the path through which the same picture has trávelled since, is as little to be determined as the course of a subterraneous stream.

It may also be remarked, that if such a Portrait had existed in Eastcheap during the life of the industrious Vertue,* he would most certainly have procured it, instead of having submitted to take

with my wife and sonn, and went to the Bankside in Southwark, where we beheld that dismal spectacle, the whole Citty in dreadful flames near ye water side; all the houses from the Bridge, all Thames Street, and upwards towards Cheapside, down to the Three Cranes, were now consum'd.

"The fire having continu'd all this night, (if I may call that night which was light as day for ten miles round about, after a dreadful manner), when conspiring with a fierce Eastern wind in a very drie season, I went on foote to the same place, and saw the whole South part of ye Citty burning, from Cheapside to ye Thames, and all along Cornehill, (for it kindl'd back against ye wind as well as forward), Tower Streete, Fenchurch Streete, Gracious Street, and so along to Bainard's Castle, and was now taking hold of St. Paule's Church, to which the scaffolds contributed exceedingly. The conflagration was so universal, and the people so astonish'd, that, from the beginning, I know not by what despondency or fate, they hardly stirr'd to quench it; so that there was nothing heard or seene but crying out and lamentation, running about like distracted creatures, without at all attempting to save even their goods, such a strange consternation there was upon them."-Vol. i. p. 371. (See Mr. Boaden's Inquiry, p. 84.)

* The four last publicans who kept this tavern are said to have filled the whole period, from the time of Vertue's enquiries, to the year 1788, when the Boar's Head, having been untenanted for five years, was converted into two dwellings for shopkeepers.

his first engraving of our author from a juvenile likeness of James I.* and his last from Mr. Keck's unauthenticated purchase out of a dressing-room of a modern actress.

It is obvious, therefore, from the joint depositions. of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Sloman, that an inference disadvantageous to the authenticity of the Boar's Head story must be drawn; for, if the portrait in question arrived after a silent progress through obscurity, at the shop of a broker, who, being ignorant of its value, sold it for a few shillings, it must necessarily have been unattended by any history whatever. And if it was purchased at a sale of goods at the Boar's Head, as neither the master of the house, or his two predecessors, had the least idea of having possessed such a curiosity, no intelligence could be sent abroad with it from that quarter. In either case then we may suppose that the legend relative to the name of its painter,† and the place where it was found, (notwithstanding both these particulars might be true,) were at hazard appended to the portrait under consideration, as soon as its similitude to Shakspeare had been acknowledged, and his name discovered on the

*The reverse is the truth; for the engraving by Virtue is dated 1721, and that from Mr. Keck's picture has the date 1719, A. WIVELL.

The tradition that Burbage painted a likeness of Shakspeare has been current in the world ever since the appearance of Mr. Granger's Biographical History.

back of it. This circumstance, however, cannot affect the credit of the picture; for (as the late Lord Mansfield observed in the Douglas controversy) "there are instances in which falshood has been employed in support of a real fact, and that it is no uncommon thing for a man to defend a true cause by fabulous pretences."

That Shakspeare's family possessed no resemblance of him, there is sufficient reason to believe. Where then was this fashionable, and, therefore, necessary adjunct to his works to be sought for? If any where, in London, the theatre of his fame and fortune, and the only place where painters, at that period, could have expected to thrive by their profession. We may suppose too, that the booksellers who employed Droeshout, discovered the object of their research by the direction of Ben Jonson,* who, in the following lines, has borne the most ample testimony to the verisimilitude of a portrait which will now be recommended, by a more accurate and finished engraving, to the publick notice :

"This Figure, that thou here seest put,
"It was for gentle Shakespeare cut ;
"Wherein the Graver had a strife

"With Nature, to out doo the life;

* It is not improbable that Ben Jonson furnished the Dedication and Introduction to the first folio, as well as the Commendatory Verses prefixed to it.

"His face; the Print would then surpasse
"All, that was ever writ in brasse.
"But, since he cannot, Reader, looke
"Not on his Picture, but his Booke.

That the legitimate resemblance of such a man has been indebted to chance for its preservation, would excite greater astonishment, were it not recollected, that a portrait of him has lately become an object of far higher consequence and estimation than it was during the period he flourished in, and the twenty years succeeding it; for the profession of a player was scarcely then allowed to be reputable. This remark, however, ought not to stand unsupported by a passage in The Microcosmos of John Davies, of Hereford, 4to. 1605, p. 215, where, after having indulged himself in a long and severe strain of satire on the vanity and affectation of the actors of the age, he subjoins

"Players, I loue you and your qualitie,
"As ye are men that pass time not abus'd:
"And some I loue for painting, poesie,*

as he hath hit

* " W. S. R. B."

His face;] It should seem from these words, that the plate prefixed to the folio, 1623, exhibited such a likeness of Shakspeare as satisfied the eye of his contempory, Ben Jonson, who, on an occasion like this, would hardly have ventured to assert what it was in the power of many of his readers to contradict. When will evidence half so conclusive be produced in favour of the

Davenantico-Bettertonian-Barryan-Keckian-Nicholsian-Chandosan canvas, which bears not the slightest resemblance to the original of Droeshout's and Marshall's engraving?

1

"And say fell fortune cannot be excus'd,
"That hath for better uses you refus'd:

"Wit, courage, good shape, good partes, are all good,
"As long as all these goods are not us'd;*

"And though the stage doth staine poor gentle blood,
"Yet generous yee are in minde and moode.

The reader will observe from the initials in the margin of the third of these wretched lines, that W. Shakspeare was here alluded to as the poet, and R. Burbage, as the painter.

Yet, notwithstanding this compliment to the higher excellencies of our author, it is almost certain that his resemblance owes it present safety to the shelter of a series of garrets and lumber-rooms, in which it had sculked till it found its way into the broker's shop, from whence the discernment of a modern connoisseur so luckily redeemed it.

It may also be observed, that an excellent original of Ben Jonson was lately bought at an obscure auction by Mr. Ritson, of Gray's Inn, and might once have been companion to the portrait of Shakspeare thus fortunately restored, after having been lost to the publick for a century and a half. They are, nevertheless, performances by very different

are all good,

As long as all these goods are no worse us'd;] So, in our author's Othello:—

"Where virtue is, these are most virtuous."