Samuel Ireland publishes a collection of Shakespearean forgeries in his Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments Under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare. Amid a growing controversy, Edmond Malone exposes the forgeries in his Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments. The forged Shakespearean play, Vortigern and Rowena, is produced at Drury Lane and laughed off the stage. Samuel Ireland's son, William Henry, confesses to the fraud in An Authentic Account of the Shakespearean Manuscripts.