has repeated what I had already stated (No. 24. p. 386.), that the
mistake was _not_ a blunder of _Malone's_; and he has also pointed out,
what had escaped me, Malone's supplemental note containing the first
_three_ articles of the pretended will of _John_ Shakspeare: but when he
adds that there is "_no fabrication_" and "_no mystery_" in the case,
and that "the blunder of the Irish editor was merely in attempting to
_unite the two fragments_ as published by Malone," it is quite clear
that he has not seen the edition in question, and has, I think, mistaken
the whole affair. The Irish editor did _not_ attempt to unite Malone's
fragments--quite the contrary--he left Malone's first fragment as he
found it; but he took the second fragment, namely, the exordium of the
pretended will of _John_ Shakspeare, and substituted it _bodily_ as the
exordium of the will of _William_ Shakspeare, suppressing altogether the
real exordium of the latter. So that this Irish will begins, "I, _John_
Shakspeare," &c., and ends, "by me, _William_ Shakspeare." I have no
doubt that the will of John Shakspeare is a forgery altogether; but the
taking three paragraphs of it, and substituting them for the two first
paragraphs of _William_ Shakspeare's genuine will, is what I call, and
what no doubt "Mr. BOLTON CORNEY" will think, on this explanation of the
facts, "an audacious fabrication." The best guess I can make as to how,
or with what design, the Irish editor should have perpetrated so
complicated, and yet so manifest a blunder, is this:--Malone printed the
fragment in question at the end of his volume, amongst his "Emendations
and additions," as belonging to "_the will before printed_," meaning the
forged will of _John_ Shakspeare, but that the Irish editor understood
him to mean the genuine will of _William_ Shakspeare; and so thought
that he was only restoring the latter to its integrity: but how he could
have overlooked the difference of names, and the want of continuity in
the meaning of the documents, is still to me utterly incomprehensible.