Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-07-10
IM MP j En- FORGERY.
1T WAS THE MOST BRILLIANT THING
OF ITS KIND ON RECORD.


Rowena" was performed for the first ant
last time at Drury Lane. Up to the very
evening of the performance great number.
of people hoped and many believed that &
genuine play of Shakespeare's had been dis
covered. But one representation was suf
| ficient to dispel these hopes.
The real author of this blank verse plav
! William Henry Ireland, was almost a bow
Born in 1717, by the time he was 19 hc
had proved himself almost as marvellous
boy as Chatterton, whose story always
had a remarkable fascination for him from
the time when his father read it aloud tc
him Old Samuel ireland was himself a
remarkable man, who starting in life as a
Spitalsfield weaver, had become an en-
graver 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 tha0 may have been the father
spared no pains in the education of the son.
and after Il 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 boy s
subsequent career were that reading aloud
Of the story of Chattcrton and visit t.
StratfOrd- about 1874. in the course
of which they imbibed number of ridic-
ulous fables, particularly one as to a recent
destruction of mass Of Shakcspearcan
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 dedicatory letter from the author
tn ,1,.,41,
complete manner in which this document
duped his father he proceeded in Dcccm-
Der to the first of the Shakcspcarcan for
gcrics which he was soon to carry to such
lengths.
On a piece cut out of an Elizabethan
parchment deed, to which he had access.
he drew up deed of mortgage between
Shakespeare and John Hcmmince on the
one part and Richard Fraser and his wife
on the other initiating the poets sigma
ture from facsimile of genuine decd of
1912 and adding seals distracted from va
riOus genuine deeds of Shakespeare time.
Renewed success encouraged him to a per
feet hailstorm of "Shakcspcarcan" relics.
Verses and letters of the poet inscribed on
fly leaves, old printed books with Shakes
peare'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"
al a transcript of King Lear, " the latter
differing in few small details from the
current version highly ingenious stroke
on the forger's 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
NJ. H. " story, which he invented to ex-
plain the mystery of these discoveries
to his father M. H. " was rich gentle
man, in whose possession these documents
were and who was so fond of Ireland that
he put them at his disposal In fact M.
II. " presently began TO send letters about
it to the old man, inclosing among other
things a play called "Willam the Con-
queror, admittedly by young Ireland and
highly commended by his generous patron,
M H"
In February, 1875, there was a show of
all the relics at old Ireland's house. and
many of the leading literary men of the
day We're deceived The officers of the
College of Arms announced themselves as
champions of the authenticity of the relics.
DIR. Joseph Wharton declared that n 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 rs other
literary lights signed a certificate of belief
Finally, in March, the young man pro
duced "NOrtigern" and Henry II, " tie
last in his own handwriting, but protesting
to be copy Of Shakcspeare's play of that
name There was also a corroboratc deed
showing that an Ireland of Shal.cspcarc's
Il Il l..,, e..
had been rewarded by having the privilege
of publication of Shakespeare unknown
plays assigned to him and his descendants.
1t was afterNGrd contcnded that youth
of 10 could never have been clever enough
to produce such forgery as Nortigcrn,
but lrcland's subsequent publications
Gisnroyc this objection. and he
confutcd it himself in after
days Old Ireland and other, 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
really wrote "Nortigcrn. "
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 it on the ground |
If 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 handful begging the public to |
give the play chance. And so, on April |
?, Drury Lane was crowded. Kemble in |
Iced had urged that April would be a |
more appropriate day and had insisted on |
including the farce, My Grandmother, "
N the programme, while Covcnt Garden |
~ way of being nasty, produced THE Lie
If the Day. But Kemble did his best
md the utter failure of the play was sim
ply because the public saw through the inn
posture.
That one representation brought in over
$780, of which old Ireland received about