William Henry Ireland
Encyclopedia
William Henry Ireland was an English forger
of would-be Shakespeare
an documents and plays. He is less well-known as a poet, writer of gothic novels and histories. Although he was apparently christened William-Henry, he was known as Samuel through much of his life (apparently after a brother who died in childhood), and many sources list his name as Samuel William Henry Ireland.
in 1777, recently discovered evidence puts his birth two years earlier, on 2 August 1775. His father, Samuel Ireland
, was a successful publisher of travelogue
s, collector of antiquities and collector of Shakespearian plays and "relics". There was at the time, and still is, a great paucity of writing in the hand of Shakespeare. Of his 37 plays, there is not one copy in his own writing, not a scrap of correspondence from Shakespeare to a friend, fellow writer, patron, producer or publisher. Forgery would fill this void.
William Henry also became a collector of books. In many later recollections Ireland described his fascination with the works and the glorious death of the forger Thomas Chatterton
, and probably knew the Ossian
poems of James Macpherson
. He was strongly influenced by the 1780 novel Love and Madness
by Herbert Croft, which was often read aloud in the Ireland house, and which contained large sections on Chatterton and Macpherson. When he was apprenticed to a mortgage lawyer, Ireland began to experiment with blank, genuinely old papers and forged signatures on them. Eventually he forged several documents until he was ready to present them to his father.
with a signature of Shakespeare in it. He gave the document – which he had of course made himself – to his overjoyed father, who had been looking for just that kind of signature for years.
A letter supposedly written by Shakespeare (forged by Ireland) expressing gratitude towards the Earl of Southampton.
Ireland went on to make more findings – a promissory note
, a written declaration of Protestant faith, letters to Anne Hathaway (with a lock of hair attached), and to Queen Elizabeth
– all supposedly in Shakespeare's hand. He claimed that all came from the chest of the anonymous friend. He "found" books with Shakespeare's notes in the margins and "original" manuscripts for Hamlet
and King Lear
. The supposed experts of the day authenticated them all.
On 24 December 1795, Samuel Ireland published his own book about the papers, a lavishly illustrated and expensively produced set of facsimiles and transcriptions of the papers called Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare (the book bears the publication date 1796). More people took interest in the matter and the plot began to unravel.
. After extensive negotiations, Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan
acquired rights for the first production of the play at London's Drury Lane Theatre
for £300, and a promise of half of all profits to the Irelands.
Sheridan read the play and noticed it was relatively simplistic compared to Shakespeare's other works. John Philip Kemble
, actor and manager of Drury Lane Theatre, later claimed he had serious doubts about its authenticity; he also suggested that the play appear on April Fool's Day, though Samuel Ireland objected, and the play was moved to the next day.
Although the Shakespeare papers had prominent believers (including James Boswell
), skeptics had questioned their authenticity from the beginning, and as the premiere of Vortigern approached, the press was filled with arguments over whether the papers were genuine or forgeries. On 31 March 1796, Shakespearean scholar Edmond Malone
published his own exhaustive study, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments, about the supposed papers. His attack on the papers, stretching to more than 400 densely printed pages, showed convincingly that the papers could be nothing other than modern forgeries. Although believers tried to hold their ground, scholars were convinced by Malone's arguments.
Vortigern and Rowena opened on 2 April 1796, just two days after Malone's book appeared. Contemporary accounts differ in details, but most agree the first three acts went smoothly, and the audience listened respectfully. Late in the play, though, Kemble used the chance to hint at his opinion by repeating Vortigern's line "and when this solemn mockery is o'er." Malone's supporters had filled the theater, and the play was greeted with the audience's catcalls. The play had only one performance, and was not revived until 1997..
In 1805 William Henry published The Confessions of William Henry Ireland, but confession did not help his reputation. He took on a number of miscellaneous jobs as a hack writer but always found himself short of money. In 1814 he moved to France and worked in the French national library, continuing to publish books in London all the while. When he returned in 1823, he resumed his life of penury. In 1832 he published his own edition of Vortigern and Rowena (his father had originally published it in 1799) as his own play with very little success.
