Miscellaneous Papers under the Hand of Shakespeare by Samuel Ireland first 1796

IRELAND, Samuel (editor). Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare: including the Tragedy of King Lear, and a small Fragment of Hamlet.
 
London, printed by Cooper and Graham, and sold by Egerton et al., 1796.
 
8vo. First octavo edition (proceeded by a subscribers folio edition) Engraved frontispiece. Original publisher's brown boards, blind-stamped with ornamental border, spine lettered in gilt. Some wear to extremities; small chip (c.1 cm) to head of spine; joints tender with boards slightly fragile but holding; water staining to first and last leaves and edges of text block, not affecting the majority of the text; small paper label "1127" to front pastedown. Overall a well-preserved good + copy in original boards.
 
First edition of the notorious Ireland forgery, one of the most celebrated literary deceptions of the eighteenth century. Presented here as genuine Shakespeare manuscripts, the volume includes the fabricated King Lear and a fragment of Hamlet, together with a series of spurious legal documents and correspondence. The episode famously deceived sections of the contemporary literary world before being publicly exposed, and remains a defining moment in the history of literary forgery. The engraved frontispiece, in deliberately archaic style, forms part of the attempt by Ireland to evoke an Elizabethan provenance. A scarce survival in original boards.