PREFACE. IN the year 1796 I gave to the world a concise pamphlet, in which I avowed myself the fabricator of the manuscripts attributed by me to Shakspeare. The papers themselves, and the circumstances attending their production, had so highly excited the public curiosity that the whole edition was disposed of in a few hours: and so great has since been the eagerness to procure a copy, that, though originally published at one shilling, a single impression has been sold, in a public auction-room, at the extravagant price of a guinea. This fact was known to many of my friends, who in consequence have often expressed surprise that I did not republish the pamphlet, and have frequently importuned me to do so: but the revival of the subject, I conceived, might rather tend to injure than benefit me as a literary character: besides, I had already suffered much from the agitation of the question, and had reason to wish it might for ever rest in peace. The consideration, however, that I do but injure my own reputation by silently bearing a more than merited portion of obloquy has at length incited me to give a narrative of the facts in the order in which they occurred, and a simple relation of the motives as they arose and operated on my conduct, that the world may be enabled to judge between my contemners and me, and that my character may be freed from the stigmas with which it has so undeservedly been sullied. In the course of the ensuing pages will be found various anecdotes of the principal persons who rendered themselves conspicuous during the Shaksperian controversy. These I have frequently detailed in the circle of my friends, who have invariably stated the entertainment they have received, and the full conviction that the public would experience an equal portion of amusement were the whole to be collected and placed before them in a publication similar to the one which I have in the present instance adopted. Many of the poetic effusions interspersed throughout the subsequent pages were written with the intention of being handed to Mr. S. Ireland as the composi tions of Shakspeare; but the avowal of the whole fabrication speedily following, they were never transcribed in the disguised hand: they have therefore remained ever since in their original state, and are now for the first time exposed to general view. To his Royal Highness the PRINCE OF WALES I have ventured to dedicate an effusion, the genuine feelings of my soul; for I have ever beheld in that august personage a concentration of all the attributes which confer honour on the elevated station he was born to fill. To George Chalmers, esq., I have addressed a letter, containing an apology for my literary imposition, and craving his pardon and that of the other respectable gentlemen who thought with him, whose forgiveness I am anxious to ob |