Difference between revisions of "Abbess, A Romance"
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==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library== | ==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library== | ||
| − | [[File:IrelandAbbess1801Vol1Subscribers.jpg|thumb|left|400px|List of | + | [[File:IrelandAbbess1801Vol1Subscribers.jpg|thumb|left|400px|List of "Subscriber's Names" from Maryland and Virginia, from Vol. 1 of the 1801 American edition of William Henry Ireland's ''The Abbess,'' including [[Thomas Jefferson]], James Madison, James Monroe, and [[George Wythe]].]] |
No copy of Ireland's novel is indicated in [[Jefferson Inventory|Jefferson's inventory of Wythe's library]] at the time of his death in 1806. Wythe does appear in the list of the book's subscriber's, however, as does [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[wikipedia:James Madison|James Madison]], and [[wikipedia:James Monroe|James Monroe]]. Also appearing under the list of subscribers from Richmond, Virginia is one "Peter Finsley," which may be a misprint for Peter Tinsley, Wythe's clerk in the Court of Chancery. | No copy of Ireland's novel is indicated in [[Jefferson Inventory|Jefferson's inventory of Wythe's library]] at the time of his death in 1806. Wythe does appear in the list of the book's subscriber's, however, as does [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[wikipedia:James Madison|James Madison]], and [[wikipedia:James Monroe|James Monroe]]. Also appearing under the list of subscribers from Richmond, Virginia is one "Peter Finsley," which may be a misprint for Peter Tinsley, Wythe's clerk in the Court of Chancery. | ||
Revision as of 12:02, 16 September 2016
by William Henry Ireland
| The Abbess | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
||
| Author | William Henry Ireland | |
| Published | Baltimore, MD: Printed by S. Sower, and J. W. Butler | |
| Date | 1801 | |
| Language | English | |
| Volumes | 3 volume set | |
William Henry Ireland (1775 – 1835) was a poet and author, but is renowned for his forging of a cache of documents and letters purportedly in the hand of William Shakespeare, in 1794-1795. Ireland's father accepted the forgeries as genuine, put them on display for the public, and published them in a volume, Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments Under the Hand and Seal of William Shakspeare Including the Tragedy of King Lear and a Small Fragment of Hamlet, from the Original Mss. in the Possession of Samuel Ireland (1796). The documents were quickly exposed as forgeries by Shakespearian scholars and experts.
Ireland's Gothic novel, The Abbess, was originally published in London in 1799, in four volumes. The American edition was published in Baltimore in three volumes, in 1801. The title page proudly credits Ireland as "The Avowed Author of the Shakspear Papers." Based on an earlier novel by Matthew Lewis, The Monk, (1796), The Abbess has a similarly lurid and scandalous plot.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
No copy of Ireland's novel is indicated in Jefferson's inventory of Wythe's library at the time of his death in 1806. Wythe does appear in the list of the book's subscriber's, however, as does Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Also appearing under the list of subscribers from Richmond, Virginia is one "Peter Finsley," which may be a misprint for Peter Tinsley, Wythe's clerk in the Court of Chancery.
In April of 1801, John West Butler, one of the American publishers of Ireland's novel, wrote to President Jefferson in the hopes of acquiring him as a subscriber in order to promote and publish this new work by the author of "Shakespeare's Papers":
Jefferson replied positively to Butler in May, 1801, and subscribed to the book: "Tho'a stranger to the work I have not hesitated to give this mark of my personal respect for yourself as well as of my desire to encourage the art of printing in this country generally."[2] No copy of the book is listed in the various catalogs of Jefferson's library.
References
- ↑ "To Thomas Jefferson from John West Butler, 13 April 1801," Founders Online, National Archives.
- ↑ See note to "Jefferson from John West Butler," Founders Online, National Archives.
