an anonymous correspondent, who "shewed most clearly, that the superfluous stroke in the letter r was only the tremor of his (Shakspere's) hand, and no a." In this opinion, after the most scrupulous examination, I entirely concur, and can repeal with confidence the words of Mr. Boaden, that "if there be truth in sight, the poet himself inserted no a in the second syllable of his name."[1] The only remaining remark I have to make respecting the will (which it is to be regretted, has never yet been printed as it ought to be, with the original orthography and interlineations) is, that the date of execution was written at first Januarii (not Februarii, as Malone states), over which Martii has been written; and that throughout the body of the document the scrivener has written the testator's name Shackspeare, whereas on the outside it is docketed twice by the Clerk of the Prerogative Court, as the will of Mr. Shackspere.
The next document is the mortgage deed, which was discovered in 1768 by Mr. Albany Wallis, a solicitor, among the title deeds of the Rev. Mr. Featherstonehaugh, of Oxted, in Surrey, and was presented to Garrick. From the label of this, the fac simile in Malone's edition of Shakspere, 1790, was executed, bearing this appearance, Wm. Shakspeᵃ; and on this, in conjunction with the third signature of the will, was founded Malone's mistake in printing the name with an a in the second syllable.
- ↑ "An Inquiry into the authenticity of the various portraits of Shakspeare," 4to. Lond. 1824, p. 62.
might have been taught better by Chalmer's "Apology," p. 426, note. As to Chalmers's notion (copied of course by Drake) that there is a c inserted before the k, it is not correct, and he has been misled by a straggling open a.
