VOL. I.

III. THE CHANDOS PORTRAIT.

PERHAPS the best known of all the portraits professing to represent Shakespeare is the Chandos. Certainly it is the most familiar to the large mass of people. The cheap plaster cast, hawked about the streets by the Italian image vender, is modelled after this portrait, while the handsome bronze that one puts over his clock has the same features. In a word, the Chandos is the popularly accepted representation of Shakespeare. How this has come about it would be difficult to say, unless it be that the public would not have the Stratford bust or the Droeshout engraving. Those are both well authenticated, and are

the only two that are, but they have not met with popular favor like the Chandos.

In September, 1848, the Earl of Ellesmere purchased the Chandos portrait at the sale of paintings, etc., belonging to the Duke of Buckingham, for three hundred and fifty-five guineas, and in March, 1856, he presented it to the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The catalogue of that collection contains the following information concerning this portrait: "The Chandos Shakespeare was the property of John Taylor, the player, by whom, or by Richard Burbadge, it was painted. The picture was left by the former, in his will, to Sir William D'Avenant. After his death it was bought by Betterton, the