Vortigern; An Historical Play

In 1797, a young book dealer named William Henry Ireland shocked the literary world by announcing he'd discovered a lost manuscript by William Shakespeare. Vortigern was the centerpiece of his fraud - a Gothic-inflected historical drama about a 5th-century British king wrestling with the seductions of absolute power. Vortigern stands amid the ruins of Roman Britain, contemplating the murder of two young princes who threaten his throne. His daughter Flavia, meanwhile, has fallen in love with Aurelius - one of those very princes - creating an unbearable tension between familial loyalty and forbidden desire. The play crackles with political intrigue, moral ambiguity, and the cold calculus of sovereign power. Though Ireland's forgery was eventually exposed, the work endures as a compelling drama in its own right - and as a fascinating window into an era desperate to believe in Shakespearean miracles.