so, if they chose. "Jemmy" Boswell, under the influence of a tumbler of hot brandy and water, fell into an ecstasy and down on his knees, and reverentially kissing the papers gave utterance to a solemn nune dimittis, declaring he should die contented since he had lived to witness that day. Poor fellow! he did die not long after, and his euthanasia was undisturbed by the consciousness of his having been so egregiously humbugged. Dr. Parr and Dr. Warton This last announcement there never was having heard Mr. Ireland read the Profes- even any pretence of attempting to make sion of Faith-a marvellous piece of puerile good. Malone was already in the field in bombast, which in truth professes nothing the Gentleman's Magazine for the same at all-one of them broke forth into this month, breathing suspicions against the docuJohnsonian criticism-" Sir, we have very ments. James Boaden was at that time edifine passages in our church service, and our tor of the Oracle, and was at first a stanch litany abounds with beauties; but here, sir, believer in the papers, though afterwards he here is a man who has distanced us all!" changed his opinion, and became, after the Young Ireland at first attributed this dictum fashion of apostates, a most violent antagoto Parr, whereat the latter was moved to nist to his former faith. But in his journal most unclerical wrath †-after the discovery for some months appeared various laudatory of the imposture. The eulogy, however, was articles, and sometimes extracts from the assuredly uttered in his presence and not papers themselves. After Boaden had redissented from by him; and there can be no canted his errors, the Oracle was the princidoubt that he at first stood at the head of pal medium for the attacks on the papers. the most fanatical of the believers; although Among other squibs appeared a series of in the intemperate note inserted in his cata- feigned extracts from Vortigern. These Mr. logue he says he "was inclined to admit the Ireland thought it necessary publicly to dispossibility of genuineness in (the) papers." avow, and to declare they had not the smallBoswell had drawn up a declaration of be- est resemblance to the original play; which lief in their authenticity; but Parr, think- was indeed true, for they were much better ing the language too weak, drew up another written than any portion of the play itself, in stronger terms, which was published by so that the object in composing them is not S. Ireland, together with the names of those very clear. who had signed it, including that of the reverend doctor. that they were "in the possession of a gentleman in the Temple " was contradicted; it was announced that among the MSS. was an unpublished play called Vortigern, which would soon be offered to public scrutiny; it was stated that" profound antiquaries" were convinced of their authenticity, and that "the clearest tracing of them from the original possessors, through age and obscurity, (would) be satisfactorily given." Ireland was so annoyed at the repeated insinuations that his MSS. were forgeries, Not everybody, however, who saw the that he threatened legal proceedings; but papers, believed in them. Ritson, having he was better advised, and none were taken. scrutinized them, left the house without giv- Meanwhile the volume of Miscellaneous Paing any opinion; but his manner left no pers and Legal Documents, under the hand doubt on young Ireland's mind that he con- and seal of William Shakspeare, was ansidered the papers spurious. Porson, hav-nounced as ready for publication. It was ing examined them, incautiously let fall some complimentary expressions, whereupon Mr. Ireland was emboldened to ask his signature to the Declaration; but the shrewd scholar replied, “I thank you, sir, but I never subscribe my name to professions of faith of any nature whatsoever." Malone and Steevens would never go near the papers. While this was the state of affairs within doors, all kinds of rumors concerning the discovery were spreading abroad. One of the earliest public notices on the subject appeared in the Oracle for February, 1795. In this, reference was made to the "unseen malignity" which had "already been busy" with "the invaluable remains; " a report issued in December, 1795,-a grand folio, with fac-similes of the MSS. and certain drawings which had been found in "the gentleman's" possession. It was published by subscription, the price being four guineas, and was dedicated "To the Ingenuous, Intelligent, and Disinterested, whose Candour, Conviction, and Support," etc., etc. The tragedy of Lear and the fragment of Hamlet were given in the volume. These, we learn from