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In an age where we are inundated by images and information, it is difficult to accept that we know so little about Shakespeare’s existence. In fact, there are two periods, referred to as the ‘lost years’, where there is no evidence to prove that he existed at all. Shakespeare left no journals or personal correspondence that we know of and, other than legal records, very few contemporary accounts or descriptions have come to light.
Neither can we be sure of what the elusive Bard looked like. We have no pictures of the hopeful young actor arriving in London, the playwright struggling pen in hand over a difficult scene, or the gifted poet reciting a sonnet in the company of his patron. We don’t know how his family and friends saw him, nor those who attended his performances with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, or his fellow courtiers at his formal entry into King James’ Court. Numerous paintings are claimed to portray Shakespeare, yet not one portrait has ever been fully verified as being a true likeness, painted from life.
So what we do have? Very Little! An abundance of articles beginning with phrases such as “it is believed that”, “legend has it” or “many consider”; descriptions and anecdotes passed down after his death; a shortlist of “possible” portraits, as seen below, two accepted likenesses of a respectable middle aged gentleman: Droeshout’s First Folio engravingand Janssen’s funeral bust, (both of which were executed after his death and neither of which are particularly well liked) and, finally, Ben Jonson’s good advice
...Wherein the Graver had a strife
With Nature, to out-do the life….
But, Since he cannot, Reader look
Not on his Picture, but his Book.
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