Autographs in the will. 'Shakespeare' the ac cepted form. Shakespeare's portraits. he had begun by the narrowness of the strip of parchment to which he was seeking to restrict his handwriting. Whether, therefore, the surname in the two documents should be interpreted as 'Shakspere' or 'Shakspeare' cannot be stated positively. The ink of the first signature which Shakespeare appended to his will has now faded almost beyond recognition, but that it was 'Shakspere' may be inferred from the facsimile made by George Steevens in 1776. The second and third signatures to the will, which are easier to decipher, have been variously read as 'Shakspere,' 'Shakspeare,' and 'Shakespeare;' but a close examination suggests that, whatever the second signature may be, the third, which is preceded by the two words By me' (also in the poet's handwriting), is 'Shakspeare.' 'Shakspere' is the spelling of the alleged autograph in the British Museum copy of Florio's 'Montaigne,' but the genuineness of that signature is disputable. But it is to be borne in mind that 'Shakespeare' was the form of the poet's surname that was adopted in the text of all the legal documents relating to the poet's property, and in the royal license to him in the capacity of a player in 1603. That form is to be seen in the inscription on his wife's tomb in the church of Stratford-on-Avon, although in the rudely cut inscription on his own monument his name appears as 'Shakspeare.' 'Shakespeare' figures in the poet's printed signatures affixed by his authority to the dedicatory epistles in the original editions of his two narrative poems 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'Lucrece' (1594); it is prominent on the title-pages of almost all contemporary editions of his plays, and was employed in almost all the published references to him in the seventeenth century. Consequently, of the form 'Shakespeare' alone can it be definitely said that it has the sanction of legal and literary usage. Aubrey reported that Shakespeare was a handsome well-shap't man,' but no portrait exists which can be said. with absolute certainty to have been executed during his lifetime, although one has recently been discovered with a good claim to that distinction. Only two of the extant portraits are positively known to have been produced within a short period after his death. These are the bust in Stratford Church and the frontispiece to the folio of 1623. SHAKESPEARE'S AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURE APPENDED TO A DEED MORTGAGING HIS HOUSE IN BLACKFRIARS ON MARCH 11, 1612-13. Reproduced from the original document now preserved in the British Museum. Each is an inartistic attempt at a posthumous likeness. The StratThere is considerable discrepancy between the two; their ford bust. main points of resemblance are the baldness on the top of the head and the fulness of the hair about the ears. The bust was by Gerard Johnson or Janssen, who was a Dutch stonemason or tomb-maker settled in Southwark. It was set up in the church before 1623, and is a rudely carved specimen of mortuary sculpture. There are marks about the forehead and ears which suggest that the face was fashioned from a death mask, but the workmanship is at all points clumsy. The round face and eyes present a heavy, unintellectual expression. The bust was originally coloured, but in 1793 Malone caused it to be whitewashed. In 1861 the whitewash was removed, and the colours, as far as traceable, restored. The eyes are light hazel, the hair and beard auburn. There have been numberless reproductions, both engraved and photographic. It was first engraved-very imperfectly-for Rowe's edition in 1709; then by Vertue for Pope's edition of 1725; and by Gravelot for Hanmer's edition in 1744. A good engraving by William Ward appeared in 1816. A phototype and a chromo-phototype, issued by the New Shakspere Society, are the best reproductions for the purposes of study. The The pretentious painting known as the 'Stratford' portrait, and presented in 1867 by W. O. Hunt, town clerk of Stratford, portrait. to the Birthplace Museum, where it is very prominently displayed, was probably painted from the bust late in the eighteenth century; it lacks either historic or artistic interest. 'Strat ford' The engraved portrait-nearly a half-length-which was Droesprinted on the title-page of the Folio of 1623, was by Martin hout's enDroeshout. On the opposite page lines by Ben Jonson graving. congratulate 'the graver on having satisfactorily 'hit' the poet's 'face.' Jonson's testimony does no credit to his artistic discernment; the expression of countenance, which is very crudely rendered, is neither distinctive nor lifelike. 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 is 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. The dimensions of the head and face are disproportionately large as compared The with those of the body. 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. The engraver, Martin Droeshout, belonged to a Flemish family of painters and engravers long settled in London, where he was born in 1601. He was thus fifteen years old at the time of Shakespeare's death in 1616, and it is consequently improbable that he had any personal knowledge of the dramatist. The engraving was doubtless produced by Droeshout very shortly before the publication of the First Folio in 1623, when he had completed his twentysecond year. It thus belongs to the outset of the engraver's professional career, in which he never achieved extended practice or reputation. A copy of the Droeshout engraving, by William Marshall, was prefixed to Shakespeare's 'Poems' in 1640, and William Faithorne made another copy for the frontispiece of the edition of "The Rape of Lucrece' published in 1655. There is little doubt that young Droeshout in fashioning his engraving worked from a painting, and there is a likelihood that the original picture from which the youthful engraver worked has lately come to light. As recently as 1892 Mr. Edgar Flower, of Stratford-on-Avon, discovered in the possession of Mr. H. C. Clements, a private gentleman with artistic tastes residing at Peckham Rye, a portrait alleged to represent Shakespeare. The picture, which was faded and somewhat worm-eaten, dated beyond all doubt from the early years of the seventeenth century. It was painted on a panel formed of two planks of old elm, and in the upper left-hand corner was the inscription 'Will Shakespeare, 1609.' Mr. Clements purchased the portrait of an obscure dealer about 1840, and knew nothing of its history, beyond what he set down on a slip of paper when he acquired it. The note that he then wrote and pasted on the box in which he preserved the picture, ran as follows: "The original portrait of Shakespeare, from which the now famous Droeshout engraving was taken and inserted in the first collected edition of his works, published in 1623, being seven years after his death. The picture was painted nine [verè seven] years before his death, and consequently sixteen [verè fourteen] years before it was published. . . . The picture was publicly exhibited in London seventy years ago, and |