There has been recent scholarly interest in his later Gothic novels and his poetry. His illustrated Histories were popular, so to say that Ireland died in obscurity is probably not correct. He was, however, perpetually impoverished; he spent time in debtor's prison, and was constantly forced to borrow money from friends and strangers. When he died, his widow and daughters applied to the Literary Fund for relief. They received only token amounts.
Ireland is one of the main characters in Peter Ackroyd
's 2004 novel The Lambs of London, though the contacts with Charles and Mary Lamb
have no basis in the historical record, and Ackroyd took many liberties with the story.
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
of would-be Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
an documents and plays. He is less well-known as a poet, writer of gothic novels and histories. Although he was apparently christened William-Henry, he was known as Samuel through much of his life (apparently after a brother who died in childhood), and many sources list his name as Samuel William Henry Ireland.
Early life
Although Ireland claimed throughout his life that he was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1777, recently discovered evidence puts his birth two years earlier, on 2 August 1775. His father, Samuel Ireland
Samuel Ireland
Samuel Ireland , British author and engraver, is best remembered today as the chief victim of the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries created by his son, William Henry Ireland.-Early life:...
, was a successful publisher of travelogue
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
s, collector of antiquities and collector of Shakespearian plays and "relics". There was at the time, and still is, a great paucity of writing in the hand of Shakespeare. Of his 37 plays, there is not one copy in his own writing, not a scrap of correspondence from Shakespeare to a friend, fellow writer, patron, producer or publisher. Forgery would fill this void.
William Henry also became a collector of books. In many later recollections Ireland described his fascination with the works and the glorious death of the forger Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.-Childhood:...
, and probably knew the Ossian
Ossian
Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology...
poems of James Macpherson
James Macpherson
James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...
. He was strongly influenced by the 1780 novel Love and Madness
Love and Madness
Love and Madness is a 1780 British novel by Sir Herbert Croft. It was based on the 1779 murder of Martha Ray, the mistress of Lord Sandwich, by James Hackman. Its full title is Love and Madness, a Story too True: in a Series of Letters between Parties Whose Names Would Perhaps be Mentioned Were...
by Herbert Croft, which was often read aloud in the Ireland house, and which contained large sections on Chatterton and Macpherson. When he was apprenticed to a mortgage lawyer, Ireland began to experiment with blank, genuinely old papers and forged signatures on them. Eventually he forged several documents until he was ready to present them to his father.
First forgeries
In December 1794, William told his father that he had discovered a cache of old documents belonging to an acquaintance who wanted to remain unnamed, and that one of them was a deedDeed
A deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, or affirms or confirms something which passes, an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions sealed...
with a signature of Shakespeare in it. He gave the document – which he had of course made himself – to his overjoyed father, who had been looking for just that kind of signature for years.
A letter supposedly written by Shakespeare (forged by Ireland) expressing gratitude towards the Earl of Southampton.
Ireland went on to make more findings – a promissory note
Promissory note
A promissory note is a negotiable instrument, wherein one party makes an unconditional promise in writing to pay a determinate sum of money to the other , either at a fixed or determinable future time or on demand of the payee, under specific terms.Referred to as a note payable in accounting, or...
, a written declaration of Protestant faith, letters to Anne Hathaway (with a lock of hair attached), and to Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
– all supposedly in Shakespeare's hand. He claimed that all came from the chest of the anonymous friend. He "found" books with Shakespeare's notes in the margins and "original" manuscripts for Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
and King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
. The supposed experts of the day authenticated them all.
On 24 December 1795, Samuel Ireland published his own book about the papers, a lavishly illustrated and expensively produced set of facsimiles and transcriptions of the papers called Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare (the book bears the publication date 1796). More people took interest in the matter and the plot began to unravel.
