In reply to J. M. G. of Worcester, who inquires for a MS. volume of English
poetry containing some lines attributed to Shakspeare, and which is
described in Thorpe's _Catalog_ of MSS. for 1831, I can supply some
particulars which may assist him in the research. The MS., which at one
period had belonged to Joseph Hazlewood, was purchased from Thorpe by the
late Lord Viscount Kingsborough; after whose decease it was sold, in
November, 1842, at Charles Sharpe's literary sale room, Anglesea Street,
Dublin. It is No. 574. in the auction catalogue of that part of his
lordship's library which was then brought to auction.
The volume has been noticed by Patrick Fraser Tytler, in his _Life of Sir
Walter Raleigh_, Edinburgh, 1833 (in Appendix B, p. 436., of 2nd edit.),
where, citing the passage from Collier, which is referred to by J. M. G.,
he asserts that the lines are not Shakspeare's, but Jonson's. But he does
not appear to me to have established his case beyond doubt; as the lines,
though found among Jonson's works, may, notwithstanding, be the production
of some other writer: and why not of Shakspeare, to whom they are ascribed
in the MS.? Some verses by Sir J. C. Hobhouse originally appeared as Lord
Byron's: and there are {524} numerous instances, both ancient and modern,
of a similar attribution of works to other than their actual authors.