Samuel Ireland - Enthusiasm For Shakespeare

Enthusiasm For Shakespeare

Ireland was a fervent admirer of William Shakespeare, and in 1793, when preparing his "Picturesque Views of the Avon," he took his son with him to Stratford-on-Avon. They carefully examined all the spots associated with the dramatist. The father recorded many village traditions, which he accepted as true, including those concocted for his benefit (according to Sidney Lee) by John Jordan, the Stratford poet, who was his chief guide throughout his visit.

In his pursuit of information about Shakespeare Ireland learned from some of the oldest inhabitants that manuscripts had been moved from Shakespeare's residence at New Place to Clopton House at the time of the Stratford fire. To Clopton House he went, where he learned from the tenant that the manuscripts he was seeking had been destroyed only a week before. His disappointment was extreme. "My God! Sir, you are not aware of the loss which the world has sustained. Would to heaven I had arrived sooner!".

Late in 1794 his son, William Henry, claimed to have discovered a mortgage deed signed by Shakespeare, in an old trunk belonging to a mysterious acquaintance of his, whom he designated only as Mr. H. In fact he had forged the deed himself, using blank parchment cut from an ancient deed at his employer’s office. Prominent authorities pronounced it genuine, and soon other items followed—a letter from Queen Elizabeth, a love-poem by Shakespeare written to his future wife, "Anna Hatherreway," the original manuscript of King Lear, as well as the manuscript of an otherwise unknown play, Vortigern and Rowena.

These were soon on display at Ireland’s house, where notable literary men such as James Boswell, Samuel Parr, Joseph Warton, and Henry James Pye, the poet laureate, pronounced them genuine. The chief Shakespearean scholars of the day, Edmond Malone and George Steevens, however, unhesitatingly denounced them as forgeries. (One curious exception was George Chalmers, who made genuine contributions to Shakespeare scholarship, but who was nonetheless taken in by the imposition.)

Samuel Ireland, however, had no doubts about their genuineness, and published them in a folio volume in December 1795. Exposure quickly followed. James Boaden, formerly a believer, responded with A Letter to George Steevens, published in January 1796, that attacked their authenticity, but the decisive blow was delivered by Edmond Malone’s response, An Enquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Papers and Legal Instruments, published in March 1796. The failure of the play, Vortigern and Rowena, on its first performance (2 April 1796), quickly followed.