGED Of the commences of the mask,
and finally pleads with zeal for a CON-
parisOn Of the mask with the skull Of
which is still in existence
in the grave at StratfOrd.