IRELAND, SAMUEL WILLIAM HENRY (though he dropped the Samuel to all his productions), was the son of the preceding, and was born in Norfolk-street, Strand, in 1777. He would be scarcely worth a notice, except in connection with the Shakepere forgeries, as to which the credulity of many eminent men is far more remarkable than the skill of their concoction. Ireland received an education at several private schools and in France. When about sixteen he was articled to a conveyancer in New Inn. In 3795, as we have already stated, he accompanied his father on a visit to Stratford and the Avon ; and he says his father's enthusiasm for Sbakspere, and his ardent desire to possess any sort of relics, first induced him to forge a deed, or lease, containing a pretended autograph of Shakapere, which he presented to his father as having found among some old law papers. The father was delighted, and suggested that something more might be found in the same quarter. Thus invited, young Ire land continued his work till he had produced a quantity sufficient to form the publication already spoken of. It is not necessary to give a list of this worthless rubbish, but it was announced, that among the Shakspere papers was a new play, entitled Vortigern; also by Shak spere, which would not be published till after it had been performed. Sheridan purchased it for Drury-Lane Theatre, though he does not seem to have had a high notion of its merits. It was produced, with John Kemble as Vortigern. The house was crowded, nod had most likely come prepared to applaud. But the inanity of the play was too much for them ; they listened in vain for somo Shaksperean touch, and when Kemble, in his part, uttered the line— " And now this solemn mockery is o'er," the storm burst ; the disapprobation was decided and loud, and when the curtain dropped, lVortigern' disappeared from the stage for ever. In the
meantime the attacks of Malone and others, denying the authenticity of the papers, had rendered the elder Ireland uneasy. He required his son to discover the source from which be had procured the pretended Shakeperean manuscripts, and at length ho was forced to acknowledge the deception he had practised. He left his father's house, and aban doned his profession. He wrote a number of other works, which were published at various times. At the end of 1796 he had published his first announcement that he was himself the author of all the papers published as Sliskspere'ra to vindicate, as be says, his father from the charge of having been an accomplice. This was expanded into his Confessions,' published in 1805—a work alike remarkable for its vanity and its emptiness. He also wrote the romances of The Abbess' and Gandez the Monk,' each in four volumes, published in 1799 and 1804 ; The Woman of Feeling,' a novel, in four volumes; 'Neglected Genius,' a poem, in 1812, with many others; none of which were of more value than his Shakepere papers, and drew infinitely less attention. Subsequently he wrote various things for the booksellers, of which the moat important perhaps was the descriptive part of an illustrated ' History of Kent,' in 4 vols. Ho died on April 17, 3835.