W. H. Ireland, had been copied from quarto editions in the possession of his father; but as the originals teemed, in the opinion of the former, with passages of ribaldry and matters " unworthy our bard," the young corrector set to work to expunge these and to interpolate a few lines which he considered more becoming the genius of Shakspere. Immediately on the appearance of this folio, Malone set to work on his Inquiry into was not running at the time. Malone had the Authenticity of (the) Miscellaneous Pa-issued a notice of his forthcoming Inquiry, pers, etc., which he was very anxious to pub- in which he affirmed he had proved the mass lish before Vortigern was acted, but, owing of papers to be a rank forgery. Copies of to the delay in preparing the fac-similes il- this notice were distributed in the avenues lustrating his book, he did not succeed. In of the theatre on the night of the performthe mean time the journals teemed with articles pro and con; and a vast number of books and pamphlets were published which it would be tedious to enumerate. ance. Ireland, who had had scent of this, issued a counterblast in the shape of a handbill, also distributed to the public, in which, after referring to the "malevolent and impoHarris and Sheridan had both been anx- tent attack on the Shakspeare MS.," he reious to secure Vortigern, the former for Co-quested "that the play of Vortigern (might) vent Garden, the latter for Drury Lane, but be heard with that candor that (had) ever as Mr. Ireland was on terms of intimacy distinguished a British audience." The house with the Linley family, Sheridan secured the prize; not that he knew or cared much about Shakspere; † but he considered the production of the play a good speculation for his theatre. When it was read over to him he thought it was very long and some parts of it were rather prosy, if not unpoetical, but the antiquity of the papers dispelled all doubts, if indeed he ever seriously entertained any. A copy of the play was placed in his hands, the original being deposited at Hammersley's, the banker's. It was announced for performance on Saturday, April 2nd, 1796, not as written by Shakspeare, but simply as a new play in five acts, called Vortigern." John Kemble, who was stage manager at Drury Lane at the time, and no better than a downright infidel as regarded the papers,§ is said to have been very anxious to produce the play on the first of April. There certainly seems to have been some malice (in the French sense) in the announcement of the farce of My Grandmother, to follow the play. At the rival theatre on the same night, was played a comedy called The Lie of the Day, which, though a new piece, Harris had offered a carte blanche; but Sheridan's terms were not bad-£300 down, and half the profits for the first sixty nights of performance. Of the £300, young Ireland received only £60, and £30 as his share of the half profits of the first night; and he always insisted on this as a proof of how disinterested he had been in his forgeries; though £90 could not have been an insignificant amount of pocket money for a conveyancer's clerk of nineteen. bug" (teste Moore). was crowded. A prologue, written by Mr. Pye, the poet laureate, who was one of the believers, had been set aside because it did not sufficiently insist on the authenticity of the play, and another of a more unflinching character, by Sir James Burgess, was spoken, or rather read, in its place. The audience listened for some time with patience, but they could not long stomach the childish trash that was set before them; they seized on every trifling incident that was susceptible of ridicule, and at length, when Kemble, who played the principal part, in a long bombastic speech at the beginning of the fifth act, uttered with peculiar emphasis the line "And when this solemn mockery is o'er,* there was an awful explosion of laughter and clamor, which was not lessened when the actor repeated the line with, if possible, more significant expression. From this time not a single word of the play was intelligible. The audience had the courtesy to be silent during the delivery of the epilogue by Mrs. Jordan; and then the uproar recommenced, and was not appeased till Kemble announced the School for Scandal for the following Monday. Vortigern was, in green-room language, damned. Ireland was very anxious that the play should have one more trial; but Kemble peremptorily refused again to be made a laughing-stock. This was the turning point in the affair. Malone's Inquiry appeared soon after, and In this respect he resembled Byron, who con- though, as Mathias said, the subject was sidered Shakspere not only