Ireland Shakespeare Forgeries
Encyclopedia
The Ireland Shakespeare forgeries were a cause célèbre
in 1790s London, when author and engraver Samuel Ireland
announced the discovery of a treasure-trove of Shakespearean manuscripts by his son William Henry Ireland
. Among them were the manuscripts of four plays, two of them previously unknown. Such respected literary figures as James Boswell
(biographer of Samuel Johnson
) and poet-laureate Henry James Pye
pronounced them genuine, as did various antiquarian experts. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
, the leading theater manager of his day, agreed to present one of the newly-discovered plays with John Philip Kemble
in the starring rôle. Excitement over the biographical and literary significance of the find turned to acrimony when it was charged that the documents were forgeries. Edmond Malone
, the greatest Shakespeare scholar of his time, showed conclusively that the language, orthography, and handwriting were not those of the times and persons to which they were credited, and William Henry Ireland, the supposed discoverer, confessed to the fraud.
, only scraps and legends turned up. There was an intense hope and expectation that some documents would surface to fill the gap.
Possibly no one felt this hope more keenly than Samuel Ireland. An eager collector of antique relics—his collection included a piece of Charles II
’s cloak, Oliver Cromwell
’s leather jacket, and Joseph Addison
’s fruit knife—he was also a Shakespeare enthusiast. While gathering material for a forthcoming book, Picturesque Tours of the Upper, or Warwickshire Avon, he passed through Stratford on Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace, by then already capitalizing on this claim to fame, and made inquiries about the life of the dramatist. Although he had the satisfaction of being the first to introduce Shakespeare’s crabtree and Anne Hathaway
’s cottage to the general public, Shakespeare documents eluded him.
His son William Henry Ireland
had a fascination with forgery. He was heavily influenced by the novel Love and Madness
by Herbert Croft which contained lengthy passages on the forger Thomas Chatterton
. William witnessed his father’s frustration first-hand. One moment, in particular, struck him forcibly. Knowing that the furniture and papers from New Place
, Shakespeare’s last residence, had been moved to Clopton house when New Place was demolished, Samuel Ireland reasoned that Shakespearean manuscripts might well be found there. Upon visiting however, he was informed by the current tenant that all the old papers—many of them Shakespeare’s—had recently been burned. Samuel Ireland’s distress at this news made a strong impression on the young man—even though it later turned out that this story was a nothing more than a joke at Ireland’s expense. According to the younger Ireland’s confessions, it was to please his father that he embarked on the career of literary forgery that would ultimately ruin them both.
on one side, and Michael Fraser and his wife on the other. The text and signature he copied from the facsimile of the genuine 1612 mortgage deed printed in Malone’s edition of Shakespeare. Ripping a seal from another early deed, young Ireland attached it to this concoction and presented the result to his father on 16 December. Samuel Ireland accepted it as authentic, and the next day took it to the Heralds’ Office, which approved it as genuine.
Asked where he had turned up this deed, William Henry replied that he had found it in an old trunk belonging to a chance acquaintance who did not wish to have his name revealed. Mr. H., as he called him, had freely given him this deed. The young discoverer suggested that there might well be more documents where this had come from, and quickly followed this up with a promissory note from Shakespeare to Heminges—the only such note (had it been genuine) ever discovered from the period.
had been Shakespeare’s patron, he decided to create correspondence between them. “Doe notte esteeme me a sluggarde nor tardye for thus havyinge delayed to answerre or rather toe thank you for youre greate Bountye,” he has Shakespeare write sans punctuation. “[G]ratitude is alle I have toe utter and that is tooe greate ande tooe sublyme a feeling for poore mortalls toe expresse O my Lord itte is a Budde which Bllossommes Bllooms butte never dyes.” The Earl of Southampton replies in a similar vein, also sans punctuation, and with a similar spelling: “…as I have beene thye Freynde soe will I continue aughte thatte I canne doe forre thee praye commande me ande you shalle fynde mee Yours Southampton”. To explain how both letters could end up together in the same collection William Henry added a note explaining that Shakespeare’s was a “Copye” of the letter he sent. Samuel Ireland and his friends admired the style of the letters but not the earl’s penmanship; William Henry, not knowing that handwriting of the earl was extant, had written Southampton’s reply with his left hand.
