r 9 ] 



It was by an accurate knowledge of the mode of writing and: 

 fpelling when Shakefpear lived, by comparing the pretended 

 hand-writing of Queen Elizabeth and others with their real auto- 

 graphs, and by pointing out feveral variations from the manners 

 and cuftoms of that period, that an eminent critic was able com- 

 pletely to deted the late forgery of manufcripts in the name of 

 Shakefpear, which at firft impofed upon many literary men. 

 Thus did his refearches into the manufcripts and publications of 

 the Shakefpcarian age enable this gentleman to prefervc uncon- 

 taminated the produdions of a poet who is his country's pride, 

 as they had before enabled him to illuftrate them in a more fatis- 

 fadlory manner than any of his predeceffors. 



Since fuch advantages may be derived from an acquaintance 

 with manufcript papers of paft ages, it becomes a duty incumbent 

 upon thofc who meet with fuch remains of antiquities ai have 

 continued in private families, either to publifh copies of them if 

 they prove fufficicntly interefting, or at Icaft to fignify the con- 

 tents of them, and where they may be confulted for the infor- 

 mation of thofe whofe purfuits may be affifted by a perufal of 

 them. 



With this view it is intended in the prefent Effay to give an 

 account of fome papers which belonged to Sir Philip Hoby, am- 

 baffadour from King Edward the fixth to the Emperor Charles 

 the fifth, which are contained in two volumes folio, at prefent 

 the property of William Hare, Efq; M. P. for Cork, by whom 



they 



