Ireland Shakespeare Forgeries - Controversy

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 Webb, 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.