“The only original picture now extant of Shakespeare was painted by Joseph Taylor, one of the actors,” &c.
The rest of the pretended information agrees with what we find in Boaden’s book, which has a picture taken from the Chandos portrait quite different from those we generally see, and not much like the Droeshout engraving in the Shakspere Folio.
Shakspere probably never had a portrait taken.
WRITTEN BY FRANCIS BACON TO THE EARL OF ESSEX AND HIS BRIDE, A. D. 1590
“The mystery of the Sonnets will never be unfolded.” —Richard Grant White, 1865.
“All is supposition; the mystery is insoluble.” —Dr. Charles Mackay, 1884.
The mystery unfolded by W. H. Burr, July 31, 1883.
The first published poem of Shakspere, so far as known, was “Venus and Adonis,” in 1593. It was dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, then about twenty years of age. Five or six editions were called for in nine years. The “Sonnets” did not appear till 1609. The latter poem has 154 stanzas of 14 lines each; the first 126 are addressed to a beautiful and ardently beloved youth; the remainder to the young man’s betrothed.
As to the merits of the composition, the American Cyclopedia says:
“These ‘Sonnets,’ though deformed with occasional conceits, far surpass all other poems of their kind in our own language, or perhaps any other.”
“To the onlie begetter of | these insuing Sonnets | Mr. W. H. all happinesse | and that eternitie | promised by | our everliving poet | wisheth | the well-wishing | adventurer in | setting forth | T. T.”
Some have believed that “Mr. W. H.” was William Herbert; and a German critic supposes the initials to signify “William Himself.” But the American Cyclopedia says:
“To whom they were written, and in whose person is among the most difficult of unsolved literary problems.... Who this ‘onlie begetter’ was no man has yet been able satisfactorily to show.”(1)
(1) Dr. Charles Mackay attempts to solve the problem in an elaborate article in the Nineteenth Century, August, 1884, entitled “A Tangled Skein Unravelled.” He claims only to have found indications of mixed authorship. But this only makes the tangle worse, which began with Shakspere’s ostensible authorship; and the last despairing words of the astute un-raveller are: “All is supposition, the mystery is insoluble.”