SCOTTISH PORTRAITS, AND A NEW PORTRAIT OF SHAKESPEARE.
Scottish Portraits. Edited by James L. Caw. Portfolio II. (T. C. and E. C. Jack. 21s. net.)—These twenty-four portraits of eminent Scottish soldiers, politicians, and divines belong, as far as the chief activities of their originals are concerned, to the seventeenth century and the first decades of the eighteenth. Patrick Forbes, born in 1564, became Bishop of Aberdeen in 1618; Evan Cameron of Lochiel was born in 1629, was too old to come out in the '15, and died four years afterwards. The most notable personages included in the gallery are Drummond'of Hawthornden, Montrose, and Claverhouse ; Archibald, Marquis of Argyle; "Bloody" Mackenzie, who certainly looks his part; John Sharp, Archbishop of St. Andrews, who certainly does not; and Fletcher of Saltoun. Mr. Caw has added some brief biographical and artistic notes.—With this volume we may mention A New Portrait of Shakespeare, by John Corbin (John Lane, 5s. net). Mr. Corbin, who comes from the other side of the Atlantic, main- tains that the " New Portrait," otherwise known as the " Ely Palace Portrait," is genuine, and that the "so-called Droeshout Original " is a forgery. The history of the Ely portrait • is practically unknown. It belonged to Bishop Turton of Ely, was sold after his death and purchased by Mr. Henry Graves,
who presented it to the Shakespeare Collection at Stratford-on- Avon. We cannot give Mr. Corbin's story, but we may say that he takes everything into account. The Ely Palace portrait has no external authority, and there are other doubtful circum- stances Mr. Corbin gives full weight to these, but nevertheless believer in its genuineness. Of the fraud of the Droeshout picture he has no doubt.
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