"This Solemn Mockery"
In 1795, Ireland became bolder and produced a whole new play – Vortigern and RowenaVortigern and Rowena
Vortigern and Rowena, or Vortigern, an Historical Play is a play that was touted as a newly discovered work by William Shakespeare when it first appeared in 1796. It was eventually revealed to be a Shakespeare hoax, the product of prominent forger William Henry Ireland. Its first and only...
. After extensive negotiations, Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
acquired rights for the first production of the play at London's Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
for £300, and a promise of half of all profits to the Irelands.
Sheridan read the play and noticed it was relatively simplistic compared to Shakespeare's other works. John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble was an English actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane...
, actor and manager of Drury Lane Theatre, later claimed he had serious doubts about its authenticity; he also suggested that the play appear on April Fool's Day, though Samuel Ireland objected, and the play was moved to the next day.
Although the Shakespeare papers had prominent believers (including James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
), skeptics had questioned their authenticity from the beginning, and as the premiere of Vortigern approached, the press was filled with arguments over whether the papers were genuine or forgeries. On 31 March 1796, Shakespearean scholar Edmond Malone
Edmond Malone
Edmond Malone was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare.Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first political and then more congenial literary pursuits. He went to London, where he...
published his own exhaustive study, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments, about the supposed papers. His attack on the papers, stretching to more than 400 densely printed pages, showed convincingly that the papers could be nothing other than modern forgeries. Although believers tried to hold their ground, scholars were convinced by Malone's arguments.
Vortigern and Rowena opened on 2 April 1796, just two days after Malone's book appeared. Contemporary accounts differ in details, but most agree the first three acts went smoothly, and the audience listened respectfully. Late in the play, though, Kemble used the chance to hint at his opinion by repeating Vortigern's line "and when this solemn mockery is o'er." Malone's supporters had filled the theater, and the play was greeted with the audience's catcalls. The play had only one performance, and was not revived until 1997..
Forgeries exposed
When critics closed in and accused Samuel Ireland of forgery, his son published a confession – An Authentic Account of the Shaksperian Manuscripts – but many critics could not believe a young man could have forged them all by himself. One paper published a caricature in which William Henry is awed by the findings when the rest of the family forges more of them (as opposed to what was really going on). Samuel Ireland's reputation did not recover before his death in 1800.In 1805 William Henry published The Confessions of William Henry Ireland, but confession did not help his reputation. He took on a number of miscellaneous jobs as a hack writer but always found himself short of money. In 1814 he moved to France and worked in the French national library, continuing to publish books in London all the while. When he returned in 1823, he resumed his life of penury. In 1832 he published his own edition of Vortigern and Rowena (his father had originally published it in 1799) as his own play with very little success.
There has been recent scholarly interest in his later Gothic novels and his poetry. His illustrated Histories were popular, so to say that Ireland died in obscurity is probably not correct. He was, however, perpetually impoverished; he spent time in debtor's prison, and was constantly forced to borrow money from friends and strangers. When he died, his widow and daughters applied to the Literary Fund for relief. They received only token amounts.
Ireland is one of the main characters in Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd CBE is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More he won the Somerset Maugham Award...
's 2004 novel The Lambs of London, though the contacts with Charles and Mary Lamb
Mary Lamb
Mary Ann Lamb , was an English writer, the sister and collaborator of Charles Lamb.-Biography:She was born on 3 December 1764. In 1796, Mary, who had suffered a breakdown from the strain of caring for her family, killed her mother with a kitchen knife, and from then on had to be kept under constant...
have no basis in the historical record, and Ackroyd took many liberties with the story.
Publications include
- An Authentic Account of the Shaksperian Manuscripts, 1796. (Text at Wikisource)
- The Abbess: A RomanceThe AbbessThe Abbess: A Romance is a gothic novel by William Henry Ireland first published in 1799. . The eponymous central character, Mother Vittoria Bracciano is a female equivalent of 'Monk Lewis's Ambrosio, motivated by dark and powerful forces...