as "the worst of rather overlaid by the learned critic, he cermodels" (teste Medwin), but also as a “d-d hum-tainly did succeed in proving that the great Curiously enough Mathias, who, in his Pur- bulk of the Miscellaneous Papers were forsuits of Literature, wrote a passage "to perpetuate the memory of this extraordinary event in literary history, which seems to be passing into oblivion" (1796), in one of the notes, states that the play was acted in March. But Mathias was often as inaccurate as he was arrogant. In another note, he states there were only two folio editions of Shakspere published before the one by Rowe.. His sister, Mrs. Siddons, had declined a part, afterwards played by Mrs. Powell, on account of a cold under which she conveniently labored. geries. *Another curious instance of small inaccuracy may be here mentioned. In Mr. Knight's English Cyclopedia (Art. Ireland, W. II.), the line is quoted thus : 'And now this solemn mockery is o'er.' There is an article on the Ireland papers in the Eclectic Magazine, for March, 1849 (New York), where the line is given— 'I would this solemn mockery were o'er.' 648 THE IRELAND FORGERIES. and con.* More articles and pamphlets pro Great consternation, thereupon, in the house of Ireland. A committee of gentlemen is appointed to investigate the affair. Young Ireland appears before them, is examined, lies, prevaricates and is at his wit's end. He is requested to entreat the Gentleman to communicate under a pledge of secrecy with two of the committee; after some further procrastination the Gentleman consents to communicate with Mr. Albany Wallis, one of the body; a day is appointed for the purpose, and before Mr. Albany Wallis comes -William Henry Ireland, confesses that all the have been fabricated by him himpapers self, and lodges in his hands as pièces justificatives some unfinished forgeries, with the remainder of the ink used in their fabrication. What is to be done now? Young Ireland opines he had better make a clean breast of it, and confess to the world at large; but Mr. Albany Wallis, "like an honest gentleand, I warrant, a virtuous," advises him to hold his peace and let the affair blow over. man, over. But the affair did not seem likely to blow On the contrary, it threatened to Old Ireland is distracted; blow a hurricane. goes out of town for a few days, and writes an earnest letter to his son, imploring him to do something to solve the mystery, and relieve his anxiety. Young Ireland, finding the mess desperate, packs up his things and leaves the parental roof,† never to return to it. Not to go further into the details of this Among the innumerable facetia which were provoked by this affair, may be mentioned the folfowing the humorous version of Three Children sliding on the Ice, by Porson, published, under the signature of S. England, in the Morning Chronicle of the 13th of April, 1796, as a genuine fragment of Sophocles The Falstaff Letters, published in the same year by James White, the friend of Charles Lamb, which purported to be "made public by a gentleman, a descendant of Dame Quickly, from genuine manuscripts, which have been in the possession of the Quickly family near four hundred years;" prefixed to the volume was a black-letter Dedicatyone to Master Samuel Irelaunde." In the Anti-Jacobin of January 1st, 1798, appeared an old ballad of The Duke and the Taxing Man, stated to have been transmitted to the Editor, without preface or introduction, by a gentleman of the name of IRELAND." It was contributed by Chief Baron Macdonald. This event is thus referred to by a squib in the papers him part of the case, suffice it to say that soon In Mr. Ireland's handbill, circulated on *This extract is from his Supplemental Apology, published afterwards. It is curious to remark how this discussion, like all of a similar nature, had a tendency to branch off into collateral issues. After the publication of the Apology a new edition of the Pursuits of Literature appeared, in which was inserted a couplet which gave great offence to Chalmers: so to the Supplemental Apology he added a At this long Postscript to T. J. Mathias F.R.S., F.S.A., the Various Author of the Pursuits of Literature. Mathias, who had never acknowledged himself the author of that satire, took umbrage. severe squibs and epigrams against Chalmers appeared from time to time in the Morning Chronicle, which were afterwards collected and published under the title Chalmeriana, in which Mathias apparently had a hand, though the authorship is attributed by Lowndes to George IIardinge. Chalmers then published an Appendix to the Supplemental Apology, in which, after some general attacks