Greek roots is noticeable; for example, in swered. On turning to the chapter that the words gnosophes (priests), koriam (lord), treats of "the situation, etc., of the isle," kay (and), etc. On this point, however, the we find a passage not contained in the author does not comment, although men- first edition wherein the sun's verticality tioning the curious fact that Greek is gen- at midsummer is curtly mentioned. To erally taught in the public academies. unenlightened readers these passages The first edition of the work was rap- might seem commonplace announcements. idly sold, and a second called for in the fol-"Rem acu tetigisti!" cried those in the lowing year. In the interval Psalmanazar secret. The eminent astronomer and his was sent to Oxford by the Bishop of Lon-learned companions, Drs. Mead and don and other patrons, in order to com- Woodward, gave their own version of the plete his education and prepare himself for conversation referred to. When they returning as a missionary to the island. questioned him respecting the sun's posiSome account of an interview with him at tion and the length of twilight, he was this period has been left by a contempo- utterly dumb-foundered. In any one less rary.* Being questioned respecting the remarkable for exact observation and average duration of life in Formosa, he retentive memory, a lapse on such points stated it to range from one hundred to might not excite suspicion; in Psalmanaone hundred and twenty, a longevity which zar's case the savans, coupling it with the he ascribed to the national practice of other incredibilities of his story, can arrive sucking warm viper's blood in the morn- at but one conclusion that he is an iming. A lady of the party expressing hor-pudent impostor. ror at its being the custom of Formosan Slowly and reluctantly the public mind husbands to cut off the heads of their un- was brought to acquiesce in this view. faithful wives, he protested that he could For a considerable time the adventurer not even now consider it a sin, but admitted braved exposure, and retained a congregasmilingly that it was certainly "unman- tion of believers. Some influential patrons nerly." He did not remain long at Oxford, procured him private tutorships, a regibeing called to London that he might mental clerkship, and other appointments, superintend the issue of his second edition. but he failed to keep them. His next The preface and several passages of the stroke of imposture was to lend his name text testify to the growth of a formidable to the advertisements of one Pattenden, crop of objections to the truth of his narra- the inventor of a "white Japan enamel," tive since the first edition appeared. Of which the public was requested to believe these the author deals with twenty-five, had been prepared from a Formosan some of which would perplex a skilled recipe. The public, however, either quescasuist; but with charming agility he man- tioned the statement, or whether, if true, ages either to evade or leap over every the enamel was recommended by its origin difficulty. His statement, for example, at any rate declined to purchase it. He that eighteen thousand boys' hearts were maintained his assumed character neverannually sacrificed, has been questioned on theless for some years longer, and so late the ground that such a practice would long as 1716 found a sufficient number of subsince have depopulated the island; but he scribers to make up an annuity of 20%. or explains that he only referred to this num-30%. for him as a "convert." He evenber as legally required by the priests. tually underwent what appears to have Bribery, prompted by parental affection, been a genuine conversion, abandoned his no doubt tended greatly to diminish it. career of imposture, and set about obtainDoes any one question his ability to remem-ing an honest livelihood. Few rogues ber the precise words of the letter written by Meryaandanoo? The answer is simple and sufficient: "My father has a copy of the letter by him."

The preface briefly alludes to a recent conversation which the author had with "Captain Halley, Savilian Professor of the Mathematics, Oxford, and some other gentlemen," touching the sun's position at midday and the duration of twilight in Formosa, all their inquiries upon which subjects he declares were satisfactorily an

* Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxv., p. 78.

have ended their days so creditably. Through the aid of a kindly publisher he procured employment as a literary drudge, and for half a century worked upon the "Universal History" and other meritorious but now obsolete productions. He long outlived his infamy, and the world -if it heard his name at all-knew it only as that of a learned, assiduous, inoffensive man of letters. Dr. Johnson delighted in his society, and has recorded him with affectionate praise as one of the best men he had ever known. He died in 1763, leaving directions that his MS. autobi

There can be no doubt that one or both

shrewd estimate of the character of the society which they undertook to delude. The inception of the scheme was due to Psalmanazar, but Innes must be credited with the idea of executing it in England, and cloaking it in the attractive garb of religion. In the excited state of the pub

ography should be published for the bene- | fit of his executrix, an old woman in whose of these astute knaves had formed a house he had long lodged. This singular narrative, published in the following year, contains a full confession of what the writer calls "the base and shameful imposture of passing upon the world for a native of Formosa and a convert to Christianity, and backing it with a fictitious account of that island and of my own trav-lic mind upon that subject, no bait could els, conversion, etc., all or most of it hatched in my own brain without regard to truth or honesty."

be better timed than a fiction which aggravated the Protestant hatred of Jesuitical craft and exalted the via media of Anglicanism above all the rest of the Reformed Churches. That the religious world of England had recently begun to feel inter

