Page:Observations on an autograph of Shakespeare, and the orthography of his name.djvu/14

 and utterly unworthy of the controversy they occasioned; indeed, they can only be justly characterised in the words of Malone, as "the genuine offspring of consummate ignorance and unparalleled audacity." At the present day the study and knowledge of ancient manuscripts, the progress of our language, and the rules of exact criticism in matters of this kind have become too extensively spread to allow us to suppose any similar attempt will ever disgrace our literature; but for the sake; of gratifying curiosity, and of a comparison between the genuine autograph of Shakspere, and the miserable imitations of Master William Henry Ireland, I am enabled, by the kindness of Sir Henry Ellis, to exhibit to the Society a paper in the hand-writing of the forger, in which may be seen at one view his copies of other genuine signatures of the poet, and his own avowal of his fabrications. The present autograph challenges and defies suspicion, and has already passed the ordeal of numerous competent examiners, all of whom have, without a single doubt, expressed their conviction of its genuineness.