A flood of documents now followed, all coming from Mr. H’s miraculous chest. Shakespeare’s “Profession of Faith” proved he was a Protestant, a letter to fellow-actor Richard Cowley
showed he was a “a perfect good natured man”, and a letter from Queen Elizabeth
made it clear that he was favoured by the most powerful person in the land. A sketch of himself that accompanied his letter to Cowley showed that he was a wretched draftsman with an impenetrable sense of humour. Described in the letter as a “whysycalle conceyte”, it was (as Malone put it) “most truly whimsical, being a miserable drawing of our poet done by himself with a pen, from Martin Droeshout’s print of him engraved seven years after his death….” There were also theatrical receipts, contracts, a letter and poem to his future wife, "Anna Hatherrewaye"
, and even books from Shakespeare’s library, complete with marginal annotations actually signed by the bard himself. Of most interest however were a manuscript of King Lear
Shakespeare had prepared for the press, a few stray leaves of "Hamblette
", and two previously unknown plays, Vortigern and Rowena
and Henry II.
came to examine the seal on the Fraser lease. He announced that it represented a quintain
, a device used in lance practice, and the conclusion was that Shakespeare had used it as a play on his own name. In February 1795 however he issued a general invitation to literary men to come to his house and examine them. The exhibition was a roaring success. Samuel Parr
and Joseph Warton
on hearing Samuel Ireland read the “Profession of Faith” proclaimed it superior to anything in the English liturgy. James Boswell
got down on his knees to kiss the relics. Scottish antiquarian George Chalmers
and educator Richard Valpy
visited frequently, and editor James Boaden
, author Herbert Croft, and poet-laureate Henry James Pye
(among others) testified publicly to their belief in the authenticity of the papers.
One hitch developed when an alert visitor noted that a document supposedly written by the Earl of Leicester
was dated 1590, whereas the nobleman had died in 1588. When Samuel Ireland confronted his son with this information, William Henry wanted to burn the document, but his father demurred. He suggested that the document might have been misdated at some later time, and the two agreed to tear off the date. The item was displayed, and subsequently printed, in this mutilated form. At least two scholars, antiquary Joseph Ritson
and classicist Richard Porson
, correctly recognized the documents as forgeries, and editor Henry Bate Dudley started lampooning the papers as early as 17 February 1795.
As Samuel Ireland did not invite the two greatest Shakespeare scholars of the day, Edmond Malone and George Steevens
, to examine the manuscripts, suspicion was aroused. As one writer noted "The publick would certainly have been gratified to know, that these extraordinary MSS. had been deemed genuine by Dr. Farmer, Messrs. Stevens or Malone; whose literary characters might have served as letters of credence." Samuel Ireland later observed that he was "of a different sentiment with regard to the sanction, which his [Malone's] inspection would afford them." He did however attempt to get Richard Farmer
to look at the papers without success.
The exhibition, which roused much public excitement, continued for more than a year. On 17 November Ireland and his son carried the papers to St. James’s Palace, where the Duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan examined them, and on 30 December Ireland submitted them to the Prince of Wales at Carlton House.
of Drury Lane Theatre
and Thomas Harris of Covent Garden
expressed an interest in producing the play. Sheridan was the winner in this competition. Prompted by fears that a descendant of Shakespeare might surface to claim the rights to his productions, William Henry produced a deed to prove that one of his ancestors, coincidentally named William Henry Ireland, had saved Shakespeare from drowning, and that Shakespeare had rewarded him with all the newly-discovered manuscripts.
Shortly after the appearance of the book Samuel Ireland's neighbour, Albany Wallis, who had discovered one of the few authentic signatures of Shakespeare, came up with a new and startling discovery. He had turned up a genuine John Heminges signature, and of course it looked nothing like the signatures William Henry had produced. When the forger learned of this problem, however, he soon produced Heminges signatures that resembled the authentic one. It seems, William Henry explained, that there were two actors named John Heminges active at the time—hence the dissimilar signatures.
