 Not all critics have been so harsh . The 19th @-@ century writer James <unk> wrote that " to me the portrait exhibits an aspect of calm benevolence and tender thought , great comprehension and a kind of <unk> feeling , as when melancholy yields to the suggestions of fancy " . He added that his friend John Philip Kemble thought this " despised work " was more characteristic of Shakespeare than any other known portrait . More recently , Park Honan has written that " if the portrait lacks the ' sparkle ' of a witty poet , it suggests the inwardness of a writer of great intelligence , an independent man who is not insensitive to the pain of others . " 
