William Henry Ireland,
Miscellaneous papers and legal instruments under the hand and seal of William Shakspeare, from the original mss. in the possession of Samuel Ireland (London, 1796)
This folio first edition, said to have circulated only to subscribers, unveiled to the world William Henry Ireland’s “discovery” of a manuscript archive of early Shakespeariana. This rare surviving copy reveals a variety of documents that conveniently filled in many of the unknown chapters in Shakespeare’s personal and literary life, including facsimiles of ostensible deeds of property, a fragment of Hamlet from the “original manuscript,” and letters supposedly written by the playwright to Queen Elizabeth I herself and, lovingly, to his wife, “Anne Hatherrewaye.”