New-York daily tribune., 1859-08-06

.b,o,d and here: he puc,ished an edition on o'>~0
h;.h ,ha corrections Of the old folio were
embodied. other similar editions were puo''oe.
bere ard in Germsey; the correc ions recr"ea
b;oh critical commen iation: common-sebse PeoP'c
rejoced over them. and they seemed 10 o''e pr
duced great and permanent impression upon '"'
text Of Shakespeare, aud upon shakespearean n'o''
AZURE
A Jew. how ever, Of The more eminent hpgu'n
Sh.le.pearean scholars stoutly ressted tnr c'.ui'
put forward for the reception of the Cover 'o''o
corrections Knight H,lliweL, DJce and SINGER AL
opposed them; the first two in pamphlets, tne
l.,t in 4 book: and a writer in Blsckwood's Maga'
zipe denounced them in detail. This opposition.
bowryer Vas 10 the corrections peculiar 70 tue o'd
foo for II is important TO remember that OF '"o
hundreds and almost thousands OF corrections made
upon its margins, large proportion hsd oeen sas
o..,.a ard even received into the text, before Nr
Golfers discovery Of his supposed treasure Du'
il was the good fortune of an American cr''c I"
attack this cele ebrated volume IN the manner h'os'
fatal TO ts pIetensions as Mr. Conner mss aanii'
tod ard AZ the event has proved lmmedis'eV
uron the ,ppearance here Of Mr.. Golfers " Notes
=. and Fmeudstiops" flom lis folio. they we're re
viewed in Putnam's Magazine BY Dir. "rAos " nie'
in series of articles, in which the question OF 'hs
merit Of the corrections was made secondary 10 al
,rpume pt which showed that they were utterly
without authority, ard especially that upon IN
terpal eyid. nee slone-the use OF modern words
and phrases, tie ignorance shown OF ancient idoms'
and the insertion Of stage directions suited only 70
modern tmes-tbey could not have been made at
40 eai y date as was clamed for them
And now il has come to pass that the volume,
a'ter lying FIVE years in the library OF the Duke of
Devon.hre, is sent TO the British Museum, and IS
there fallen upon BY the experts In palaography
and chemistry attached to that institution; ana
they discover BY their keen eyes, their experience
their microscopes, and their tests, that these man
u,cr ut corrections which are made so as to apPear
two hundred years old. must have been written
ui,b,p the present century. Mr. Hamilton Of the
Manuscript Department fret discovered remains
of penced memoranda on the margins In conform
ity with which the corrections IN INK were m'de;
and these memoranda are IN hand oil the present
dsy He found, too, that the corrections ID lax
were in many eases msde directly upon the peo-
eiled memoranda, and tbs. in some instances the
memoranda were in modern orthography, although
the corrections in ink we're spelled In the ancen'
way. Many of them, also, were found 10 nave
been strangely tawpered with, touched up. or
painted over a modern character being dexter
curly altered by touches of the pen in more an
tiane form;' and corrections had been made ana
obhterated by chemical agency, which the action
of the atmosphere in the course Of some years, had
90 far neeatiyed a. TO allow the original correction
to be family seen by the side Of or under, the one
for wbch it was removed. To all this, Mr. Collier
replied only by defending bimsef from charge OF
iuposture, which was not brought against him, and
by saying that, when he owned the volume, he saw
no pencil marks upon il, but few that he made HIM
self Wbereupon comes forward 81. Maskelyne,
keeper Of the Mineral Department in the Museum,
who has eIsmned the folio with the microscope aud
with chemical tests He found by the microscope the
rempants of tre imperfecty pencil marks IN
particles of pumbago in the hollows of the paper
on every page that he examined. He found, too
that the corrections are made, not in ink, but IN q
brown fluid paint used for the purpose OF initiating
ink faded by age; which point was decided BY the
microscope and BY chs mical tests. And finally he
found that in the cases in which penciled letter
of modern form and seeming ink letter OF antique
orm ntersec,ed each other, SO that one partly hid
be other, the seeming antique ink letter could be
wsste ed OF (Which could not have been done were 1t
made in ink }, and that then the modern pencled let
ter was found underlying that which PrOfessed to
have been made two centuries ago! Thisis clearly
fatal blow to the pretended antiquity of the correc
tions unless tfe pencied letters are as old as those
in the seeming ink, which no one seems even to
conjecture. 1t is just worth while to add that q
Nr Parry, who, on slight examination Of the old
folio, told Mr. Collier that it was 10 his possession
fifty years ego, with the corrections on its margin
(which assurance added much TO the confidence
felt in the eenuineness Of the correc.ons), now de-
clares, on closer examination, that this book has
only general resemblance to the one which he for
uerly owned, aud differs from it 'in edition, bind
d" ing, coTections-in fact, in every particular in
(Which book can differ" from another
Thus falls TO the ground literary imposture
which, from the fame of the author to whose works
it related and the distinguished position Of its first
and most eminent dupe and innocent apostle, Mr.
Collier has excited more general interest in the
reading world than any other upon record. Its
author who must be a very clever and dexterous
fellow, may be yet alive and chuckliDg, like his
protot, Pc ireland the credulty of his victims.
But how Characteristic it is Of dear old EDgand
that be should have been obliged to wait long to
be found out. Who believes that, had that old
folio been brought forward in NeWYoTk instead of