T. Wright, painter, in Covent Garden. But not to bind the auctioneer to reconcile dates, I differ entirely with Mr. Malone on this subject, and consider Simon's print to have been taken from another, and very different original.

"Mr. Douglas's picture was for a considerable time in Mr. Triphook's possession, where I frequently inspected it; and assuredly its merits must be appreciated without reference to Simon's engraving. The picture was very pleasing and delicately painted; but it had none of the freedom and spirit to be found in the print, which indicates an original not at all inferior to one of the finest heads of Vandyke: and, indeed, from that great master, Soest has evidently borrowed the hair of the head, and the beautiful disposition of the hair. The real original of Simon's print is probably at the country residence of one of our nobility, and may there be esteemed a genuine picture of the poet. The anecdote which I have combined with it, on what I conceive to be reasonable ground, communicates a value to Soest's picture, which, before, was in great doubt; I mean, that though it never could be painted from Shakspeare, it was certainly painted as him, and unites a most decided resemblance of the man, with a very graceful and masterly power of the pencil.

"If I could bring myself to infringe upon the principle laid down, to engrave only such as were

authentic portraits, this head should accompany the series; because, from whomsoever got, in the general character it has much of Shakspeare; and no difficulty whatever is felt by me in asserting, that the sitter must have borne a very peculiar and enviable resemblance to the great dramatic poet of England.

"The zeal of Sir Thomas Clarges, and the pencil of Soest, having thus supplied us with a cavalier representation of Shakspeare, the beginning of the present century called us to an inspection of what may be called, with equal justice, a puritan exhibition of the poet:

"Like a mildew'd ear,

Blasting his wholesome brother."

OF THE

PORTRAIT BY ZUCCHERO,

AS GIVEN BY J. BOADEN.

"ABOUT the time that I first inspected the Chandos Head, or not long after, my old friend Sir William Beechey mentioned to me, that Mr. Cosway had, what he termed, an original picture, by Zucchero, of the Poet, and that I had better look at it. Accordingly, soon after, we went to Mr. Cosway's together, and, finding him at home, we had the picture taken down; and those excellent artists agreed, that it was unquestionably a head by Zucchero. It was painted upon panel, and on the back we read the poet's name, Guglielm. Shakspeare.

"The picture exhibited a youthful poet, leaning with his face upon the right hand; the head stooped forward, in earnest meditation, with the evidences of composition lying before him. A very coarse mezzotinto* from it may still be found among the dealers, which gives but an imperfect likeness, inasmuch as most of the beauty, and much of the sentiment, are missed by the engraver. Indeed, the print is as rude as the picture was delicate and refined. Decent pains were wanting in the very setting out of this print; for the artist, I remember, was barbarously written down Zucro.

By Henry Green.-A. W.

"The age of the person whom Zucchero thus painted must have been verging upon thirty, because the beard is full, dark, and luxuriant; the hair black, the eyes bright, and full of intelligence. But, unfortunately, Zucchero never could have painted Shakspeare. Having exhibited some of the pope's officers, with asses ears, over the gate of the church of St. Luke, the patron of painters, he was compelled to fly to preserve his own:-he went first to Flanders, and, in 1574, came to England, where he painted Queen Elizabeth twice, and also Queen Mary of Scotland; who, for some time after, might be said to be rather rusticated than confined, and, in 1583, was very near obtaining her liberty altogether.

"His stay in this country was certainly not long; probably five or six years at most. If he left us in 1580, Shakspeare was then only sixteen years old, and at his native Stratford, paying his court to fair Mistresse Anne Hathaway, and indubitably undistinguished by dramatic talent; though he might have even then cultivated the Muses, and framed, perhaps, some of the Sonnets, which he wrote upon the subject of Venus and Adonis, before he fixed on the stanza, in which he finally composed that elaborate, and, in many respects, most beautiful poem.

"It is said of Zucchero, that he was offended at our relig. There were plenty of Catholics, both open ncealed, to preserve him from the impu

tation of singularity; and the great number of our nobility and gentry, who employed him, may shew, that our religion by no means protested against the hand which bestowed the graces of art. He quitted us, however, before the atrocious murder of QUEEN MARY, violated something more sacred than the prejudice of a zealous Catholic, by outraging the common feelings of humanity.

"About a year before Mr. Cosway died, I called upon him, to inspect the picture carefully again, that I might not be compelled to rely upon an impression made five and twenty years ago. He told me, upon my pointing to its old position in his sittingroom, that he had lent it to a very amiable friend of his, a female artist, who had requested leave to copy it. While we conversed upon other topics, he sent his servant to that lady, with a desire that she would indulge him with it for a few minutes. He was greatly surprised to find that the fair artist had returned it to him a considerable time since; but it had not been replaced in his parlour, and he in vain tried to conjecture what had become of it.

"This portrait was an oval, life size, most delicately painted, with something peculiar in the oblique, or cat-like position of the eyes. I may add, that it had not the slightest resemblance to the traditional complexion, and established features of the great poet of England. Of Torquato Tasso, indeed, it bears more than a slight look; and struck an accomplished friend of mine, as indicating all the mingled charac