Page:An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Papers and Instruments attributed to Shakspeare.djvu/43

Rh would have the goodness to pardon, his principal being unable to attend. For his absence, he added, he should presume to state several substantial reasons, the first of which was, that he was dead. It is almost needless to say, that the simple deputy was told, he might ‘‘spare his arithmetick,” and that it was unnecessary to give himself any further trouble on that head. By following the example of this provincial orator, and producing at once a genuine specimen of her Majesty’s hand-writing, I might certainly save myself some trouble; but I choose rather to follow the course I have chalked out, and to take a wider range; because, though I am perfectly aware that the disquisition is supererogatory, it may tend to produce a more full and complete conviction in the minds of many of my readers.

1. first topick I am to consider is, the .—In the Chattertonian Controversy, in order to ascertain the spuriousness of the poems attributed by the youth, Chatterton, to Thomas Rowley, the author of one of the earliest pamphlets