William Henry Ireland

Samuel William Henry Ireland (1777 – 1835) was a forger of would-be Shakespearean documents and plays. He is less well-known as a poet, writer of gothic novels and histories.

Early life

Although Ireland claimed throughout his life that he was born in London in 1777, recently discovered evidence puts his birth two years earlier, in April 1775. His father, Samuel Ireland, was a successful publisher of travelogues, 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.

Son William also became a collector of books. Some of Ireland's biographers also suggest that he had heard about Thomas Chatterton and the Ossian poems of James Macpherson. When he was apprenticed to a mortgage lawyer, Ireland begun 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 deed 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.

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.

In January 1796, Samuel Ireland published his own book about the papers – Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare. More people took interest in the matter and the plot begun to unravel.

"The Solemn Mockery"

At the age of 18, Ireland became bolder and produced a whole new play – Vortigern and Rowena. Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan acquired rights for the first production of the play at London's Drury Lane Theatre for 300 pounds, 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, had serious doubts about its authenticity. Then, on March 21, 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.

Vortigern and Rowena opened on April 2, 1796 but Kemble used the chance to hint at his opinion by repeating Vortigern's line "and when this solemn mockery is o'er," and the play was greeted with the audience's catcalls. The play had only one performance.

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 thorough confession did not help his reputation and he moved to France. When he returned in 1832, he published Vortigern and Rowena 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.

Ireland is one of the main characters in Peter Ackroyd's 2004 novel The Lambs of London.

Publications include

The Abbess: a Romance (4 volumes), 1799, gothic novel. reprinted in 1975, Ayer. ISBN 0-405-18670-3
Rimualdo: Or, The Castle of Badajos, [1] 1800, gothic novel. Reprinted in 2005, (Jeffrey Kahan, editor), Zittaw Press ISBN 0-9767212-1-X
Gondez the Monk: A Romance of the Thirteenth Century[2] 1805, gothic, reprinted in 2005, (Jeffrey Kahan, editor), Zittaw Press ISBN 0-9753395-8-3
The Confessions of William Henry Ireland 1805 [3] Reprinted 2001, Elibron Classics. ISBN 1-4021-2520-8
Scribbleomania: or the Printer's Devil's Polichronicon: a Sublime Poem, 1815.
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 County of Kent (4 volumes), 1831, reprinted 1919, London: Virtue.
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
Vortigern: an Historical Play, with an Original Preface, 1832, London: Joseph Thomas.

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