Note 64 — Chapter III · SHAKESPEARE’S ATTAINMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES WITH RESPECT TO THE FINE ARTS.

We select an instance common to both Holbein and Shakespeare; it is pointed out by Woltmann, in his Holbein and his Time, vol. ii. p. 23, where, speaking of the Holbein painting, The Death of Lucretia, the writer says,—“The costume is here, as ever, that of Holbein’s own time. The painter reminds us of Shakespeare, who also conceived the heroes of classic antiquity in the costume of his own days; in the Julius Cæsar the troops are drawn up by beat of drum, and Coriolanus comes forth like an English lord: but the historical signification of the subject nevertheless does in a degree become understood, which the later poetry, with every instrument of archæological learning, troubles itself in vain to reach.”

It may be noted that in other instances both Wornum, the English biographer of Holbein, and Woltmann, the German, compare Holbein and Shakespeare, or, rather, illustrate the one by the other.