282 POTATOES. [PART n. 



critical classes of the nation most firmly believ 

 ed the writings to be Shakespear's ; and, there 

 cannot be a doubt, that, if Mr. Ireland had 

 been able to keep his secret, they would have 

 passed for Shakespear's 'till the time shall come 

 when the whole heap of trash will, by the na 

 tural good sense of the nation, be consigned to 

 everlasting oblivion ; and, indeed, as folly ever 

 doats on a darling, it is very likely, that these 

 last found productions of " our immortal bard" 

 would have been regarded as his best. Yet, in 

 spite of all this ; in spite of what one would 

 have thought was sufficient to make blind 

 people see, the fashkm has been kept up ; and, 

 what excites something more than ridicule and 

 contempt, Mr. Ireland, whose writings had 

 been taken for Shakespear's, was, when he 

 made the discovery, treated as an impostor and 

 a cheat, and hunted down with as much ran 

 cour as if he had written against the buying 

 and selling of seats in Parliament. The learned 

 men ; the sage critics ; the Shakespear-mad folks ; 

 were all so ashamed, that they endeavoured to 

 draw the public attention from themselves to 

 the young man. It was of his impositions that 

 they now talked, and not of their own folly. 

 When the witty clown, mentioned in Don 

 Quixote, put the nuncio's audience to shame 

 by pulling the real pig out from under hi 



