Edmond Malone (1741-1812). Portrait by Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), 1778-1786. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Edmond Malone (4 October 1741 - 25 May 1812) was an Irish literary critic, and editor of the works of William Shakespeare.
Life[]
Overview[]
Malone, son of an Irish judge, was born in Dublin, and educated at Trinity College there. He studied for the law, but coming into a fortune, decided to follow a literary career. Acute, careful, and sensible, he was a useful contributor to the study of Shakespeare, of whose works he published a valuable edition in 1790. He also aided in the detection of the Rowley forgeries of Chatterton, and the much less respectable Shakespeare ones of Ireland. At his death he was engaged upon another edition of Shakespeare, which was brought out under the editorship of James Boswell. Malone. also wrote Lives of Dryden and others, and was the friend of Johnson, Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Burke.[1]
Family[]
Malone was born at Dublin on 4 October 1741, the 2nd son of Edmund Malone (1704–1774), and nephew of Anthony Malone. The father, 2nd son of Richard Malone of Baronston, co. Westmeath, was born in Dublin on 16 April 1704, was called to the English bar in 1730, and practised there for 10 years. Returning to Ireland in 1740, he obtained a good practice in the Irish courts, sat in the Irish House of Commons for Granard from 1760 to 1766, and became in 1766 judge of the court of common pleas. He died on 22 April 1774, having married in 1736 Catherine (died 1765), daughter and heiress of Benjamin Collier of Ruckholt, Essex. By her he had 4 sons, of whom the 2 younger died in youth, and 2 daughters, Henrietta and Catherine. The eldest son, Richard (1738–1816), sat in the Irish House of Commons as M.P. for Granard from 1768 to 1776, and for Banagher from 1783 till 30 June 1785, when he was raised to the Irish peerage as Lord Sunderlin. He died at Baronston on 14 April 1816.[2]
Youth and education[]
Edmund was educated at a private school in Molesworth Street, kept by Dr. Ford, and among his schoolfellows were Robert Jephson, William Fitzmaurice Petty, 1st marquis of Lansdowne, and John Baker Holroyd, 1st lord Sheffield. The boys practiced private theatricals with much success, and Macklin the actor is said to have at times directed the performances.[2]
In 1756 Edmund entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he earned a B.A. In 1761 he contributed an ode to a volume of verse written by Dublin students in honor of George III's marriage. His college friends included Michael Kearney, Henry Flood, and John Fitzgibbon, afterwards earl of Clare.[2]
Malone paid his earliest visit to England in the summer of 1759, when he accompanied his mother to Highgate and afterwards to Bath, and he made a tour through the midland counties. His mother remained at Bath till her death in 1765.[2]
In London society[]
In 1763 he came to London as a student of the Inner Temple, and interested himself in politics and literature. He spent his leisure at the Grecian Coffee-house in the Strand, where he found literary society, and an Irish friend, Edmund Southwell, in the autumn of 1765 introduced him to Samuel Johnson. A year later he accompanied Thomas George, afterwards viscount Southwell, and his son, Thomas Arthur, to the south of France.[2]
In March 1767 he arrived in Paris, returned to Dublin, and was soon afterwards called to the Irish bar. He joined the Munster circuit, and worked hard at his profession, but briefs were few and unremunerative. He wrote for the Irish newspapers, and in 1776 began an edition of Goldsmith's poetical and dramatic works, which was published in London in 1780.[2]
The death of his father in 1774 had put him in possession of a moderate competency with the estate of Shinglas, co. Westmeath, and a small property in Cavan. On 1 May 1777 Malone left Ireland, and settled permanently in London as a man of letters. Until 1779 he resided in London at No. 7 Marylebone Street, and from 1779 to his death he lived at 55 Queen Anne Street East, now Foley Place.[3]
He rapidly gained admission to the best literary and political society, and exchanged generous hospitalities with the most distinguished men of the day. He was a frequent visitor to Johnson at Bolt Court (cf. Boswell, ed. Hill, iv. 141). In 1782 he joined the well-known literary club of which Johnson was a leading member. In 1784 he attended Johnson's funeral, and he conducted the negotiations for the erection of his monument in Westminster Abbey.[3]
As early as May 1774 Malone sat for his portrait to Sir Joshua Reynolds, another member of the club, and the 2 men were soon afterwards close friends. Reynolds submitted at least 1 of his discourses on art to Malone's revision. He was 1 of Reynolds's executors, and published a collection of his writings, with a memoir, in 1797. With Bishop Percy, also a member of the club, Malone began investigations into Goldsmith's biography, and corresponded through life on literary matters (cf. Nichols, Lit. Illustr. viii. 26, 32).[3]
In 1785 he sought an introduction to Boswell, after reading a sheet of the Tour to the Hebrides in Baldwin's printing-office. The acquaintance "ripened into the strictest and most cordial intimacy" (Gentleman's Magazine 1813, 518), and Boswell dedicated to him the Tour to the Hebrides on 20 Sept. 1785, to let "the world know that I enjoy and honour the happiness of your friendship." Malone supplied a note on Burke's wit (Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, v. 33–4).[3]
In 1786 he was security for 100l., when Boswell was called to the bar at the Inner Temple (Johnson, Letters, ed. Hill, p. 317). Throughout 1789 and 1790 Malone was busily helping Boswell in revising the Life of Johnson. "I cannot," Boswell wrote, "sufficiently acknowledge my obligations to my friend, Mr. Malone, who was so good as to allow me to read to him almost the whole of my manuscript, and made such remarks as were greatly to the advantage of the work" (Advertisement to 1st edition, 1791). He also helped to correct half the proof-sheets, and he edited with useful notes the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th reissues of the work, dated respectively 1799, 1804, 1807, and 1811.[3]