While maintaining reserve as to his real name, parentage, and place of birth, he confesses that "out of Europe I was not born, nor educated, nor ever travested in missions to the heathen, was elled." He received his early training un- another fact which the chaplain with his der the Jesuits in the south of France, to professional training was not likely to overwhom he was indebted for his proficiency look. The historical details of the fraud in Latin and the acquaintance which he were concocted by Psalmanazar alone, displayed with the current questions of after he had resided for some months in theological polemics. Preferring a vaga. England, and enjoyed ample opportunities bond life in France and Germany to any of observation. The systematic shape in settled occupation, but finding it difficult which they appear in his work may thus to subsist, he assumed the disguise of a be regarded as embodying his deliberate Japanese convert for the purpose of ex- calculation of the extent to which the pubciting sympathy. Failing in this attempt, lic appetite for marvels would bear cramhe adopted the rôle of a heathen fugitive, ming. No society, perhaps, ever afforded and invented the outlines of the impos- a better subject for experiment than that ture which he subsequently elaborated in in which he found himself. The faithful his "Account of Formosa." Having been mirror of the time which Steele and Addipressed into the service of the elector of son held up for it in "The Spectator," has Cologne, and accompanying his regiment reflected one feature of its likeness as to Sluys, he there fell in with Innes, who especially prominent. Athens, Rome, and undertook to convert him to Christianity. Paris, in their most frivolous days, cannot During the colloquies that ensued, the have displayed a more feverish eagerness chaplain discovered and taxed him with "to tell and to hear some new thing," than the imposture; but, instead of disclosing possessed the London of Anne. In one it, proposed to become his accomplice. A paper, marked by his favorite vein of quiet scheme which should be mutually advan- satire, Addison ridicules "the general tageous was then matured between them. thirst after news" which could not be sated Innes saw the opportunity which offered without some daily draught, however vapid of securing a reputation for professional or stale. "It is notorious," he says, zeal and a prospect of preferment, while men who frequent coffee-houses and dePsalmanazar was ambitious of obtaining light in news are pleased with everything his discharge from the army and figuring that is matter of fact, so it be what they as a lion in London society. Having gone have not heard before. A victory or a dethrough the farce of "converting" his con- feat is equally agreeable to them; the federate, Innes found a dupe in Brigadier shutting of a cardinal's mouth pleases Lauder, who consented to stand as spon- them one post, and the opening of it sor at the baptism. The story was then another.... They read the advertisecommunicated to the Bishop of London, ments with the same curiosity as the artiwho unhesitatingly received it for gospel, cles of public news, and are as pleased to and gave the chaplain and his proselyte hear of a piebald horse that is strayed out the desired invitation to England. Soon of a field near Islington as of a whole after their arrival, a lucrative regimental troop that has been engaged in any foreign chaplaincy in Portugal became vacant, and adventure. In short, they have a relish was placed at the disposal of Innes, who for everything that is news, let the matter left Psalmanazar to carry on the fraud of it be what it will; or, to speak more alone, which he proceeded to do in the properly, they are men of a voracious apmanner already told. petite but no taste." The writer in whose

"that

mouth he puts these observations is represented as a "projector who is willing to turn a penny by this remarkable curiosity of his countrymen," and accordingly proposes to start "a daily paper which shall comprehend in it all the most remarkable occurrences in every little town, village, and hamlet that lie within ten miles of

London."* In another paper Addison illustrates the avidity with which the quidnuncs of the day seized upon any material for gossip, however untrustworthy, by recounting how he tracked from coffeehouse to coffee-house the passage of a casual report that the king of France was dead, and how the serious discussions to which it gave rise suddenly collapsed upon the arrival of another report that his Majesty had just taken an airing.†

for curing cataracts upon the credit of having, as his bill sets forth, lost an eye in the emperor's service. His patients come in upon this, and he shows the muster-roll, which confirms that he was in his Imperial Majesty's troops, and he puts out their eyes with great success.' "'*

