


To the Reader
This Figure, that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut:
Wherein the Graver had a strife
with Nature, to out-do the life:
O, could he but have drawne his wit
As well in brasse, as he hath hit
His face; the Print would then surpasse
All, that was ever writ in brasse.
But, since he cannot, Reader, looke
Not on his picture, but his Booke.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
Picture 10012433, engraving by Martin Droeshout in Shakespeare First Folio, 1623, image copyright Mary Evans