File:Notorious Characters No.1 (BM 1851,0901.884).jpg

English: A travesty of a half length portrait of S. Ireland: ('Hamilton pinxt S = Ireland fect.'). In both Ireland wears the dress of a Rubens picture, cf. BMSat 7020, and looks over his right shoulder, holding up folds of drapery which hang from the left shoulder. The original is young and handsome, with well-dressed hair, tied and falling on his shoulder. [The B.M. impression is dated in a contemporary hand 'Octr 1785'. Listed in Bromley's 'Catalogue', p. 390.] Gillray follows closely the pose and dress of the original, but the head is that of an older man, with a sly smile; his short curling hair recedes from his forehead. In his hand is a book, 'Ireland Shakspe . . .' Beneath the title: 'Mr Bromley in his Catalogue &c. p. 390. has erroneously put this Portrait into his Seventh Class. - It ought to have appeared in the Tenth. See the Contents of it. p. 449.

"Such cursed assurance,"
"Is past all Endurance." Maid of the Mill.'

Beneath the vignetted design: 'Inscription under a Picture of the Editor of Shakespeare's Manuscripts, 1796. \ by the Revd William Mason, Author of Elfrida & Caractacus [actually by George Steevens, [Sidney Lee in 'D.N.B.', s.v. Steevens (confirmed by the libel proceedings); in his 'D.N.B.' article on Ireland he attributed the lines to Mason.] parodying Dryden's lines on Milton].
"Four Forgers, born in one prolific age,
"Much critical acumen did engage.
"The First, was soon by doughty Douglas scar'd
" Tho' Johnson would have screen'd him, had he dared;*
"The Next had all the cunning of a Scot;†
"The Third, invention, genius,- nay what not?‡
"Fraud, now exhausted, only could dispense
"To her Fourth Son, their three-fold impudence.
* Lauder † Macpherson ‡ Chatterton' 1 December 1797

Hand-coloured etching