It was on the symptoms of this epidemic phrenitis, while yet in an early stage, that Psalmanazar reckoned for success. Having already secured the suffrages of the religious world, he proceeded to draw the majority of his dupes from the class to which Steele refers as "ignorant people of quality." The Sir Plumes and Dapperwits, who passed their lives in retailing club and coffee-house gossip, required no better evidence of his savage origin than that he ate roots and raw meat, and told The advantage which charlatans took of monstrous stories of cannibal atrocity and this disposition in the public mind to ac- repulsive modes of life. The fine ladies cept any statement for truth is the subject to whom these marvels were repeated were of other papers from the pen of Steele. well-disposed to a visitor who described a Of Duncan Campbell, the deaf and dumb state of existence so unlike their own. fortune-teller, already named, he says An affected love of simplicity is a familiar "that the blind Tiresias was not more characteristic of the most artificial sociefamous in Greece than this dumb artist ties, and there are always to be found has been for some years last past in the "Mrs. Merdles," who, though forced to cities of London and Westminster." All live in the fashionable world," are pastoral classes of society showed an equal readi- to a degree by nature, and would have ness to take pretenders at their own valu- been charmed to be savages in the tropical ation, and a robustness of faith that was seas." Psalmanazar had wit to discern the staggered by no demonstration of their prevalence of a tendency which had already falsehood. "There is hardly a man in the given rise to Arcadian verse, and was world, one would think, so ignorant as not about to develop the "Dresden-shepherd to know that the ordinary quack doctors period" of art, and played his game acwho publish their great abilities in little cordingly. His invention of a barbarous brown billets, distributed to all that pass alphabet and grammar was plausible by, are to a man impostors and murderers. enough to mystify even men of culture, Yet such is the credulity of the vulgar and acquainted only with the classical lanthe impudence of these professors that the guages of Europe, and ignorant of the affair still goes on, and new promises of rudiments of comparative philology. Litwhat was never done before are made erary critics were equally baffled by the every day." After quoting one of these ingenuity with which, while pretending to advertisements from a "professed surgeon, rectify the misstatements of previous hislately come from his travels, after twenty-torians, he pieced together so much of four years' practice by sea and land," who their information as sufficed, with additions affects to cure "all diseases incident to of his own, to compose an independent men, women, and children," Steele pro- narrative. It was not until the light of a ceeds "There is something unaccount-positive science had been brought to bear ably taking among the vulgar, in those who upon his fabrication that its true character come from a great way off. Ignorant peo- was detected. ple of quality, as many there are of such, Early in 1795, Mr. Samuel Ireland, well doat excessively this way, many instances known in the literary world of London as of which every man will suggest to him- a collector of rare books and prints, and self, without my enumerating them." Among the impostors who profitably traded upon this footing, he names "a doctor, in Mouse Alley, near Wapping, who sets up

Spectator, No. 452.
t Ibid., No. 625.
Ibid., No. 474.

the author of several contributions to belles-lettres, publicly announced that he had come into possession of a large number of MSS. in the handwriting of Shakespeare, the authenticity of which he was

*Spectator, No. 444.

great that Mr. Ireland's house in Norfolk Street was besieged by visitors, and he had to limit their number by orders and the days of admission to three in the week. The publication of the MSS. by subscription was soon announced, and the first volume was issued in 1796 at the price of four guineas, under the editorship of Mr. Ireland. The list of subscribers for this handsome folio included many persons of celebrity, besides those already named, and the committees of several public libraries.

desirous of submitting to the opinion of all competent judges. His latest illustrated work had been devoted to the scenery of the Warwickshire Avon, which he had explored with the particular object of gleaning any unknown memorials relating to the poet, of whose genius and fame he was a fervently avowed worshipper; so that this momentous discovery appealed to the sympathy of all like-minded enthusiasts as the legitimate reward of much pious labor. His invitation to inspect the MSS. was accepted by a large concourse of the brotherhood, including several men of high In an ornate preface the editor, describliterary distinction. Few living scholars ing the instalment as "part of that valuwere more erudite than Dr. Parr, Dr. able treasure of our Shakespeare, which Valpy, and Dr. Joseph Warton. George having been by accident discovered in Chalmers and John Pinkerton were ex- MS., has since been deposited in his perts, specially skilled in old English liter- hands," assures the public that from the ature. The professional antiquaries were "first moment of their discovery he has well represented by Sir Isaac Heard, labored by every means to inform himself garter-king-at-arms, and Francis Towns- with respect to the validity of these interhend, Windsor herald; and miscellane-esting papers;" that "he has courted, he ous men of letters by R. B. Sheridan, Sir has even challenged the critical judgment Herbert Croft, H. J. Pye, the poet laureate, and James Boswell. After carefully collating the principal MSS. with the poet's undoubted autographs, these critics expressed a firm conviction of their authenticity, and a certificate to that effect was numerously signed. A collection of rarer literary and biographical value was certainly never offered to the world. It comprised the entire MS. of "Lear," varying in some important respects from the printed copies; a fragment of "Hamlet;" two unpublished plays, entitled "Vortigern" and "Henry the Second;" a numof books from the poet's library, enriched with copious marginal notes; besides letters to Anne Hathaway, Lord Southampton, and others; a "Profession of Faith," legal contracts, deeds of gift, and autograph receipts. The external evidence for the authenticity of these precious remains was pronounced by the attesting critics to be strikingly confirmed by their internal evidence. The inimitable style of the master was to be clearly discerned in the unpublished writings. After hearing the "Profession of Faith" read, Warton exclaimed, "We have very fine things in our Church service, and our litany abounds with beauties; but here is a man who has distanced us all!" Boswell, before signing the certificate of authenticity fell upon his knees to kiss "the invaluable relics of our bard," and, "in a tone of enthusiasm and exultation, thanked God that he had lived to witness the discovery, and could now die in peace." The public interest excited by the discovery was so