, writing under the name "Philalethes," argued that as the paper was old the documents must have belonged to Shakespeare's time; there would have been no reason to forge them then; therefore they must be genuine. Matthew Wyatt took potshots at Boaden by contrasting his views as a believer with those after his conversion. Walley Chamberlain Oulton
maintained that the papers were so voluminous that forgery was out of the question. He expressed a hope that Vortigern would turn out to be genuine, as it might well revitalize contemporary drama. He looked to the judgment of the audience for the play's vindication.
before that playhouse had been built—exposed the forger's ignorance. The handwriting of the Queen and Southampton did not at all resemble authentic examples. Words appearing in the forgeries (upset, for example) were not used in Shakespeare's time, or were used in a different sense than that of the papers.
Blaming Malone for his misfortunes, Samuel Ireland set out to write a book that would destroy the scholar's reputation. With the aid of Thomas Caldecott he attacked Malone for using forensic techniques like handwriting comparison to settle a literary question, rather than relying on taste and aesthetic sensibilities. Concerned for his father's reputation William Henry rushed into print with a pamphlet confessing to the forgeries, and his father replied immediately with a vindication of his conduct in the whole affair. This combination roused suspicions. George Steevens accused the two of collusion:
in 1859 and George Dawson in 1888 took the position that the father was responsible for the forgeries and the son's Confession was a tissue of lies. The acquisition of Samuel Ireland's papers by the British Museum in 1876, however, provided a wealth of evidence that Samuel was the victim rather than the perpetrator of the fraud, and Ingleby changed his position in his 1881 paper on the Ireland Affair.
provides an imaginative account of the Ireland's forgeries in his novel The Lambs of London published by Chatto & Windus in 2004. In the same year, BBC Radio 4
broadcast Martyn Wade's play about the forgeries, Another Shakespeare.
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
in 1790s London, when author and engraver Samuel Ireland
Samuel Ireland
Samuel Ireland , British author and engraver, is best remembered today as the chief victim of the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries created by his son, William Henry Ireland.-Early life:...
announced the discovery of a treasure-trove of Shakespearean manuscripts by his son William Henry Ireland
William Henry Ireland
William Henry Ireland was an English forger of would-be Shakespearean documents and plays. He is less well-known as a poet, writer of gothic novels and histories...
. Among them were the manuscripts of four plays, two of them previously unknown. Such respected literary figures as James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
(biographer of Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
) and poet-laureate Henry James Pye
Henry James Pye
Henry James Pye was an English poet. Pye was Poet Laureate from 1790 until his death. He was the first poet laureate to receive a fixed salary of £27 instead of the historic tierce of Canary wine Henry James Pye (20 February 1745 – 11 August 1813) was an English poet. Pye was Poet Laureate...
pronounced them genuine, as did various antiquarian experts. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
, the leading theater manager of his day, agreed to present one of the newly-discovered plays with John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble was an English actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane...
in the starring rôle. Excitement over the biographical and literary significance of the find turned to acrimony when it was charged that the documents were forgeries. Edmond Malone
Edmond Malone
Edmond Malone was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare.Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first political and then more congenial literary pursuits. He went to London, where he...
, the greatest Shakespeare scholar of his time, showed conclusively that the language, orthography, and handwriting were not those of the times and persons to which they were credited, and William Henry Ireland, the supposed discoverer, confessed to the fraud.
Background
Although Shakespeare’s works were readily available in versions both for the learned and for the general public, no satisfactory biography could be constructed. In spite of an intensive search by would-be Shakespeare biographers from Nicholas Rowe to Edmond MaloneEdmond Malone
Edmond Malone was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare.Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first political and then more congenial literary pursuits. He went to London, where he...
, only scraps and legends turned up. There was an intense hope and expectation that some documents would surface to fill the gap.
Possibly no one felt this hope more keenly than Samuel Ireland. An eager collector of antique relics—his collection included a piece of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
’s cloak, Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
’s leather jacket, and Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...
’s fruit knife—he was also a Shakespeare enthusiast. While gathering material for a forthcoming book, Picturesque Tours of the Upper, or Warwickshire Avon, he passed through Stratford on Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace, by then already capitalizing on this claim to fame, and made inquiries about the life of the dramatist. Although he had the satisfaction of being the first to introduce Shakespeare’s crabtree and Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare)
Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare. They were married in 1582. She outlived her husband by seven years...
’s cottage to the general public, Shakespeare documents eluded him.
