Expert says Shakespeare portrait is just 'a man in a toga'

Experts have poured scorn on an historian’s claim to have made the “literary discovery of the century” – uncovering the only portrait of William Shakespeare made in his lifetime.

The image, said to show the Bard “with a film star’s good looks”, was identified by botanist and historian Mark Griffiths in the first edition of a 16th century book on plants, The Herball.