Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-07-16
IMPUDENT FORGERY.
1T WAS THE MOST BRILLIANT THING
or ITS KIND ON RECORD.

The Bogus Play Produced In London About
a Century Ago-written by = Youth
Named Ireland and Attributed to
akespeare-Presented Only Once.
Just about a century ago " Vortigern and
Rowena" was performed for the first and
last time mt Drury Lane. Up TO the very
evening Of the performance great numbers
of people hoped and many believed that
genuine play of Shakespeare had been dis
covered. But one representation was suf-
ficient to dispel these hopes.
The real author OF this blank verse play,
william Henry Ireland, was almost boy
Born In 1777, by the time he was 10 he
had proved himself almost as marvellous"
a boy as Chatterton, whose story always
had remarkable fascination for him from
the time when his father read 1t aloud TO
him Old Samuel Ireland was himself a
remarkable man, who, starting In life as
| Spitalsfield weaver, had become an EN-.
Qraver and an author of some note and had
received medal from the Society of Arts
There is considerable doubt as to the
legitimacy OF his son william Henry but
however that may have been the father
spared no pains In the education of the son,
and after n course of private schools in
London and France took up the finishing
of his Instructions himself Perhaps the
two times which told most upon the boys
subsequent career were that reading aloud
of the story of Chatterton and visit to
Stratford- on-Avon about 1894 in the course
of which they imbibed "A number of ride
ulous fables particularly one as to recent
destruction of n mass of Shakespearean
manuscripts by an ignorant owner of Clop.
ton House.
In the autumn of 1894 William Henry
entered upon his career of fraud Getting
hold of some old looking kind of ink, he
inscribed on the fly leaf of an Elizabethan
tract n dedicatory letter from the author
complete manner in which this document
duped his father, he proceeded in Deem
Der To the first of the Shakespearean for
geries which he was soon to carry TO such
lengths.
On u piece cut out of an EliZabethan
parchment deed, to which he had access
he drew up deed of mortgage between
Shakespeare and John Hemminge on the
one part and Richard Fraser and his wife
on the other, initiating the poets sigma
ture from "a facsimile of IA genuine deed Of
1912 and adding seals distracted from va
rious genuine deeds of Shakespeare's time
| Renewed success encouraged him to a per-
feet hailstorm of Shakespearean' relics
Verses and letters of the poet inscribed on
fly leaves, old printed books with Shakes
pearc's name on the title page and notes
and verses in the same handwriting on the
margin followed in bewildering succession
There were even extracts from Hamlet
and transcript of King Lear, the latter
differing in u few small details from the
current vcrsion--a highly ingenious stroke
on the forgars part.
A young friend Of the youth accident
ally discovered him constructing one of
these relics, but was prevailed upon to say
nothing and even to corroborate the great
"li. III. - story, which ne invented To ex-
plain the mystery" of these " dscoveries"
To his father. m. II. " was rich gentle
man, in whose possession these documents
were and who was SO fond of Ireland that
he put them ut his disposal. In fact, Nj.
III. presently began To send letters about
1t to the old man, inclosing among other
things a play called william the Con-
queror, admittedly by young Ireland and
highly commended by his generous patron,
M H.
In February, 1895, there was show Of
all the relics at old Ireland's house, and
| lll.ll vi lilC llCli VI bliC
day were deceived The officers of the
, College of Arms announced themselves rs
champions of the authenticity of tIr relics.
DR. Joseph Wharton declared that "a certain
profession of faith by Shakespeare" was
finer than anything in the Liturgy Bos-
well fell on his knees and kissed the docu-
ments, and the Laureate Pye and Ii other
literary lights signed certificate of belief
Finally in March, the young man pro-
duced ''Vortigern' and Henry III, I" the
last in his own handwriting, but processing
to be a copy of Shakespeare's play of that
name. There was also corroborate deed
showing that an Ireland of Shakespeare s
day had saved the poet from drowning and
had been rewarded by having the privilege
Of publication of Shakespeare's unknown
plays assigned to him and his descendants
1t was afterward contended that youth
of 10 could never have been clever enough
to produce such IA forgery as 'Vortigern, -
but Ireland's subsequent publications
sufficiently disprove this objection, and he
satisfactorily confuted it himself in after
days. Old Ireland and Others were COM
pletely deceived at the time, and the old
man, even after his sons confession, seems
to have gone to his grave in the belief that
Shakespeare really wrote "Vortigern. 4"
But Malone, Stevens and others saw
through the fraud from the first
There was an exciting newspaper war
about the question, and Person, by way of
ridiculing the affair, published Greek
version of "Three Children Sliding on the
Ice" which he attributed to Sophocles
Sheridan of Drury Lane agreed to present
the play, but Kemble's doubts caused its
production to be delayed Mrs. Palmer
backed out of appearing in 1t on the ground
of ill health, and Ireland rejected the
prologue written for it by Pye as not being
confident enough. On the very eve of its
production appeared Malone's Inquiry
Into Authenticity, to which Ireland re-
piled by IA handful begging the public TO
give the play a chance And so, on April
2, Drury Lane was crowded. Kemble in
deed had urged that April would be a
more appropriate day and had insisted on
including the farce, My Grandmother, -
in the programme, while Covent Garden,
by way of being nasty, produced THE Lie
of the Day" But Kemble did his best,
and the utter failure of the play was sim
ply because the public saw through the i'm
posture.
That one representation brought in over
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