492 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



draft of tlie Dedication of the Rape of Liicrece! — "To the Right 

 Honourable Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton and Baron of 

 Titchfield. The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end, where- 

 of this pamphlet, without beginning, is but a superfluous moiety. The 

 warrant I have of your honourable disposition, not the worth of my 

 untutored lines, makes it assured of acceptance. What I have done 

 is yours; being part in all I have, devoted yours. Were my worth 

 greater, my duty would shew greater ; meantime, as it is, it is bound 

 to your lordship, to whom I wish long life, still lengthened with 

 happiness. Your lordship's in all duty, William Shakespeare." — 

 But unavailing regrets now are all these! In the Heber Library 

 was a copy of Warner's Albion's England, with a Shakspeare auto- 

 graph supposed genuine. (This is the Warner who was possibly once 

 the owner of my Gervaise Babington.) Sir Joseph Banks also had 

 books distinguished in like manner. Mr. Thomas Fisher of the 

 East India House likewise had a Bacon's Advancement of Learniny, 

 enriched in the same way. But with each of these, now mentioned, 

 the author of the Ireland forgeries is suspected to have had something 

 to do. Some manuscript verses, subscribed "W. Sh.," discovered at 

 Bridgewater House, are considered by Mr. Collier as a genuine auto- 

 graph. But even the forged productions, attributed to Shakspeare 

 by the Irelands, father and son, in 1796, and fully confessed to be 

 forgeries, have acquired a value as curiosities. One part of these 

 Papers fetched some time since at a sale in London, £46 5s. 



As a curiosity I show a specimen of a manufactured Shakspeare 

 autograph, with an annotation thereupon in the hand"svriting of 

 Mr. James Orchard Halliwell, the distinguished authority on Shak- 

 speare subjects. It is contained in my copy of Annibal Caro's Com-, 

 mento di Ser Agresto, sopra la prima Ficata del Padre Sicceo, printed 

 at " Bengodi" in 1584. Inside of its limp cover, under a fold of the 

 old vellum, in which the book was originally bound, was to be seen 

 the name of the great dramatist distinctly wi'itten. On the opposite 

 side Mr. Halliwell had written: "See Shakspeare's autograph under 

 the front edge of cover. I believe this forgery was once puifed, and 

 sold for a considerable sum. J. 0. H." When I had the little volume 

 put in order, I converted that portion of the old vellum cover which 

 bore the name, into a fly-leaf, as now seen. A value now attaches to 

 the book on account of the autograph of Mr. Halliwell, of which I 

 have abeady transcribed an example. 