His son William Henry Ireland
William Henry Ireland
William Henry Ireland was an English forger of would-be Shakespearean documents and plays. He is less well-known as a poet, writer of gothic novels and histories...
had a fascination with forgery. He was heavily influenced by the novel Love and Madness
Love and Madness
Love and Madness is a 1780 British novel by Sir Herbert Croft. It was based on the 1779 murder of Martha Ray, the mistress of Lord Sandwich, by James Hackman. Its full title is Love and Madness, a Story too True: in a Series of Letters between Parties Whose Names Would Perhaps be Mentioned Were...
by Herbert Croft which contained lengthy passages on the forger Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.-Childhood:...
. William witnessed his father’s frustration first-hand. One moment, in particular, struck him forcibly. Knowing that the furniture and papers from New Place
New Place
New Place is the name of William Shakespeare's final place of residence in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died there in 1616. Though the house no longer exists, the land is owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust....
, Shakespeare’s last residence, had been moved to Clopton house when New Place was demolished, Samuel Ireland reasoned that Shakespearean manuscripts might well be found there. Upon visiting however, he was informed by the current tenant that all the old papers—many of them Shakespeare’s—had recently been burned. Samuel Ireland’s distress at this news made a strong impression on the young man—even though it later turned out that this story was a nothing more than a joke at Ireland’s expense. According to the younger Ireland’s confessions, it was to please his father that he embarked on the career of literary forgery that would ultimately ruin them both.
First documents
From a chance acquaintance met at a book-binder’s the young man learned of a technique for simulating the appearance of ancient writing by using a special ink and then heating the paper. After a trial run creating a couple of relatively insignificant documents, he set out to devise something with Shakespeare’s signature. His work at a legal firm gave him access to Elizabethan and Jacobean parchment deeds, so in December 1794 he cut a piece of parchment from one of them, used his special ink to write with and heated it over a candle. The result was a mortgage deed between Shakespeare and his fellow-actor John HemingesJohn Heminges
John Heminges was an English Renaissance actor. Most noted now as one of the editors of William Shakespeare's 1623 First Folio, Heminges served in his time as an actor and financial manager for the King's Men.-Life:Heminges was born in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire in 1556...
on one side, and Michael Fraser and his wife on the other. The text and signature he copied from the facsimile of the genuine 1612 mortgage deed printed in Malone’s edition of Shakespeare. Ripping a seal from another early deed, young Ireland attached it to this concoction and presented the result to his father on 16 December. Samuel Ireland accepted it as authentic, and the next day took it to the Heralds’ Office, which approved it as genuine.
Asked where he had turned up this deed, William Henry replied that he had found it in an old trunk belonging to a chance acquaintance who did not wish to have his name revealed. Mr. H., as he called him, had freely given him this deed. The young discoverer suggested that there might well be more documents where this had come from, and quickly followed this up with a promissory note from Shakespeare to Heminges—the only such note (had it been genuine) ever discovered from the period.
Further forgeries
With his next discovery William Henry moved from mere forgery to original art. Having learned—apparently from a chance remark by one of his father’s friends rather than by research—that Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of SouthamptonHenry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
Henry Wriothesley , 3rd Earl of Southampton , was the second son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Montagu...
had been Shakespeare’s patron, he decided to create correspondence between them. “Doe notte esteeme me a sluggarde nor tardye for thus havyinge delayed to answerre or rather toe thank you for youre greate Bountye,” he has Shakespeare write sans punctuation. “[G]ratitude is alle I have toe utter and that is tooe greate ande tooe sublyme a feeling for poore mortalls toe expresse O my Lord itte is a Budde which Bllossommes Bllooms butte never dyes.” The Earl of Southampton replies in a similar vein, also sans punctuation, and with a similar spelling: “…as I have beene thye Freynde soe will I continue aughte thatte I canne doe forre thee praye commande me ande you shalle fynde mee Yours Southampton”. To explain how both letters could end up together in the same collection William Henry added a note explaining that Shakespeare’s was a “Copye” of the letter he sent. Samuel Ireland and his friends admired the style of the letters but not the earl’s penmanship; William Henry, not knowing that handwriting of the earl was extant, had written Southampton’s reply with his left hand.
