The British Musrum Slander And Bro. John Payne Collier.*

ject on which I am about to trouble you is the copy of the folio 1632 oi Shakespeare , with the MS . emendations , ivhich you have lately given to the world , aud for which every lover of Shakespeare is so deeply indebted to you . " The information which I wish to give you may , if followed up , enable you to trace the ownership of that copy for at least a century back .

A friend of mine , Mr . Parry , with whom I was lately conversing oil your extraordinary and interesting discovery , told me ho many years ago possessed a copy of the folio 1632 ivhich had marginal notes iu manuscript , and which , being in bad order , he never consulted . This copy he lost , ho did not know how , and gave himself no concern about it .

" When 1 showed him the facsimile of the page , out of Henry VI ., which forms the frontispiece to your work , Mr . Parry told me he had no doubt that the copy was the same as that which he lost , as he remembered very well the handwriting , and the state of preservation . I pressed him to give me all particulars about the work , and how it came into his possession . He told me that it was given him , with many old hooks , by an uncle of the name of Grey , who was a literary man , and fond of curious works . Mr . Parry believes that Mr . Grey got the copy

at the sale of the Perkins library ; and all I could learn of these Perkins ' s is , that they were related to Pope ' s Arabella termor , and that all the family were dead when the sale of their library took place . I urged Mr . Parry to inform you of these circumstances , thinking that they might interest you greatly , and hoping that if you could once trace the copy into the hands of one of the name of Perkins upwards , it might be a clue to a further discovery . Whether from indolence or from modestMr . ParryI findhas not communicated with and

y , , , you ; I therefore told him that I assuredly would , as every fragment of information on such a subject had its value . " Trusting to your indulgence , and your zeal for our great poet , to excuse the liberty I have taken , believe me to be , sir , " Your faithful and obedient Servant , " J . Payne Collier , Esq . " ' ¦ ' JOHX CAKBICK MOORE . " Upon , this Bro . Collier had an interview ivith Mr . Parry ,

the gentleman named above , ancl on shewing him the book , Mr . Parry replied , " That Avas my book ; it is the same , but it has beon much ill-used since it ivas in my possession . " A statement he afterwards sli g htly qualified in his letter to the Times of August 1 st , 1859 . Bro . Collier next deals with the pencil marksivhich no

, other officer of the British Museum seems to havo seen until Mr . Hamilton found them , Avhich , he tells us , that he Avas "' the first to discover ! " and which at the time of this discovery (?) were blazoned forth as being "thousands " in number , whereas he can IIOAV but produce fifteen ! Again does Bro . Collier deny all knoAvledge of themor any

com-, plicity in their fabrication , aud adduces the testimony of Mr . Joseph Netkercliffc , senior , whose avocation is so Mended with marks of all kinds that he , surely , cannot err . Mr . N . writes thus : —

J . lo , St . Martin s-lanc , February 22 . '' Seeing in the Atheiueum , of last Saturday that my name has been used both by Mr . Collier , and also in your critique on Mr . Hamilton ' s ¦ Inquiry , ' fie ., aud , as the general reader may suppose 1 have been engaged by both parties , permit me to state , that not myself , hut my son , J ? . G . Netherclift , who is separated from mo and iu business alone , was employed by the party at the British Museum on the facsimiles iu Mr . Hamilton ' s pamphlet . I had no knowledge of it or part in it , nor , under the circumstanceswould have

, I attempted to shoiv pencil marks over or under any ink writing by any mode of printing ; whilst , from iny knowledge of facts , and my high respect for the character of Mr . Collier , for whom I have made very numerous facsimiles iu the course of the last thirty years , I could not have joined in any way to aid this causeless and cruel persecution against him . As 1 am continually sabpcenacd in the Law Courts to give evidence in matters relating to handwritingand some kind cross-examining counsel make '

, mav a 'mares nest' of the above circumstance , may I request the favour of your inserting this letter in the Atheiueum , ? " I remain , & c , " JOSEl'H ^ 'ETUEIlCLIl- 'T , Sen . " Bro . Collier then enters upon the relative proportions of the said pencil marks , and declares that he never made a single one , such as he is now accused of , i . e . to enable

himselij or some one else for him , to write corrections in an old hand . There is a communication , in one of the notes , from an old friend of Bro . Collier ' s , so apposite to the matter , that we firmly believe it has hit the right nail on tho head , and beg speciall y to call the attention " of our renders to it . Bro . Colliers correspondent states : — " I lent the book for a week to a very intimate aud most intelligent

