The Confessions of William-Henry Ireland, containing the Particulars of His Fabrication of the Shakspeare Manuscripts (publisher's binding)

London: Printed by Ellerton and Byworth, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, for Thomas Goddard, Corner of Pall Mall and the Haymarket, 1805. Book. Good. Hardcover. First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Rare, original state. Bound in publisher's(?) plain tan quarter-leather over drab boards with patina, untrimmed page edges, cheap paper pastedowns: a binding not meant to survive but this has. Mirrored printing offset to rear pastedown, evidently an Edinburgh advertisement for Jeffery's West-India Atlas recycled? Minor foxing to the frontispiece (as usual); some staining to the top edge showing in the top margins throughout not affecting text; occasional marginal pencil lines. Hairline cracks to the leather joints but the boards are firmly attached, sewing strong, corners are rubbed with some little chipping to the board edges. Book label of an early (perhaps contemporary) owner to the front pastedown sadly rubbed out leaving the bordered edges. Complete. Illustrated with two plates: frontispiece of the Quintain Seal, and plate of Shakespeare signatures. [7], 317 pp [17, index]. A good, untrimmed copy in plain boards. # 503, Freeman, Bibliotheca Fictiva. The young William Henry Ireland (1775-1835), son of a Shakespeare-adoring antiquary, committed a series of deceptions, forging documents and so forth which he passed off as long-lost Shakespeare originals. His spurious lost-Shakespeare-play 'Vortigern and Rowena' made it to a disastrous first night in 1796. The Confessions on offer here is a first edition of the culmination of the controversy. Photos available upon request. .