A flood of documents now followed, all coming from Mr. H’s miraculous chest. Shakespeare’s “Profession of Faith” proved he was a Protestant, a letter to fellow-actor Richard Cowley
Richard Cowley
Richard Cowley was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a colleague of William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men.Cowley was in the c...
showed he was a “a perfect good natured man”, and a letter from Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
made it clear that he was favoured by the most powerful person in the land. A sketch of himself that accompanied his letter to Cowley showed that he was a wretched draftsman with an impenetrable sense of humour. Described in the letter as a “whysycalle conceyte”, it was (as Malone put it) “most truly whimsical, being a miserable drawing of our poet done by himself with a pen, from Martin Droeshout’s print of him engraved seven years after his death….” There were also theatrical receipts, contracts, a letter and poem to his future wife, "Anna Hatherrewaye"
Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare)
Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare. They were married in 1582. She outlived her husband by seven years...
, and even books from Shakespeare’s library, complete with marginal annotations actually signed by the bard himself. Of most interest however were a manuscript of King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
Shakespeare had prepared for the press, a few stray leaves of "Hamblette
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
", and two previously unknown plays, Vortigern and Rowena
Vortigern and Rowena
Vortigern and Rowena, or Vortigern, an Historical Play is a play that was touted as a newly discovered work by William Shakespeare when it first appeared in 1796. It was eventually revealed to be a Shakespeare hoax, the product of prominent forger William Henry Ireland. Its first and only...
and Henry II.
Artifacts on display
From the moment of discovery Samuel Ireland invited friends in to see his new possessions. On 20 December 1794 Sir Frederick EdenFrederick Morton Eden
Sir Frederick Morton Eden, 2nd Baronet, of Maryland was an English writer on poverty and pioneering social investigator.-Early life:...
came to examine the seal on the Fraser lease. He announced that it represented a quintain
Quintain
Quintain may refer to:* Quintain , a jousting game* Quintain Estates and Development, a property company* Quintaine Americana, a rock band...
, a device used in lance practice, and the conclusion was that Shakespeare had used it as a play on his own name. In February 1795 however he issued a general invitation to literary men to come to his house and examine them. The exhibition was a roaring success. Samuel Parr
Samuel Parr
Samuel Parr , was an English schoolmaster, writer, minister and Doctor of Law. He was known in his time for political writing, and as "the Whig Johnson", though his reputation has lasted less well that Samuel Johnson's, and the resemblances were at a superficial level, Parr being no prose stylist,...
and Joseph Warton
Joseph Warton
Joseph Warton was an English academic and literary critic.He was born in Dunsfold, Surrey, England, but his family soon moved to Hampshire, where his father, the Reverend Thomas Warton, became vicar of Basingstoke. There, a few years later, Joseph's younger brother, the more famous Thomas Warton,...
on hearing Samuel Ireland read the “Profession of Faith” proclaimed it superior to anything in the English liturgy. James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
got down on his knees to kiss the relics. Scottish antiquarian George Chalmers
George Chalmers
George Chalmers was a Scottish antiquarian and political writer.-Biography:Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, in 1742. His father, James Chalmers, was a grandson of George Chalmers of Pittensear, a small estate in the parish of Lhanbryde, now St Andrews-Lhanbryde, in Moray, owned by the family...
and educator Richard Valpy
Richard Valpy
-Biography:He was born the eldest son of Richard and Catherine Valpy in Jersey. He was sent to schools in Normandy and Southampton, and completed his education at Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1777 he took orders. After holding a mastership at Bury, in 1781 he became head master of Reading grammar...
visited frequently, and editor James Boaden
James Boaden
-Life:He was the son of William Boaden, a merchant in the Russia trade. He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, on 23 May 1762, and at an early age came with his parents to London, where he was educated for commerce...
, author Herbert Croft, and poet-laureate Henry James Pye
Henry James Pye
Henry James Pye was an English poet. Pye was Poet Laureate from 1790 until his death. He was the first poet laureate to receive a fixed salary of £27 instead of the historic tierce of Canary wine Henry James Pye (20 February 1745 – 11 August 1813) was an English poet. Pye was Poet Laureate...
(among others) testified publicly to their belief in the authenticity of the papers.
