The Words
The lines below the Marshall image of William Shakespeare are as follows:
This Shadow is renowned Shakespear's? Soule of th' age
The applause? Delight? The wonder of the Stage.
Nature her selfe, was proud of his designs
And joy'd to weare the dressing of his lines,
The learned will confess his works as such
As neither man, nor Muse can praise to much
For ever live thy fame, the world to tell,
Thy like, no age, shall ever paralell
These words parody Ben Jonson's poem to Shakespeare. The insertion of question marks make a complete travesty of the words.
This Shadow is renowned Shakespear's? Soule of th' age
The applause? Delight? The wonder of the Stage.
The man who published the edition was called John Benson, an inversion of the name Ben Jonson. The signatory on the First Folio was 'B.I.' - on this version it is signed 'I.B.' and the final instance of inversion is the image itself.
The Image
The image is inverted, turned the other way round
The proportions are still all wrong
The head is too big for the body
The body in proportion would be that of a child
A gloved hand has become visible. This is also out of proportion and looks like the hand of a child
The hand is clutching an unidentified plant - someone be "holding on to his laurels"?
A cloak has been put over the right hand shoulder
The collar is asymmetrical, the right hand side of the collar being 40% bigger than the left
The stubble as in the Droeshout image has been replaced by a trimmed moustache and beard
The shape of the head has changed
View the image through half closed eyes and the light area, behind the head, conveys an even stronger image of a shield
Views
Our views are simple:
We do not believe that Martin Droeshout and William Marshall could both be so incompetent as to produce grotesque and disproportionate engravings. It follows, therefore, that if this was not by accident then they were commissioned by design
The "Collar Theory" and the issue of the "Doublet" expose a whole new field for research
For further information and debate click the Identity Problem and the Collar Theory links
Further likenesses of William Shakespeare may be obtained by clicking on:
