To EDMOND MALONE 4 FEBRUARY 1782 3 Of all the forgeries, the most preposterous to be sure is that of Canning's cabinet of curiosities;10 the poor lad,11 before he came to London, might be ignorant enough to write it—but ignorance is not a term coarse enough for any one past fifteen who can swallow so gross and clumsy an imposture. A picture by Vandyck in that collec­ tion, as you say, Sir, could not augment the absurdity, it is already so complete—nor is any man who credits it, fit to be reasoned with. It would be flattering him with seeming to take him for a rational being. I observed the other day in the first volume of the Biographia Dramatica that Mr Thomas Broughton,12 who wrote in the Bio- gr[aphia] Britann[ica]^ was possessed of the cure of St Mary Ratcliffe in 1744, and was buried in that church in 1774.14 Is it credible that so literary a man should have never heard of the famous MSS? He wrote a playJs too, and consequently was something [of] a poet—and yet did he never take the least notice of such treasures! Is it possible that he never should have heard of them, though they passed into so many hands? Mr Broughton lived between the period when Vertue copied the painter's bill,16 and that in which Chatterton first saw this mine of poetry. I beg your pardon, Sir, for troubling you with so long a letter. I intended only to thank you—but the pleasure your book gave me1?—in which I fear your kindness to me had a little share too— containing Rowley's 'emendals' (emenda- 14. See D. E. Baker, Biographia Dra- tions). The Discorse was entirely Chat- matica, rev. and enl. Isaac Reed, 1782, terton's invention, there being no such i. 47. 'diary' account by Turgot (E. H. W. Meyer- 15. His musical drama Hercules, 1745, stein, A Life of Thomas Chatterton, 1930, was the libretto for Handel's oratorio pp. 109, 547). (P. H. Lang, George Frideric Handel, 10. Described in the Yellow Roll (dated New York, 1966, pp. 421-2). '1451'), a parchment fabricated by Chatter- 16. HW mistakenly believed that a pas­ ton. Malone, in his Cursory Observations sage transcribed by George Vertue 'from a on the Poems Attributed to Thomas Row- book belonging to the church of St Mary ley, 1782, p. 25, had written: 'Cannynge Ratcliffe at Bristol' was an early painter's too must be furnished with a cabinet of bill, and he printed the passage in Anec- coins and other rarities; and there being dotes of Painting (Works iii. 46). Chatter- a private printing press at Strawberry ton forged an imitation of the passage; Hill (the only one perhaps in England), both were later printed together in Chat- the Bristol mayor must likewise have one.' terton's Works, 1803, iii. 303-6. But there 11. Chatterton. is no evidence that Vertue ever visited 12. (1704-74), vicar of Bedminster and Bristol. See CHATTERTON 133 and nn. 107, of St Mary Redcliff 1744-72; prebendary 109. of Salisbury 1744-74; miscellaneous writer 17. George Steevens, the Shakespeare and divine. scholar, wrote Malone 18 Jan. 1782 that 13. Broughton contributed the articles his Cursory Observations ridiculing Bryant signed 'T' in the firsteditio n of the Bio- and Milles 'afforded me a hearty laugh. graphia Britannica, 7 vols, 1747-66. I had the honour of a conversation this