The Bard, or not the Bard That is the question posed by unveiling of a centuries-old portrait of a dark-eyed, handsome man in Elizabethan finery.

是莎翁，不是莎翁？在揭開有數百年歷史、伊莉莎白時代穿華服黑眼俊帥男子的肖像時，這正是大家所關切的問題。

Experts say it is the only portrait of William Shakespeare painted during his lifetime--in effect, the sole source of our knowledge of what the great man looked like. But they can't be certain. In the shifting sands of Shakespeare scholarship, where even the authorship of the plays is sometimes disputed, nothing is written in stone.

專家指稱，這是莎士比亞生前所畫的唯一畫像，事實上，也是我們認知這位偉大作家長像唯一的來源，但他們並不確定。對莎翁學術成就翻來覆去的評價中，連莎劇作者都時起爭議，沒有什麼是永恆不變的。

"We're 90 percent sure that it's Shakespeare,'' said Paul Edmondson, director of learning at the Shakespeare Learning Trust, which plans to exhibit the portrait in Stratford-on-Avon (see photo, AP) from 23 April to 6 September 2009. "You'll never be entirely certain. There will always be voices of dissent.''

莎士比亞學習信託基金會主管學習的艾蒙森說：「我們90%確定，是莎士比亞的畫像。但誰也無法永遠說死，總有人發表不同的意見。」該基金會計畫今年4月23日到9月6日在莎士比亞故居埃文河畔斯特拉福德展出這幅畫像（見圖，美聯社）。

Edmondson said the portrait is far superior to the copies made after Shakespeare's death, including the famous 1623 engraving that graces the cover of the First Folio collection of Shakespeare's plays. "This is Shakespeare alive, with fresh blood pumping through his veins, painted in his lifetime,'' Edmondson said with obvious pride. "The copies look dead by comparison.''

艾蒙森表示，這幅肖像遠比莎翁死後所繪版本優越許多，這些版本包括莎士比亞劇作原著封面赫赫有名的1623年版畫。艾蒙森言談間難掩得色：「莎翁彷彿活過來了，鮮血在他血管裡奔流，在他還在世時繪製。其他版本相形之下死氣沉沉。」

The recently discovered portrait was painted in 1610, six years before Shakespeare's death, and when he would have been aged 46, according to Paul Edmondson. His theory is supported by evidence found through x-ray examination and infrared reflectography analysis of the painting and its panel. The most striking thing about the portrait is that Shakespeare has a fuller head of hair than in the images previously displayed.

艾蒙森表示，最近發現的這幅畫像繪於1610年，也就是莎翁去世前6年，當時他應該是46歲。透過Ｘ光檢查和紅外線反射成像技術分析畫及畫板後，更支持他的理論。莎士比亞畫像最引人注目的是他一頭濃密的頭髮，比之前展示的任何肖像要多。

The portrait has been in the Cobbe family for generations. Its owner Alec Cobbe, visited the National Portrait Gallery exhibition "Searching for Shakespeare" in London in 2006 where he saw a painting that had once been accepted as a life portrait of the English poet and realized that this was a copy of the portrait in his family collection for 300 years.

這幅畫像由柯伯家族保存了好幾代，畫像主人艾列克‧柯伯2006年到倫敦國家肖像館參觀「尋找莎士比亞」展，他在那裡看到一幅畫，一度被接受為英國詩聖生活肖像，當時才明白，這幅畫是模仿他家族收藏300年的那幅肖像所繪。

At the Folger Library, art and special collections curator Erin Blake agreed that their Shakespeare portrait is based on the one unveiled recently, which officials have dubbed "the Cobbe portrait.'' But she said it is impossible to verify beyond all doubt that the person in both portraits is Shakespeare, although circumstantial evidence suggests it is. "It's very difficult,'' she said. "Not just for portraits of Shakespeare, but for finding documentation to identify portraits of anyone from that age beyond the royal family. The documentation doesn't survive. But people really want to find a portrait of Shakespeare.''

福格莎士比亞圖書館藝術及特殊珍藏館館長艾琳‧布雷克同意，莎翁畫像是根據最近展示的這幅官員名之為「柯伯畫像」的肖像所畫，但她強調，很難排除所有疑難，證實在這兩幅肖像中的人就是莎士比亞，雖然間接證據顯示是莎翁本尊沒錯。她說：「這實在很難，不只是莎翁的肖像，也很難找到文件鑑定那個時代任何人的身分，皇室成員除外。但文件並未留傳下來，只是大家還是很想找到莎翁的肖像畫。」

Stanley Wells, the chairman of the Shakespeare Birthday Trust,based in Shakespeare's birthplace of Stratford-on-Avon, described the portrait at a news conference as a "pinup.'' It shows the Bard as a far more alluring figure than the solemn-faced, balding image that has been conveyed by engravings, busts and portraits that have been accepted by scholars as the best available image of English literature's most famous figure.

位於莎翁出生地埃文河畔斯特拉福德的莎士比亞生日基金會主席威爾斯，在一項記者會上形容這幅肖像有如「偶像海報」。畫像中的莎翁遠比學者通認英國文學上最聲名卓著的詩人現有畫像要迷人的多，不管版畫、半身塑像和肖像畫上的莎翁都面容嚴肅而且禿頭。

Until now, scholars have deemed the most authentic representations of Shakespeare to be a black-and-white woodcut engraving by the Flemish artist Martin Droeshout that appeared in the first folio edition of Shakespeare's works in 1623, and a marble bust displayed since the 1620s in a Stratford church.

到目前為止，學者認為莎士比亞最真實的圖像是1623年第一部莎士比亞全集所出現的黑白木刻，出自佛蘭德斯藝術家德羅修特之手，還有一尊1620年代就在斯特拉福德教會展示的大理石半身像。

But not all Shakespeare scholars are convinced the Cobbe portrait is an authentic likeness, or even that it is of Shakespeare at all, given the conventions of Elizabethan portraiture.

但並非所有研究莎士比亞的學者都相信，鑑於伊莉莎白肖像畫的傳統，柯伯肖像是不是真跡或甚至畫像中人是否莎士比亞本尊。

David Scott Kastan, a Yale University Shakespeare expert, said that there were reasons to doubt whether the richly dressed man in the portrait was Shakespeare, and not an unknown aristocrat. "If I had to bet, I would say it's not Shakespeare,'' Kastan said. But even if it was, he said, the traditions of Elizabethan portraiture meant that it would be unwise to conclude that Shakespeare actually looked like the figure depicted in the portrait. "It might be a portrait of Shakespeare, but not a likeness, because the conventions of portraiture at the time were often to idealize the subject,'' he said.

耶魯大學研究莎士比亞的專家卡斯坦就說，很有理由懷疑肖像中這位穿著華麗的男子是莎翁，而不是一不知名貴族。卡斯坦說：「如果要打賭，我敢說，肖像中人並非莎士比亞。」他又說，就算是莎士比亞本尊好了，根據伊莉莎白肖像畫傳統，總結莎士比亞真的像肖像中所繪的樣子也不夠明智。他說：「這可能是莎士比亞的肖像，但可能不像他本人，因為那個時代肖像畫的傳統就是要美化畫中人物。」