of those who are best skilled in the poetry or phraseology of the times in which Shakespeare lived, as well as those whose profession or course of study has made them conversant with ancient deeds, writings, seals, and autographs ;' that, not content with having them tested by "the scholar, the man of taste, the antiquarian, and the herald," he has submitted them to the "practical experience of the papermaker," and, as the result of these investigations, has" the satisfaction of announcing to the public that, as far as he has been able to collect the sentiments of the several classes of persons above referred to, they have unanimously testified in favor of their authenticity, and declared that where there was such a mass of evidence, internal and external, it was impossible, amidst such various sources of detection, for the art of imitation to have hazarded so much without betraying itself, and consequently that these papers can be no other than the production of Shakespeare himself." Respecting the source whence they were obtained, some little reserve was unavoidably necessary. The editor "received them from his son, Samuel William Henry Ireland, a young man then under nineteen years of age, by whom the discovery was accidentally made at the house of a gentleman of considerable property." The contracts to which Shakespeare was a party were "first found among a mass of family papers, and soon afterwards the deed of gift to William Henry Ireland, described as Shakespeare's friend, in consequence of having saved his life from

now preparing for representation at Drury Lane." Facsimiles are then given of the acknowledged autographs of Shakespeare for comparison with the signatures attached to the following documents. Passing over such as are of a formal character, we will select extracts from those which illustrate the personal indicia of style relied upon by the editor and his fellowexperts as the crucial evidence of authenticity. The first shall be from a letter addressed by the poet to " Anna Hatherrewaye," enclosing a braided lock of his hair:

drowning in the Thames." The owner of In like manner the phrase "presented the papers was struck by the coincidence nakedness" in the quarto has been corthat they should be discovered by a name- rupted from "Adam-lyke nakednesse" in sake of this person, who bore the same the MS. The poet's own opinion of these arms, and when further searches disclosed variations between the original and the the existence of some title-deeds which printed text of his plays is plainly declared established his right to a valuable estate, in a deed of trust to John Hemynge, he generously rewarded the young anti- which forms part of the present collection: quary's services by a present of all the "Shod they bee ever agayne imprintedd I Shakespearian MSS. that could be found doe orderr thatt theye bee soe donn from at either of his houses in town or country. these mye true writtenn playes, ande nott The most precious portions of the collec- from those nowe prynted." tion were brought to light at the latter. The preface concludes with a glowing Permission to publish them had been given announcement of the yet unpublished manby the owner, but with the express stipu-uscripts, including the "play of "Vortigern,’ lation that his name should not appear. His reasons for withholding it the editor did not feel justified in asking, nor would he importune him "to subject himself to the impertinence and licentiousness of literary curiosity and cavil, unless he should himself voluntarily come forward." The supposition that a disclosure of the name was requisite to remove any doubts respecting the authenticity of the MSS. would be scouted by "the real critic or antiquarian as an insult to his "art or science." "So superior and transcendent is the genius of Shakespeare, that scarce any attempts to rival or imitate him, and those too contemptible to notice, have ever been made." The style would speak for itself. "To the man of taste and lover of simplicity, to the sound critic . . it will be apparent, upon collating the printed copies of "Lear" with the MS. now discovered, that the alterations in the former were introduced by the players, and are deviations from that spontaneous flow of soul and simple diction which so eminently distinguish this great author of nature." Parallel passages from the MS. and the quarto of 1608 are adduced for compariIn Act II., scene 2, the speech of Goneril's steward is thus given in the quarto:

son.

I praye you perfume thys mye poore locke with thye balmye kysses, forre thenne indeede shalle Kynges themmeselves bowe and paye homage toe itte. I doe assure thee no rude hande hath knottedde itte-thye Willye alone hath done the worke. Neytherre the gyldedde bawble thatte envzronnes the heade of Majestye noe norre honourres moste weyghtye woulde give mee halfe the joye as didde thysse The feelinge mye lyttle worke forre thee. thatte whiche commeth nyghest unto God, thatte dydde nearest approache untoe itte was meeke and gentle charytye, forre thatte virrtue O Anna doe I love, doe I cheryshe thee inne mye hearte, forre thou arte ass a talle cedarre stretchynge forthe its branches, and succourynge the smalle plants fromme nyppynge winneterre or the boysterousse wyndes. Farewelle, toe-morrowe bye times I will see thee, tille thenne Adewe sweet love, Thine everre, William Shakespeare.

We have next a copy of verses to the same lady, of which the following is a specimen: