Yet, by those who allow to poffibilities the influence of facts, it may be faid that this picture was probably the ornament of a club-room in Eaftcheap, round which other refemblances of contemporary poets and players might have been arranged:-that the Boar's Head, the scene of Falftaff's jollity, might also have been the favourite tavern of Shakspeare:that, when our author returned over London Bridge from the Globe theatre, this was a convenient houfe of entertainment; and that for many years afterwards (as the tradition of the neighbourhood reports) it was understood to have been a place where the wits and wags of a former age were affembled, and their portraits repofited. To fuch fuppofitions it may be replied, that Mr. Sloman, who quitted this cele→ brated publick houfe in 1767, (when all its furniture, which had devolved to him from his two immediate predeceffors, was fold off,) declared his utter ignorance of any picture on the premises, except a coarfe daubing of the Gadshill robbery.3 From

3 Philip Jones of Barnard's Inn, the auctioneer who fold off Mr. Sloman's effects, has been fought for; but he died a few years ago. Otherwife, as the knights of the hammer are faid to preferve the catalogue of every auction, it might have been known whether pictures conftituted any part of the Boar's Head furniture; for Mr. Sloman himself could not affirm that there were no fmall or obfcure paintings above stairs in apartments which he had feldom or ever occafion to vifit.

Mrs. Brinn, the widow of Mr. Sloman's predeceffor, after her husband's decease quitted Eaftcheap, took up the trade of a wireworker, and lived in Crooked Lane. She died about ten years ago. One, who had been her apprentice (no youth,) declares the was a very particular woman, was circumftantial in her narratives, and fo often repeated them, that he could not poffibly forget any article she had communicated relative to the plate, furniture, &c. of the Boar's Head :-that the often spoke of the painting that represented the robbery at Gadshill, but never fo much as hinted at any other pictures in the house; and had there been any, he is fure the would not have failed to describe them

hence the following probabilities may be fuggefted: -firft, that if Shakspeare's portrait was ever at the Boar's Head, it had been alienated before the fire of London in 1666, when the original house was burnt; and, fecondly, that the path through which the fame picture has travelled fince, is as little to be determined as the courfe of a fubterraneous ftream.

It may also be remarked, that if fuch a Portrait had exified in Eaftcheap during the life of the induftrious Vertue,4 he would moft certainly have procured it, inftead of having fubmitted to take his firft engraving of our author from a juvenile likeness of James I. and his laft from Mr. Keck's unauthenticated purchase out of the dreffing-room of a modern actress.

It is obvious, therefore, from the joint depofitions of Mr. Wilfon and Mr. Sloman, that an inference difadvantageous to the authenticity of the Boar's Head ftory must be drawn; for if the portrait in queftion arrived after a filent progress through obfcurity, at the fhop of a broker who, being ignorant of its value, fold it for a few fhillings, it must neceffarily have been unattended by any hiftory whatever. And if it was purchased at a fale of goods at the Boar's Head, as neither the mafter of the house, or his two predeceffors, had the leaft idea of having poffeffed fuch a curiofity, no intelligence could be fent abroad with

in her accounts of her former business and place of abode, which fupplied her with materials for conversation to the very end of a long life.

4 The four laft publicans who kept this tavern are faid to have filled the whole period, from the time of Vertue's inquiries, to the year 1788, when the Boar's Head, having been untenanted for five years, was converted into two dwellings for fhopkeepers.

it from that quarter. In either cafe then we may fuppofe, that the legend relative to the name of its painter,5 and the place where it was found, (notwithstanding both thefe particulars might be true,) were at hazard appended to the portrait under confideration, as foon as its fimilitude to Shakspeare had been acknowledged, and his name difcovered on the back of it. This circumftance, however, cannot affect the credit of the picture; for (as the late Lord Mansfield obferved in the Douglas controverfy) "there are inftances in which falfhood has been employed in fupport 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 poffeffed no resemblance of him, there is fufficient reason to believe. Where then was this fafhionable and therefore neceffary adjunct to his works to be fought 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 profeffion. We may fuppofe too, that the bookfellers who employed Droefhout, discovered the object of their research by the direction of Ben Jonfon, who in the following lines has borne the most ample teftimony to the verifimilitude of a portrait which will now be recommended, by a more accurate and finished engraving, to the publick notice:

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

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

"The figure, that thou here feeft put,
"It was for gentle Shakespeare cut;
"Wherein the graver had a ftrife
"With Nature, to outdoo the life:
"O, could he but have drawne his wit
"As well in braffe, as he hath hit
"His face; the print would then furpaffe
"All that was ever writ in braffe.
"But, fince he cannot, Reader, looke
"Not on his picture, but his Booke."

That the legitimate refemblance of such a man has been indebted to chance for its prefervation, would excite greater astonishment, were it not recollected, that a portrait of him has lately become an object of far higher confequence and eftimation than it was during the period he flourished in, and the twenty years fucceeding it; for the profeffion of a player was fcarcely then allowed to be reputable. This remark, however, ought not to stand unfupported by a paffage in The Microcosmos of John Davies of Hereford, 4to. 1605, p. 215, where, after having indulged himself in a long and fevere ftrain of fatire on the vanity and affectation of the actors of his age, he fubjoins

His face;] It fhould seem from these words, that the plate prefixed to the folio 1623 exhibited fuch a likeness of Shakspeare as fatisfied the eye of his contemporary, Ben Jonson, who, on an occafion like this, would hardly have ventured to affert what it was in the power of many of his readers to contradict. When will evidence half fo conclufive be produced in favour of the Davenantico-Bettertonian-Barryan-Keckian-Nicolfian-Chandofan canvas, which bears not the flighteft refemblance to the original of Droefhout's and Marshall's engraving?

Toto Players, I love yee and your qualitie,

"As ye are men that pafs time not abus'd

s

And fome I love for painting, poefie,*' *" W. S. R.B." "And fay fell fortune cannot be excus'd, "That hath for better ufes you refus'd:

Ware

Wit, courage, good fhape, good partes, are all good,
As long as all thefe goods are no worse us'd;8

And though the Stage doth Staine pure gentle bloud, "Yet generous yee are in minde and moode."

The reader will obferve 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 its present fafety to the shelter of a series of garrets and lumber-rooms, in which it had fculked till it found its way into the broker's fhop from whelte from whence the difcernment of a modern connoiffeur fo luckily redeemed it.

It may also be obferved, that an excellent original of Ben Jonfon was lately bought at an obfcure auction by Mr. Ritfon of Gray's Inn, and might once have been companion to the portrait of Shakspeare thus fortunately reftored, after having been loft to the publick for a century and a half. They are, nevertheless, performances by very different artifts The face of Shakspeare was imitated by a delicate pencil, that of Jonfon by a bolder hand. It is not defigned, however, to appretiate the distinct value of these pictures; though it must be allowed (as feveral undoubted originals of old Ben are extant)

- are all good,

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

"Where virtue is, thefe are moft virtuous."