Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

the commercial possibilities of casts and engravings of it. 119 He persuaded the antiquary and
furniture maker George Bullock to take a cast, in the course of which Bullock was convinced
that he saw on the face ‘evident signs’ that it was taken from either a life or death mask, bringing
it still closer to the physical presence of Shakespeare himself. 120 Once back in London Bullock
invited Britton to a celebratory breakfast viewing at his home in Tenterden Street off Hanover
Square, with Scott, Benjamin West and Dr J C Spurzheim, one of the pioneers of phrenology.
The cast was ‘deeply scrutinized and commented on’. 121 West endorsed the view that it was
taken from life, while Scott’s conversation brought it to life.
The Scotch Poet…seemed to have known him; to have lived and breathed in the same atmosphere with him; to have
drank of the same sack with him at the “The Mermaid” in company with Jonson, Beaumont, Selden, and the rest of
the glorious fraternity who conferred immortality on that famous hostel. Oh, that I possessed the capacious and
retentive memory of the Scotch Novelist! 122
For once the reader too regrets that Britton cannot supply more detail. It would be
interesting to know how and how far Scott inserted himself into the narrative, for that he did so
was clear, and that his comments on the works spun, like Britton’s into an account of
Shakespeare’s life and personality. He could repeat ‘almost every striking passage in the plays
and poems… and applied many of them to characterize their author’. 123 Of the bust itself Scott
said less, indeed he ‘scarcely noticed’ it at first, his chief remark being a suggestion that the
length of the top lip seemed ‘unnatural’ and must be a mistake. 124 Bullock, however, pointed out
that Scott’s features were in this regard identical, using compasses to prove his point. That same
morning Bullock took a cast of Scott’s head, ‘the first he sat for’. 125
Scott carried a copy of the Stratford bust back to Scotland. In Edinburgh he found it
improved on acquaintance:
119 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p.6.
120 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p.6.
121 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p.7.
122 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p.7.
123 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p.8.
124 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p.8.
125 Britton, Autobiography, (1850), Appendix, p. 9.
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