Ireland Shakespeare Forgeries - Artifacts On Display

Artifacts On Display

From the moment of discovery Samuel Ireland invited friends in to see his new possessions. On 20 December 1794 Sir Frederick Eden 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 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.