This ‘new image of Shakespeare’ is obviously not Shakespeare – but I’ll tell you who it might be

In its issue dated 20 May, Country Life has published a long article by the botanical historian Mark Griffiths claiming that a figure on the magnificent title page of John Gerard’s great and prodigally illustrated Herball, of 1587, represents Shakespeare. The magazine also promises, as a follow-up, what it calls a new play by Shakespeare along with fresh information about his early career. In fact the ‘play’, identified in the article, is a really rather boring speech of welcome delivered by a hermit along with a dialogue between a gardener and a molecatcher, both long known to scholars, and both of unknown authorship, which formed part of an entertainment given before Queen Elizabeth I at Theobalds in May 1591.

On each corner of the central part of Gerard’s title page stands one of four figures; Griffiths, in my view correctly (though not everyone agrees), identifies one of them as Gerard himself, portrayed, understandably, as a gardener holding a spade; another as Lord Burleigh, elaborately costumed, for whom Gerard created gardens; and the third as Rembert Dodoens, the Dutch author of the book of 1554 on which Gerard based his work.