I recently saw this article on the internet. It is about a recent re-creation of Shakespeare’s Face by a team of scientists.

“The results from this forensic examination . . . show strong evidence, both forensically and historically, that this 3-D model may be, in fact, the way Shakespeare looked in life,” documentary director Stuart Clarke told The Daily Mail newspaper of London.

This is based partially on a death mask found in Darmstadt in the 1840’s. It was created through some secret mixture of scanning the death mask and comparisons to paintings and sculptures of the Bard of Avon. There has been a lot of speculation about how he looked since the earliest known image of him appeared in 1623, which is seven years after he died. Some people spend too much time on this.

and a memorial bust of the playwright and poet in Stratford-upon-Avon suggests he may even have had a little suntan, according to one British expert.

What a suntan? how do you get that from a bust, which is a statue right? So someone painted this statue at some point. Who knows if the skin tone matched his. It was done after his death, and has been “repaired, refurbished and repainted many times.”

These people are grasping at straws and missing the point at the same time. While it is a fun way to spend time thinking about what he looked like, it just doesn’t matter. He was a creative genius that created some the most beautiful poetry in the english language. At the end of the day that is what has stood the test of time is his work. Take one last look at the picture up there, and then forget about it and read one of his plays.