COLLIER, JOHN PAYNE 0789-1883), English Shake spearian critic, was born in London, on Jan. 1789. The son of a journalist, he was on the staff of the Morning Chronicle and then of The Times for some time. He entered the Middle Temple in 1811, but was not called to the bar until 1829. The delay was partly due to his indiscretion in publishing the Criticisms on the Bar (ISI9) by "Amicus Curiae." Collier's first important work for the English drama was a new edition of Dodsley's Old Plays (1825-27), and a supplementary volume, Five Old Plays (1833). In 1831 appeared his History of English Dramatic Poetry and Annals of the Stage to the Restoration. He then became librarian to the duke of Devonshire, and gained access to the chief collec tions of early English literature throughout the kingdom, espe cially to the treasures of Bridgewater House. From 1835 to 1839 he published New Facts, New Particulars and Further Particulars respecting Shakespeare, and in 1852 the famous Perkins Folio, a copy of the second folio (1632), so called from a name written on the title page. On this book were numerous Ms. emendations of Shakespeare said by Collier to be from the hand of "an old corrector." He published these corrections as Notes and Emenda tions to the Text of Shakespeare (1852), and incorporated them in his edition (1853) of Shakespeare. Their authenticity was disputed by S. W. Singer in The Text of Shakespeare Vindicated (1853) and by E. A. Brae in Literary Cookery (1855) on inter nal evidence; and when in 1859 the folio was submitted by its owner, the duke of Devonshire, to experts at the British Museum, the emendations were incontestably proved to be forgeries of modern date. Collier was exposed by Mr. Nicholas Hamilton in his Inquiry (1860). The point whether he was deceiver or de ceived was left undecided, but the falsifications of which he was unquestionably guilty among the Mss. at Dulwich college have left little doubt. He forged the name of Shakespeare in a genu ine letter at Dulwich, and the spurious entries in Alleyn's Diary were proved to be by Collier's hand when the sale of his library in 1884 gave access to a transcript he had made of the Diary with interlineations corresponding with the Dulwich forgeries. No statement of his can be accepted without verification, and no manuscript he has handled without careful examination, but he did much useful work. He compiled a valuable Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language 0865); he reprinted a great number of early English tracts of extreme rarity. His Old Man's Diary. (1871-72) is an interesting record. He died at Maidenhead on Sept. 17, 1883.
For an account of the discussion raised by Collier's emendations see C. M. Ingleby, Complete View of the Shakespeare Controversy (1861). See also H. B. wheatley, Life of J. P. Collier (London, 1884)•