Michael Delahoyde
Washington State University
One of the earliest images we have of "Shakespeare" is this illustration
of the Shakspere monument in Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon, done in
1656. About fifty years later, another engraving, this time intended for
an edition of Shakespeare's works, similarly showed this figure with the
drooping mustache holding the sack of wool or grain. (Will Shakspere was
a graindealer.)
Between the 1700s and mid-1800s the monument was "repaired and
beautified." What we see from this point on is a figure with an upturned
mustache and goatee, handling a pen and paper illogically positioned on a
pillow. It's a rather extreme revision, obviously designed to make the
figure seem more "literary."
