Abstract
In 1799, W.H. Ireland — or ‘Shakespeare Ireland’, as he was dubbed — recalled the how and why of his turn from forging Shakespearean drama to writing Gothic novels. About to enter his house, the doorknob in his hand, he had overheard two ‘gents’ talking about him. One affirmed that Ireland was the author of the Shakespeare forgery,Vortigern, which had occupied much of literary England for the past eighteen months. ‘I will maintain’, said the other,‘that he is not the author.’²
The Tragedy of Vortigernwas, perhaps, the most controversial Shakespearean production of the entire eighteenth century. The play was staged