One hitch developed when an alert visitor noted that a document supposedly written by the Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...
was dated 1590, whereas the nobleman had died in 1588. When Samuel Ireland confronted his son with this information, William Henry wanted to burn the document, but his father demurred. He suggested that the document might have been misdated at some later time, and the two agreed to tear off the date. The item was displayed, and subsequently printed, in this mutilated form. At least two scholars, antiquary Joseph Ritson
Joseph Ritson
Joseph Ritson was an English antiquary.He was born at Stockton-on-Tees, of a Westmorland yeoman family. He was educated for the law, and settled in London as a conveyancer at the age of twenty-two. He devoted his spare time to literature, and in 1782 published an attack on Thomas Warton's History...
and classicist Richard Porson
Richard Porson
Richard Porson was an English classical scholar. He was the discoverer of Porson's Law; and the Greek typeface Porson was based on his handwriting.-Early life:...
, correctly recognized the documents as forgeries, and editor Henry Bate Dudley started lampooning the papers as early as 17 February 1795.
As Samuel Ireland did not invite the two greatest Shakespeare scholars of the day, Edmond Malone and George Steevens
George Steevens
George Steevens was an English Shakespearean commentator.He was born at Poplar, the son of a captain and later director of the East India Company. He was educated at Eton College and at King's College, Cambridge, where he remained from 1753 to 1756...
, to examine the manuscripts, suspicion was aroused. As one writer noted "The publick would certainly have been gratified to know, that these extraordinary MSS. had been deemed genuine by Dr. Farmer, Messrs. Stevens or Malone; whose literary characters might have served as letters of credence." Samuel Ireland later observed that he was "of a different sentiment with regard to the sanction, which his [Malone's] inspection would afford them." He did however attempt to get Richard Farmer
Richard Farmer
Dr Richard Farmer was a Shakespearean scholar and Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is known for his Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare , in which he maintained that Shakespeare's knowledge of the classics was through translations, the errors of which he reproduced.-Life:He was born at...
to look at the papers without success.
The exhibition, which roused much public excitement, continued for more than a year. On 17 November Ireland and his son carried the papers to St. James’s Palace, where the Duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan examined them, and on 30 December Ireland submitted them to the Prince of Wales at Carlton House.
Vortigern and Rowena
As early as 26 December 1794 William Henry had announced the existence of Shakespeare's unknown play, Vortigern and Rowena, but it was not until March that he was able to present his father with the manuscript. It came with Shakespeare's correspondence with a printer purporting to explain why the play was unpublished. Both Richard Brinsley SheridanRichard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
of Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
and Thomas Harris of Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
expressed an interest in producing the play. Sheridan was the winner in this competition. Prompted by fears that a descendant of Shakespeare might surface to claim the rights to his productions, William Henry produced a deed to prove that one of his ancestors, coincidentally named William Henry Ireland, had saved Shakespeare from drowning, and that Shakespeare had rewarded him with all the newly-discovered manuscripts.
Publication of the MSS
Samuel Ireland announced the publication of the papers on 4 March 1795, and the volume itself appeared in December of that year. William Henry had bitterly opposed this move, but his father was determined. Included were such items as the "Profession of Faith," the letter from Queen Elizabeth, and the manuscript of King Lear. Henry II, Vortigern, and the marginalia were excluded from this volume.Shortly after the appearance of the book Samuel Ireland's neighbour, Albany Wallis, who had discovered one of the few authentic signatures of Shakespeare, came up with a new and startling discovery. He had turned up a genuine John Heminges signature, and of course it looked nothing like the signatures William Henry had produced. When the forger learned of this problem, however, he soon produced Heminges signatures that resembled the authentic one. It seems, William Henry explained, that there were two actors named John Heminges active at the time—hence the dissimilar signatures.
Controversy
The volume was not well-received. The first reply was James Boaden's A Letter to George Steevens (16 January 1796). Boaden concentrated on the manuscript of Lear, observing that if this is Shakespeare's original, and the printed versions contaminated with alterations by the actors, then the players are "at once converted ... into the most elaborate and polished masters of versification, and Shakspeare into a writer without the necessary ear for rhythm—a man who produced a series of harmonious versification by chance, and lost the supreme ascendancy in his art, from the not being able to number ten syllables upon his fingers." He also took aim at the spelling. Samuel Ireland's friends and supporters raced in with replies. Colonel Francis WebbFrancis Webb
Francis Webb may refer to:* Francis Webb , British* Francis Webb , Australian-See also:*Francis Webb Sheilds, Australian engineer*Frances Webb, British noblewoman...
