The Poetry of W.H. Ireland, 1801-1815, Including the Poet's Imitations, Satires, Romantic Verses, and Commentaries on Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, and Others
註釋 William-Henry Ireland's footnote in history is secure: he is the boy who forged the lost Shakespeare play Vortigern. The question is, should he be remembered for more than his Shakespearean tomfoolery? Ireland wrote a vast amount of poetry after his exposure, some of which was widely popular, yet to date, William-Henry Ireland's verse has received almost no attention and has, until now, never been collected, professionally edited, or even sampled for anthology. This volume samples Ireland's post- Shakespearean poetry, beginning with Ballads in Imitation of the Antient (1801) and concluding with his satirical Scribbleomania (1815). The introduction argues that Ireland deserves a place among the Romantics of his era. The volume includes a forward by Nick Groom, author of The Forger's Shadow. If W.H. Ireland is known at all, it is as the audacious forger of the Shakespearean manuscripts that briefly bewitched the literary world in the last years of the eighteenth century, culminating in a catastrophic premiere of the rediscovered play Vortigern on 2 April, 1796. the anecdotal periphery of literary history, and consequently overshadowed the rest of his often-flamboyant writing career. A reassessment of Ireland's work is well overdue, and this selection of his verse repositions him as a radical writer of the Romantic period. Dr. Nick Groom - University of Bristol (From the Foreword) 