born in London, of Flemish parents; but Vertue and the Author of 'An Essay towards an English School' say it was at Amsterdam, where, the latter asserts, he resided long; the former, that he came over young, which, considering how late he lived, I should be inclined to believe, if Vertue did not, at the same time, pronounce his earliest performances as his best: so good a style of colouring was hardly formed here. His pictures are easily distinguished by their clearness, neatness, and smoothness. They are generally painted on board, and, except being a little stiff, are often strongly marked with a fair character of nature, and remarkable for a lively tranquillity in the countenance. His draperies are seldom but black. I have two portraits by him of singular merit; one of Mr. Leneve, master of the company of merchant-taylors; the other, of Sir George Villiers, father of the great Duke of Buckingham, less handsome, but extremely like his

son."

Walpole goes on to tell us that Jansen "dwelt in Blackfriars, and had much business. His price for a head was five broad pieces. He painted, too, in small in oil, and often copied his own works in that manner. In the family of Verney were the portraits of Sir Robert Heath and his lady, in both sizes." His next assertion, coupled with the foregoing, renders it certainly highly probable that Jansen should have painted Shakspeare.

"At Sherburn Castle, in Dorsetshire, is a head of Elizabeth Wriotesley, eldest daughter of Henry, Earl of Southampton, and wife of William, Lord Spenser, her

K

head richly dressed, and a picture in a blue enamelled case resting on her breast."

When Vandyke came to England, the superior merit of that great portrait-painter made that of Cornelius Jansen pale before it. "His fame declined before that of Vandyke," writes Walpole, "and the civil war breaking out, Cornelius, at the importunity of his wife, quitted England. His pass is recorded in the Journals of the Commons:"October 10, 1648.-Ordered that Cornelius Johnson, picture-drawer, shall have Mr. Speaker's warrant to pass beyond seas, with Emanuel Passe, George Hawkins; and to carry with him such pictures and colours, bedding, household stuff, pewter, and brass as belongs unto himself."

He retired first to Midelburg, and then to Amsterdam, where he continued to paint, and died in 1665. His wife's name was Elizabeth Beck, to whom he was married in 1622. They had a son, Cornelius, bred to his father's profession, who painted the Duke of Monmouth's portrait as he was on the point of sailing for his unfortunate expedition to England.

Two or three things are observable here: firstly, that if Jansen painted Shakspeare's portrait in 1610, he must have been an extremely young man, for he married twelve years afterwards, remained in England thirty-eight years, and lived fifty-five years after that event. There is nothing either improbable or impossible about this, but it must be considered to establish the fact that, when Jansen painted the family of King James I. and the Earl

of Southampton, he must have been a very young man, and have sprung very early into notice; but even this is paralleled by the career of another artist, who, as we shall see, is said to have painted Shakspeare-Nicholas Hilliard-whose portrait, done by himself at the age of thirteen, adorned the cabinet of the Earl of Oxford. Hilliard was still very young when he drew the portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Queen Elizabeth sat to him often when he might have been yet called a boy.

One of the earliest engravings of this picture which we have met with is unnoticed by Mr. Boaden, who probably had not seen it. It was published by Woodburn in 1811, and is a mezzotint by Dunbar. The description under it calls it "an original portrait of Shakspeare, from a picture formerly in the possession of Prince Rupert, and then (in 1811) in the possession of his grace the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon."

This engraving certainly resembles the Jansen portrait ; but as no painter's name is attached, it might be mistaken. for another. It represents the poet in a rich court-dress, worked with gold thread of a fine pattern; the collar of point lace stands up like a ruff, and is evidently stiffened with wire.

The face is sufficiently like that generally accepted as Shakspeare's to cause it to be mistaken for him. The forehead is broad, the nose aquiline, the eyes small but brilliant; the eyebrows well defined and fairly arched; the hair is more plentiful than in the Jansen portrait, and is parted on the right side, while it falls in a heavy