, writing under the name "Philalethes," argued that as the paper was old the documents must have belonged to Shakespeare's time; there would have been no reason to forge them then; therefore they must be genuine. Matthew Wyatt took potshots at Boaden by contrasting his views as a believer with those after his conversion. Walley Chamberlain Oulton
Walley Chamberlain Oulton
Walley Chamberlain Oulton was an Irish playwright, theatre historian and man of letters.-Life:Born in Dublin, he was educated there in a private school. While a schoolboy he achieved some reputation as a writer of farces and musical extravaganzas, and his dramatic essays were performed at the...
maintained that the papers were so voluminous that forgery was out of the question. He expressed a hope that Vortigern would turn out to be genuine, as it might well revitalize contemporary drama. He looked to the judgment of the audience for the play's vindication.
Exposure
The crushing blows (there were two of them) came quickly. The first was the publication of Malone's volume of over four hundred pages on 31 March 1796. Exposing the forgeries in detail, he showed one by one that each document was flawed in its handwriting, its language, its orthography, and its history. The spelling of the documents was not only not that of Shakespeare's time, it was that of no time whatsoever. Numerous historical inaccuracies—not least of which was the reference to the GlobeGlobe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613...
before that playhouse had been built—exposed the forger's ignorance. The handwriting of the Queen and Southampton did not at all resemble authentic examples. Words appearing in the forgeries (upset, for example) were not used in Shakespeare's time, or were used in a different sense than that of the papers.
Vortigern’s failure
The second blow came two days later, on 2 April, with the failure of Vortigern at Drury Lane Theatre. The excitement was intense and the crowd volatile; tickets had sold out early and seats were hard come by. While at first the play seemed to be a success with the audience, soon fits of laughter were heard and at one point the play came to a complete halt till order was restored. When Barrymore announced another performance of the play, the audience rebelled, and chaos reigned until the management substituted something else. William Henry Ireland blamed the actors, particularly Kemble, along with a "Malone faction," for the failure of his play. Others attributed it to the quality of the play itself. Vortigern's opening night was also its final performance.Aftermath
For the Irelands, father and son, the failure of the play, coupled with Malone's exposure of the hoax, was an unmitigated disaster. Samuel Ireland still believed the papers to be Shakespeare's, and refused to listen to anything his son had to say. William Henry confessed the forgery to his sisters, to his mother, and to Albany Wallis, but his father did not believe his story. The public, not surprisingly, accused Samuel Ireland of the fraud. Sales of his books suffered.Blaming Malone for his misfortunes, Samuel Ireland set out to write a book that would destroy the scholar's reputation. With the aid of Thomas Caldecott he attacked Malone for using forensic techniques like handwriting comparison to settle a literary question, rather than relying on taste and aesthetic sensibilities. Concerned for his father's reputation William Henry rushed into print with a pamphlet confessing to the forgeries, and his father replied immediately with a vindication of his conduct in the whole affair. This combination roused suspicions. George Steevens accused the two of collusion:
The hopeful youth takes on himself the guilt of the entire forgery, and strains hard to exculpate his worthy father from the slightest participation in it. The father, on the contrary, declares that his son had not sufficient abilities for the execution of so difficult a task. Between them, in short, there is a pretended quarrel, that they may not look as if they were acting in concert on the present occasion.The charge would stick. George Chalmers' Apology for the Believers and Samuel Ireland's Investigation concentrated on attacking Malone rather than exonerating Samuel, and the public verdict was probably summed up in a print by John Nixon depicting the entire Ireland family engaged in forging the papers.
Samuel Ireland's culpability
The culpability of Samuel Ireland remained a controversial topic for years to come. Although his son's Confessions (1805) did a great deal to establish his innocence, not everybody was convinced. Accounts by Clement Mansfield InglebyClement Mansfield Ingleby
Clement Mansfield Ingleby was a Shakespearian scholar, perhaps best remembered as John Payne Collier's nemesis.-Early life and education:...
in 1859 and George Dawson in 1888 took the position that the father was responsible for the forgeries and the son's Confession was a tissue of lies. The acquisition of Samuel Ireland's papers by the British Museum in 1876, however, provided a wealth of evidence that Samuel was the victim rather than the perpetrator of the fraud, and Ingleby changed his position in his 1881 paper on the Ireland Affair.
