Sections IX. and X.) a survey of the voluminous
sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan poets between 1591 and 1597, with
which Shakespeare's sonnetteering efforts were very closely allied, as
well as a bibliographical note on a corresponding feature of French and
Italian literature between 1550 and 1600.

Since the publication of the article on Shakespeare in the 'Dictionary of
National Biography,' I have received from correspondents many criticisms
and suggestions which have enabled me to correct some errors. But a few
of my correspondents have exhibited so ingenuous a faith in those forged
documents relating to Shakespeare and forged references to his works,
which were promulgated chiefly by John Payne Collier more than half a
century ago, that I have attached a list of the misleading records to my
chapter on 'The Sources of Biographical Information' in the Appendix
(Section I.) I believe the list to be fuller than any to be met with
elsewhere.

The six illustrations which appear in this volume have been chosen on
grounds of practical utility rather than of artistic merit. My reasons
for selecting as the frontispiece the newly discovered 'Droeshout'
painting of Shakespeare (now in the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at
Stratford-on-Avon) can be gathered from the history of the painting and
of its discovery which I give on pages 288-90. I have to thank Mr. Edgar
Flower and the other members of the Council of the Shakespeare Memorial
at Stratford for permission to reproduce the picture. The portrait of
Southampton in early life is now at Welbeck Abbey, and the Duke of
Portland not only permitted the portrait to be engraved for this volume,
but lent me the negative from which the plate has been prepared. The
Committee of the Garrick Club gave permission to photograph the
interesting bust of Shakespeare in their possession, {x} but, owing to
the fact that it is moulded in black terra-cotta no satisfactory negative
could be obtained; the engraving I have used is from a photograph of a
white plaster cast of the original bust, now in the Memorial Gallery at
Stratford. The five autographs of Shakespeare's signature--all that
exist of unquestioned authenticity--appear in the three remaining plates.
The three signatures on the will have been photographed from the original
document at Somerset House, by permission of Sir Francis Jenne, President
of the Probate Court; the autograph on the deed of purchase by
Shakespeare in 161