(4 volumes), 1799. (Gothic novel. reprinted in 1975, Ayer. ISBN 0-405-18670-3) - Rimualdo: Or, The Castle of Badajos, http://www.forewordmagazine.net/EX_search_reviews.aspx?Searchtype=ISBN&SearchCriteria=097672121X 1800. (Gothic novel. Reprinted in 2005, (Jeffrey Kahan, editor), Zittaw Press ISBN 0-9767212-1-X)
- Gondez the Monk: A Romance of the Thirteenth Centuryhttp://www.zittaw.com/gondez.htm 1805. (Gothic, reprinted in 2005, (Jeffrey Kahan, editor), Zittaw Press ISBN 0-9753395-8-3)
- The Confessions of William Henry Ireland 1805 http://www.elibron.com/english/other/item_detail.phtml?msg_id=10024805 (Text at Wikisource; reprinted 2001, Elibron Classics. ISBN 1-4021-2520-8)
- Scribbleomania: or the Printer's Devil's Polichronicon: a Sublime Poem, 1815. (Page images at Google Books)
- Memoirs of Jeanne d'Arc, surnamed La Pucelle d'Orleans, 1824 (two volumes). (Page images at Google Books: Volume 1 and Volume 2)
- A New and Complete History of the County of Kent (4 volumes), 1829-31. (Page images at Google Books: Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4; reprinted 1919, London: Virtue)
- Vortigern: an Historical Play, with an Original Preface, 1832, London: Joseph Thomas.
- Ireland's History of the Isle of Grain, 18xx. (Reprinted in 2002, Local History Publications. ISBN 1-85699-213-6)
- A New and Complete History of the Isle of Thanet ISBN 1-905477-10-4
- Ireland's History of Woolwich ISBN 1-85699-202-0
- Ireland's History of Chislehurst ISBN 1-85699-197-0
- Ireland's History of Gravesend ISBN 1-85699-211-X
Further reading
- Doug Stewart, The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly, 2010, Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81831-8
- Patricia Pierce, The Great Shakespeare Fraud: The Strange, True Story of William-Henry Ireland, 2004, Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-3393-3
- Jeffrey Kahan, Reforging Shakespeare: The Story of a Theatrical Scandal, 1998, Bethlehem London, Lehigh University Press; Associated University Presses. ISBN 0-934223-55-6
- Jeffrey Kahan, The Poetry of W.H. Ireland (1801-1815) Including the Poet's Imitations, Satires, Romantic Verses, and Commentaries on Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, and Others, 2003 http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=6101&pc=9 Mellen Press.
- Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery, 1965, W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., ASIN: B000NYH5X8
- Samuel Schoenbaum, "The Ireland Forgeries: An Unpublished Contemporary Account," in Shakespeare and Others (Washington, D.C.: Folger Books, 1985), pp. 144–53.
- Samuel Schoenbaum, "Shakespeare Forgeries: Ireland and Collier," in William Shakespeare: Records and Images (London: Scolar Press, 1981), pp. 117–54.
- Samuel Schoenbaum, Shakespeare's Lives (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970).
- Jack Lynch, chapter 7 of Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright into the Bard, 2007, Walker & Co.
- Jack Lynch, "The Picaresque Biography: William Henry Ireland," in Das Paradigma des Pikaresken/The Paradigm of the Picaresque, ed. Christoph Ehland and Robert Fajen (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2007), pp. 147–57.
- Jack Lynch, "William Henry Ireland's Authentic Forgeries," Princeton University Library Chronicle 66, no. 1 (Autumn 2004): 79–96.
- Paul CollinsPaul Collins-Athletes:* Paul Collins , American football player* Paul Collins , Canadian long-distance runner* Paul Collins , Australian rugby union international...
, "Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn't Change the World"