ORIGINALS OF IRELAND FORGERIES ARE ACQUIRED

A Collection of the originals of the Ireland forgeries, the well-known literary fraud of the eighteenth century, have recently been acquired by the Harvard College Library. These papers comprise the most famous and the most successful of Shakespearian forgeries, and include both letters which purported to be in his handwriting and pages of the manuscripts of his plays. The author of the forgeries, William Henry Ireland, published them in 1796, claiming to have discovered them in his attic. For a while the forgeries were accepted as authentic by leading authorities to whom Ireland submitted them for examination, but eventually pressure upon the author became so strong that he published a full confession, thereby gaining both notoriety and fortune.

The forgeries were obtained from Maggs Brothers of London partly through purchase by the Library and partly as a gift from assistant professor Gordon Ireland '01. They are a unique possession and of considerable value, since their "discovery" was perhaps one of the most gigantic literary frauds ever successfully maintained for any length of time.

Ireland was a man of experience and ability in work requiring great attention to detail. As a result, the forgeries were so well done that they gave every evidence of authenticity. They included, among other things, portions of Shakespeare's correspondence with Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of Southampton, the Earl of Leicester and others of note, as well as a number of signatures allegedly those of Shakespeare. A page of the original manuscript of "Hamlet", which, if authentic, would be of immense value, was among the papers. There was a love letter to Anne Hathaway and a tribute to an ancestor of Ireland's for having saved Shakespeare's life, a device used by Ireland to strengthen his story. The author even went so far as to include a blank sheet of paper bearing a characteristically Elizabethan watermark in order to lend an air of validity to the documents.

A complete new play, which was originally included among the forgeries but which is not in the Library collection, called "Vortigen" was produced at the Globe Theatre in London, where, on the opening night, it was greeted by laughter. If "Vortigen" had been successful Ireland planned to bring forth a whole series of allegedly Shakespearian plays. As it was, the production of the play only contributed to the disclosure of the hoax.

The forgeries are in the original volume in which they were bound by the author. They are accompanied by a preface largely devoted to an exposition of the validity of Ireland's claims, and the pages of the book in which they are mounted are cut through so as to reveal both sides of the papers