Legacy
British writer Peter AckroydPeter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd CBE is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More he won the Somerset Maugham Award...
provides an imaginative account of the Ireland's forgeries in his novel The Lambs of London published by Chatto & Windus in 2004. In the same year, BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
broadcast Martyn Wade's play about the forgeries, Another Shakespeare.
Controversial literature
- James Boaden, A Letter to George Steevens, London, 16 January 1796.
- Philalethes (Francis Webb), Shakspeare’s Manuscript, in the possession of Mr. Ireland, examined, 28 January 1796.
- F. G. Waldron, Free Reflections on Miscellaneous Papers, 1 February 1796. (Page images at Internet Archive; Page images at Google Books)
- Matthew Wyatt, A Comparative Review of the Opinions of Mr. James Boaden, 3 February 1796. (Included in Shakespeare Tracts Volume 1: Page images at Internet Archives)
- Walley Chamberlain Oulton, Vortigern Under Consideration; with general remarks on Mr. James Boaden’s Letter, 15 February 1796.
- Anonymous, Precious Relics; or the tragedy of Vortigern rehearsed, 15 March 1796.
- Edmond Malone, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments, London, 30 March 1796. (Page images at Internet Archive)
- Samuel Ireland, Mr. Ireland’s Vindication of His Conduct, London, 6 January 1797. (Text at Wikisource; Included in Shakespeare Tracts Volume 1: Page images at Internet Archive)
- George Chalmers, An Apology for the Believers, London, 1797. (Page images at Google)
- Samuel Ireland, An Investigation of Mr. Malone's Claim to the Character of Scholar, or Critic, London, August 1797. (Included in Shakespeare Tracts Volume 1: Page images at Internet Archive))
Accounts of the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries
- William Henry Ireland, Authentic Account of the Shakespearian MSS, 1796. Text at Wikisource. Page images at Google.
- William Henry Ireland, Confessions, 1805. (Page images at Google)
- H. C. L., “Ireland and the Shakspere Forgeries,” in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, July and August 1845, pp. 78–86 (Page images at Google Books)
- Frederick Lawrence, “Remarkable Literary Impostures No. II,” in Sharpe’s London Magazine, December 1848.
- Anonymous, “The Successful Forgery,” in Bizarre, 23 and 30 April 1853.
- Clement Mansfield Ingleby, “W. H. Ireland's Confessions,” in The Shakespeare Fabrications, London, 1859, pp. 99–103. (Page images at Google)
- T. J. Arnold, “The Ireland Forgeries,” in Fraser's Magazine, August 1860, pp. 167–178. (Page images at Google.)
- Anonymous, “Two Impostors of the Eighteenth Century,” Eclectic Magazine, July 1879.
- Clement Mansfield Ingleby, "The Literary Career of a Shakespeare Forger," in volume 2 of Shakespeare: the Man and the Book (London, 1881).
- George Dawson, “Literary Forgeries and Impostures” in Shakespeare and Other Lectures, 1888.
- James Anson Farrer, “The Immortal Hoax of Ireland,” in Literary Forgeries (London, 1907), pp. 226–249. (Page images at Google)
- John Mair, The Fourth Forger, New York, 1939.
- Frank E. Halliday, “Shakespeare Fabricated” in The Cult of Shakespeare, New York, 1957.
- Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery, 1965.
- Samuel Schoenbaum, "Part Three: Edmond Malone" chapters VII through XI, in Shakespeare's Lives, New York, 1970.
- Jeffrey Kahan, Reforging Shakespeare: The Story of a Theatrical Scandal, 1998, Bethlehem London, Lehigh University Press; Associated University Presses. ISBN 0-934223-55-6.
- Patricia Pierce, The Great Shakespeare Fraud, 2004.
Other works cited
- Samuel Ireland, Picturesque Views of the Upper, or Warwickshire Avon, London, 1795. (Page images at Google)
- Samuel Ireland, Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the Hand and Seal of William Shakspeare, 1796.
- Eu. Hood, "Fly-Leaves, No. XXXI: Pseudo-Shakspeare," in Gentleman's Magazine, May 1826, pp. 421–423. (Page images at Google)