The British Musrum Slander And Bro. John Payne Collier.*

Shakespearian friend in my own neighbourhood , who writes nie a note containing the following supposed address to Mr . Hamilton and his coadjutors : — ' Gentlemen of the Manuscript Department , who impute fraud and forgery to Mr . Collier , what could you reply to any one who declared his suspicion , that , to serve your turn , you had fabricated the pencilliugs on the side of the old collector's notes and emendation 1 ' My friend goes on to assert that , 'in the whole week that the Perkins folio was every day under his eyes , when he examined every page of it ,

he never saw a single pencil-mark , nor any indication ivhich would lead him to doubt the bona fides of the whole body of emendations . ' He doubted many of them as a matter of criticism , but never doubted that they were genuine . " Passing over the "incautious" acquisition of some of the Ellesmere documents by Sir Frederick Madden , TLH ., and Bro . Collier ' s good natiu-ed avowal that " if Sir F . Madden

had then been indicted for receiving stolen goods , knowing them to have , been stolen , it might have gone hard with him . I should willingly have been one of his witnesses to character "—passing b y this episode , which really appears to have been the head ancl front of Bro . Collier ' s offence , as he was instrumental in regaining the purloined documents—he again protests against the stigma ivhich has been sought to

be affixed upon him , and writes : — " The general reader must here take my word for it , but 1 have not a relation or friend who does not know that in every way I was incapable of it . "Here the charge is not only that I acquired one , but many ancient hands—that I manufactured public and private documents at will ; and , beyond all , that I Ailed the Perkins folio with thousands of emendations ancl corrections , besides altering the old and incorrect punctuation iu an incalculable number of instances .

• ' There is one point that my antagonists , m their eagerness to convict me , have entirely forgotten ; indeed I apprehend that they are hardly qualified to form a judgment upon the literary excellence of not a few of the alterations suggested in the margins of the Perkins folio . Their A'ision is only not microscopic when they look back ten , twenty , thirty , ancl even forty years into the incidents of my long life , and fancy that ivith telescopic power

they behold me sitting with manufactured inks in a close and obscure study , and hard at work upon old seeming fabrications . Thejr have left no stone unturned , in the hope of finding a poisonous toad under it—no place unsearched for some dirty ancl neglected imputation- , but as to the faculty of judging of ivhatis good or bad in criticism—of what is excellent or mistaken iu illustration , or of what is valuable or worthless as a wide question of

composition ancl poetry—they prudently do not pretend to it . These are points to which the manuscript authorities do not affect to be competent ; but whatever can be done by microscope , and even by a more powerful moral magnifier , they eagerly ' seize the opportunity' to undertake ; or if upon such matters they hesitate , they call for the aid of other departments . Then , indeed , the distorted monstrosities in au atom of plumbago are equalled only

by the magnified horrors of a drop of Thames water . "These gentlemen forget , therefore , that the indisputable emendations of the Perkins folio , which have called forth the admiration even of the most bigoted and antiquated editors , must be assigned to somebody . If I forged them , the least they can do is to give me credit for them ; and I can only say that I would fain accept them upon any other terms than that of having been their fabricator . Only make out for me a legal and legitimate paternity , and I will adopt the numerous and well looking family with joy ancl gratitude . "

We now come to what have been termed the " Bridgewater House Shakespeare Forgeries I" and the testimony oi such eminent men as James Orchard Halliwell , Thomas Wright , the late John Wilson Croker , and the Rev . Alexander T > yce , 'must unequivocall y outwei g h the unsupported ipse dixit of Nicolas Esterhazy Stephen Armytage Hamilton , ancl establishas they doand are competent to dothe

, , , value of Bro . Collier ' s labours against the critical acumen of the whole of the British Museum officials ! We are assured in reference to these documents , that Bro . Collier could not have fabricated them , for , as he says , — " If I had manufactured the ' Bridgewater House Shakespeare Forgeries , ' as Mr . Hamilton is pleased to call them , surely it is

not likel y that 1 . should liaise placed them , Avithout the slighest scruple or caution , in such skilful ancl knowing hands . " Let ns see how these facsimiles were received by very capable judges . I sent copies of them to the Rev . Alexander Dyce ( then