In spelling Shakespeare’s name, I have adopted the orthography of his friends Ben Jonson and the editors of the first folio.[2]

As regards the illustrations, it seems desirable also to say a few words.

In selecting for my frontispiece a portrait of Shakespeare as a falconer (a character which I am confident could not have been foreign to him), I have experienced considerable difficulty in making choice of a likeness.

Those who have made special inquiries into the authenticity of the various portraits of Shakespeare, are not agreed in the results at which they have arrived. This is to be attributed to the fact that, with the exception of the Droeshout etching, to which I shall presently state my objection, no likeness really exists of which a reliable history can be given without one or more missing links in the chain of evidence.

There are four portraits which have all more or less claim to be considered authentic. These are “the Jansen portrait,” 1610; “the Stratford bust,” prior to 1623; “the Droeshout etching,” 1623; and “the Chandos portrait,” of which the precise date is uncertain, but which must

have been painted some years prior to 1616, the year of Shakespeare’s death.

It would be impossible, within the compass of this preface, to review all that has been said for and against these four portraits. Neither will space permit me to give the history of each in detail. I can only briefly allude to the chief facts in connection with each, and state the reasons which have influenced me in selecting the Chandos portrait.

Mr. Boaden, who was the first to examine into the authenticity of reputed Shakespeare portraits,[3] has evinced a preference for the so-called “Jansen portrait,” in the collection of the Duke of Somerset, considering it to have been painted by Cornelius Jansen, in 1610, for Lord Southampton, the great patron, at that date, of art and the drama.

The picture, indeed, bears upon the face of it an inscription— Æte 46
1610 —which gives much weight to the views expressed by Mr. Boaden.

It is certain that, in the year mentioned, Jansen was in England, and that he painted several pictures for Lord Southampton; it is equally true, that at that date Shakespeare was in his forty-sixth year. But Mr. Boaden fails to prove that this particular picture was painted by