John Payne Collier: Scholarship and Forgery in the 19th Century

Citation

Simpson, M. (2006), "John Payne Collier: Scholarship and Forgery in the 19th Century", Library Review, Vol. 55 No. 2, pp. 159-160. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530610649666

John Payne Collier (1789‐1883), over the course of an immensely long life, was a towering figure in the development of Shakespeare studies and research into other early modern English dramatists. The influence of his very substantial list of publications is still felt to this day. With immense energy and dedication, he unearthed new documents which enhanced our understanding of the Elizabethan and Jacobean background, edited and attributed early printed texts, and generally opened up the complex world of this, the greatest period of English literary history. Unfortunately, and fatally, he also fabricated evidence, forged documents, interpolated genuine documents with fiction, and referred to sources which did not in fact exist. The result has bedevilled study into the early English drama ever since: in the words of the authors of this book, his successors are still trying to cope “with his far‐flung dragon's teeth”. Another black mark against him is that Collier also “borrowed” original material from other collections, and conveniently “forgot” to return it.

This book, the fruit of over fifteen years of joint investigation, is on a monumental scale. Its two well‐bound volumes, in a slip‐case, comprise just over 1500 pages. The biography comprises 1029 pages of closely printed text with massive footnotes, and this is followed by five appendices: what the authors regard as definite forgeries; what they think passes muster; lists of the pseudonyms under which Collier wrote; a bibliography of the works concerning his most notorious forgery, spurious annotations in a copy of the Second Folio (the so‐called “Perkins Folio”); and books dedicated to Collier. There follows a full 340‐page bibliography of Collier's publications (which include over 500 papers and articles). Entries are given a rating relating to the depth of the authors' suspicions over the authenticity of their contents. Lastly, there is a list of the sources used for the book, and a relatively modest index of 60 pages. Each volume has a section of black and white illustrations. This work cannot be praised too highly, the fruit of immense scholarship and dedication. It presents a highly complicated story which could easily have been utterly indigestible, and yet reads like a detective story, keeping the attention throughout its great length. It has a vast cast of characters, from the Romantics to Swinburne, most of whom had prickly egos and passionately‐held opinions. It is clear that Collier was far from the first to fabricate sources, or be economical with the truth. There was a scholarly tradition of deceit: these men were cavalier with their sources, misappropriated the property of others, and made up evidence which they thought should exist, while at the same time genuinely advancing literary study. The Freemans' book weaves many subplots seamlessly, from a survey of the developing prices of particular copies of early English books in the saleroom in the 19th century to book collecting fashions, from the methods used to disseminate literary research (such as the formation of clubs and societies) to a footnote about a chess controversy of 1858. It will be an indispensable work of reference for many years to come.