The fake Shakespeare play which had just one performance

William Shakespeare is known to have written 37 plays, but there is evidence that he wrote more which have been lost for hundreds of years, and many have tried to find them.

One such was John Henry Ireland, and the tale of this forger is told in one part of "Shakespeare in 10 Acts", an exhibition at the British Library.

By the end of the 18th century, Shakespeare was revered and there was a huge demand for something, anything that connected with him.

"People wanted to know about Shakespeare's life, and you found lots of antiquarians hunting around Stratford and London for letters and documents written by Shakespeare," Greg Buzwell, co-curator of the exhibition, told Xinhua.

Little was found, and even now there are, famously, only six examples of Shakespeare's signature to have survived to the present day.

There was a gap in the market, and into that gap in the early 1790s stepped William Henry Ireland. Ireland's father had been one of the searchers for Shakespearean remnants and it may have been that which gave the young Ireland the idea to fake Shakespeare documents.

"Ireland suddenly invents this weird story; he claims to know this mysterious Mr H, who has an oak trunk. In this trunk there are many documents, including ones by Shakespeare," said Buzwell.

Ireland began by forging signatures, then he got bolder and forged letters. One forgery was from Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway, his wife. It is clearly fake Elizabethan, with letter Es added at the end of many words to make them look more archaic, more Shakespearean.

"I think a lot of people early on think that these are not genuine, these are made up. But because so many people want to believe, there is a desire to find them genuine. So he keeps on producing them for a year and a half," said Buzzwell.

Ireland overstepped himself, and pulled a whole play from his imaginary oak trunk.

This was "Vortigern and Rowena", and Ireland persuades John Philip Kemble, the owner of the Drury Lane Theater in London, to put the play on.

"But by this point it is obvious that it is not by Shakespeare, it is terrible!," said Buzzwell.

Kemble was to take the part of Vortigern, but he doubted the play.

"Kemble has the line 'Now this solemn mockery is over', which he delivered in such a knowing way that the house just roared and it ended in farce," said Buzzwell.

The play was halted for 10 minutes amid all the hooting and hilarity, and the next day it was withdrawn and never performed again in London.

"And not long afterwards Ireland admits he made the whole thing up, forged all the documents; there was no Mr H, there was no oak chest," said Buzzwell.

There has been just one performance of "Vortigern and Rowena" since, by Cambridge students in 2008.

But for Ireland it was the end of his fakery. And he also paid a tragic price; the elder Ireland disowned his son, and they were never to be reconciled before his father's death.

Ireland's forgeries are on display at "Shakespeare in 10 Acts" at the British Library in London until September 6. Endit