on his opponents, he subsided into a long disquisition to prove that Junius' Letters were written by Hugh Boyd. the evening that Vortigern was produced, it man. "Yet this man of scrupulous truth positively In the year following Mr. Ireland died. himself was the general who devised and methtrained his whole family to trade in forgery. He His books, etc., were sold off in May, 1801. odized the strategy and executed the simulated The collection included all the fabricated pa- handwriting. W. H. Ireland's "duty" was pers, and among others what was called the merely that of amanuensis and copier for his Shakspere Library, consisting of several excellent parent: the elder daughter of Samuel old volumes which contained autograph Ireland wrote the imitations of the dramatist, notes by Shakspere, from the pen of young Vortigern and Rowena, etc., while her younger Ireland. In 1805 the latter published his sister was her assistant. The house of the IreConfessions, an amplification of the Authen- lands was, in fact, a manufactory of forgeries, tic Account, interspersed with anecdotes, and done for the sole object of making money.. .. When concealment was no longer posmuch abuse of Malone and others who had sible, the Authentic Account and Confessions were assisted in exposing the fraud. He after- published to raise the wind. These are a tissue wards passed an obscure life; became a of lies. William Henry always made double bookseller's hack; wrote some novels, long capital out of a confession, by leaving room for since forgotten, if ever known; and in 1832 a confession of the falsity of a confession. As republished Vortigern, with his father's orig- soon as the bubble had burst, and the Autheninal preface, and a new one by himself. In tic Account had found believers, W. H. Ireland this he still exhibits the same inveterate forged his father's forgeries, and sold or gave rancor against all who had a share in de-away to friends his duplicates! One of these nouncing the forgeries, though he is more wrathful against Parr, who had recently died, and Boaden, who was still alive. He also defended his conduct by the examples, not only of Chatterton, which was perhaps fair enough, but also of Horace Walpole, who had passed off the Castle of Otranto as a translation from an old Italian MS., and of Sir Walter Scott, who had denied, "even to majesty itself," the authorship of the Waverley Novels. The author of the Shakspeare Papers died in poverty in 1835. Such is the generally accredited account of the Ireland forgeries. Although at the time a strong suspicion was excited that Samuel Ireland, the father, was more mixed up in the matter than he chose to avow, yet this suspicion gradually died away, and the son's statement was believed, that he was the dramatist. The volume is now in the poswas presented by him to his friend W. Moncrieff,. session of Dr. Mackay, the poet. It contains, besides the MS. forgeries, a portrait of Moncrieff, and of the two sisters of William Henry Ireland.† Another volume of the forgeries is in the British Museum, and a third duplicate was sold for a large sum at Mr. Dent's sale." London: 1859. † Dr. Ingleby, probably, writing from memory, has here fallen into an inaccuracy. The portraits of the young ladies are in one engraving, and are described in a footnote in ink, in W. H. Ireland's own writing, as 1-" Miss Anna Maria Ireland, eldest his fabrications; 2-Miss Jane Linley, sister of the first Mrs. Sheridan." The same plate is in one of the volumes in the British Museum, where, in a pencil-note, apparently in the same handwriting, strangely enough the portraits are described 1-as "Miss Ireland, who copied the MSS. ;" and 2-as Miss Linley, afterwards Mrs. Sheridan." sister of W. H. Ireland, who transcribed most of 650 THE IRELAND FORGERIES. The Dr. Ingleby obtained his information from framed excuses for his being able to bring a gentleman who had written a note on the only a copy in his own handwriting. subject in Willis' Current Notes for Decem- volume in question contains the MS. of the ber, 1855, who was an intimate acquaintance entire play in the fabricated handwriting that old paper, of the Irelands, and to whom William Henry was passed off as Shakspere's. The MS. is is stated to have made the last confession of neatly and carefully written upon the greater part of which has no water-mark. the falsity of his published Confessions. Let us briefly consider whether there is The title is Historycaille Playe | off | Kynge any evidence confirmatory of this statement. Henrye the Seconde William Shakspeare [ The expression, that "William Henry al- the name being an imitation of Shakspere's