No. 181. July 1849. 1. Lectures on Shakespeare. By H. N. Hudson.--2. Macbeth de Shakespeare, en 5 Actes et en vers. Par M. Emile Deschemps. _ib._ King Arthur. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. 2nd edition, London, 1849, 8vo. A LETTER ON SHAKSPEARE'S AUTHORSHIP OF THE DRAMA ENTITLED _THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN_. My dear L----, We have met again, after an interval long enough to have made both of us graver than we were wont to be. A few of my rarely granted hours of leisure have lately been occupied in examining a question on which your taste and knowledge equally incline and qualify you to enter. Allow me to address to you the result of my inquiry, as a pledge of the gratification which has been afforded me by the renewal of our early intercourse. Proud as SHAKSPEARE'S countrymen are of his name, it is singular, though not unaccountable, that at this day our common list of his works should remain open to correction. [Sidenote: The list of SHAKSPERE'S works is not yet settled.] [Sidenote: Are all his in his publisht "_Works_"?] Every one knows that some plays printed in his volumes have weak claims to that distinction; but, while the exclusion even of works certainly not his would now be a rash exercise of prerogative in any editor, it is a question of more interest, whether there may not be dramas not yet admitted among his collected works, which have a right to be there, and might be inserted without the danger attending the dismissal of any already put upon the list. [Sidenote: Six "Doubtful Plays:" none by Shakspere.] A claim for admission has been set up in favour of Malone's six plays,[1:1] without any ground as to five of them, and [1:2]with very little to support it even for the sixth. [Sidenote: Ireland's forgery, _Vortigern_.] [Sidenote: The folly of supposing _Vortigern_ genuine.] Ireland's impostures are an anomaly in literary history: even the spell and sway of temporary fashion and universal opinion are causes scarcely adequate to account for the blindness of the eminent men who fell into the snare. The want of any external evidence in favour of the first fabrication, the Shakspeare papers, was overlooked; and the internal evidence, which was wholly against the genuineness, was unhesitatingly admitted as establishing it. The play of 'Vortigern' had little more to support it than the previous imposition.