ways made double capital out of a confession autograph. Both this and the other volume by leaving room for a confession of the fal- in the British Museum formerly belonged sity of a confession," would imply that after to Bishop Butler. How they came into his he had made money by the publication of possession is not known. It is impossible, one confession he made more by the publi- therefore, to say under what circumstances cation of another contradicting the former. this MS. was produced; its existence seems But there is no ground for such an imputa- inconsistent with the published statements of tion. He published three statements in the the Irclands. This volume, however, may Authentic Account, the Confessions and the have been merely another specimen of art preface to Vortigern. They are all substan- transcribed from the play after it had been In each he declares that printed, and may have been sold as such. tially the same. the origin of the fabrications was the forged It does not seen very probable that it would lease to Fraser, executed to gratify his father, have been put forward as an original fabriand that the success of this, joined to the cation after the publication of the Confessuggestions of friends, induced him to dis- sions; but even if it had been, and W. H. cover more papers; but from beginning to Ireland had been guilty of this additional end he is consistent in taking the whole dis- fraud, that is no ground for implicating his creditable credit of the affair on himself, and father or any other member of his family. as he exonerates his father in his lifetime from all share in the fraud, so he does when he writes more than thirty years after his father's death. What cannot fail to induce some feeling of doubt in the truth of W. H. Ireland's narrative, is the fact that a comparatively uneducated youth should, without co-operation, have produced not only such a mass of manuscripts in so short a time, but that he should have been able to fabricate a drama of nearly three thousand lines which by any sane person could be received as the poetry of Shakspere. The assertion that W. H. Ireland forged "his father's forgeries and sold his duplicates," is mainly founded on the assumption that Ireland was the original forger. That W. H. Ireland made duplicates or copies of the forgeries there is no doubt, and that he That he was ill-educated there can be no may have sold them is highly probable. The specimens, both in Dr. Mackay's volume and possible doubt. His Confessions abundantly in the one in the British Museum, referred to prove it. He throughout writes Quintain, by Dr. Ingleby, are clearly copies, not origi- Quintin; he talks of et ceterae; introduces nals. They differ in many respects from Porson under the cockney disguise of P*ws*n the fac-similes published in the Miscellaneous and commits other similar blunders. But he Papers, and there are some which do not even had a certain talent, that of copying old writpretend to be copies of the original docu- ing. He had probably acquired such a faments.* They are probably mere specimens cility in this old hand, that it was as easy to of young Ireland's craft, which he gave away him as his own natural writing.† And he or sold as curiosities. There is, however, delivered to his father in his own handwriting, and another volume in the British Museum about that he never was at the trouble of reproducing it which there is some mystery. Both the Ire- in the disguised hand. lands-the father in his advertisement to the play of Henry II, and the son in his Confessions-state that the original MS. of that play was never produced,† the son having *E. g., three specimens of the fabricated signature of Shakspere on one small slip of paper. These are copies of the signature on three different docu ments. The father says," the title and two other leaves only were produced of the old MS., and these were asserted to be all that would ever appear in that stile." The son.asserts generally that the play was *The note, mentioned before, that Miss Ireland copied the MSS.," as explained by the other note, copied out the spurious old MSS. into a legible clearly means that she "transcribed" them—i. e., hand. Rather an unusual acquirement for a young lady, it must be owned; but perhaps not an extraordinary one for Miss Ireland, whose father was a great collector of old writings, to read and copy which she may have been taught, without having been" trained to forgery." † He certainly wrote autographs from memory. One of the "specimens" in Dr. Mackay's volume is described as " tracing from the authentic signatures of Shakspeare." It consists of the signature |