Boswell was till his death an enthusiastic admirer of Malone's dinners, and named him one of his literary executors, but Malone was too indolent to act, although he continued a close intimacy with Boswell's son. For a time in later life he was on very amicable terms with William Gifford, while Kemble and Mrs. Siddons always delighted in his society.[3]
Malone's political friends included William Windham, Gerard Hamilton, Burke, and Canning. He was Burke's guest on many occasions at Beaconsfield. He also came to know Horace Walpole, who invited him to Strawberry Hill, and was a regular morning caller on Malone when he came to town. At Brighton, in October 1797, Malone dined in the company of the prince regent, and heard him detail "all the cant about the grievances of the Irish catholics,’ whereupon Malone declared that the complaints were imaginary".[3]
Malone was always interested in Irish politics, supporting the union, and opposing the Roman catholic claim to emancipation, but he steadfastly resisted the solicitations of his friends to play any active political part. He paid occasional visits to Ireland, and maintained very intimate relations with the Irish friends of his youth, with his sisters, especially Catherine, and with his brother. In 1797 his brother received a new patent as Lord Sunderlin, with remainder to Edmund.[3]
Lord Charlemont was 1 of his most regular correspondents, and their letters form an interesting record of the literary effort of the times (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. x.). Flood constantly dined with him when in London, despite their divergent views on politics. On 24 April 1783 he confidentially suggested to Flood, apparently at the suggestion of his friend Windham, then Irish secretary, that a post in the Irish ministry was to be placed at Flood's disposal, but the negotiation failed.[3]
In the days of the Irish rebellion of 1798 Lord Clare found time to send Malone accounts of its progress and suppression. In behalf of his fellow-countryman and companion at school, Robert Jephson and dramatist, he exerted all his social influence. In 1781 he carefully revised and wrote an epilogue for Jephson's ‘Count of Narbonne,’ and then with Horace Walpole's aid induced the lessees of Covent Garden Theatre to produce the piece (Walpole, Letters, viii. 107–10). He rendered similar service to Jephson's ‘Julia,’ and edited his ‘Roman Portraits,’ a poem, 1793.[3]
Shakespeare criticism[]
Almost as soon as he had settled in London, Malone concentrated his attention on Shakespearean criticism, and he was privately encouraged in his work by Lord Charlemont,[3] and at 1st by George Steevens, who presented him with his collection of old plays, and at one time professed to have retired from Shakespearean investigation in Malone's favor. Malone began work on the chronological arrangement of Shakespeare's plays, and in January 1778 published his Attempt to ascertain the Order in which the Plays of Shakespeare were written. His results have not been very materially altered by later investigation.[4]
There followed in 1780 his very substantial supplement to Johnson's edition of Shakespeare in 2 volumes. The first contained Supplemental Observations on the history of the Elizabethan stage and the text of the plays, with reprints of Arthur Brooke's Romeus and Juliet, and Shakespeare's poems. The 2nd volume supplied a reprint of Pericles, and of 5 plays (Locrine, Oldcastle, pt. i., Cromwell, London Prodigal, and Puritan) doubtfully assigned to Shakespeare. Malone followed Farmer in assigning the greater part of Pericles to Shakespeare, and this view has been adopted by all later editors.[4]
In the spring of 1783 came out A Second Appendix to Mr. Malone's Supplement to the last edition of the Plays of Shakespeare,’ i.e. to "Mr. Steevens's last excellent edition of 1778." This mainly consisted of textual emendation.[4]
In August 1783 Malone asked Nichols, the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, to announce a new edition by himself "with select notes from all the commentators." To this work Malone devoted the next 7 years.[4]
A breach with Steevens ensued. Malone had contributed a few notes, in which he differed from Steevens, to Isaac Reed's edition of 1783. Steevens demanded that Malone should transfer them unaltered to his projected edition, and when Malone declined to give the promise, Steevens took offence and the friendship ended.[4]
Malone issued in 1787 A Dissertation on the Three Parts of King Henry VI, tending to show that those Plays were not originally written by Shakespeare. But his researches were largely directed to elucidating the biography of Shakespeare and the history of the Elizabethan stage. Francis Ingram of Ribbesford lent Malone the valuable office-book (now lost) of Sir Henry Herbert, and the master of Dulwich College allowed him to move to his own house the Alleyn and Henslowe MSS., while he examined the records in the court of chancery and in the registry of the Worcester diocese.[4]
In April 1788 he began a correspondence with James Davenport, vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, who lent him the parish registers. Malone also visited Stratford and made the acquaintance of John Jordan, the poet of the town, who interested himself in antiquities, and was not incapable of inventing them. Malone entertained Jordan when he visited London in July 1799, and tried to obtain some government place for him. With Davenport he corresponded till 1805, and his correspondence with both him and Jordan was published in very limited editions, from manuscripts preserved at Stratford, in 1864, by J.O. Halliwell.[4]
Malone did Stratford an ill turn when he induced the vicar in 1793 to whitewash the coloured bust of Shakespeare in the chancel of the church. The incident suggested the bitter epigram —
Stranger, to whom this monument is shewn,
Invoke the poet's curse upon Malone;
Whose meddling zeal his barbarous taste betrays,
And daubs his tombstone, as he mars his plays.
(Gentleman's Magazine 1815, pt. i. p. 390.)[4]
The main results of Malone's investigations were published in November 1790 in his edition of Shakespeare, which appeared in 10 volumes (but the first volume being in two parts, the whole numbered 11). Among those who eulogised Malone's efforts was Burke, who acknowledged his infinite pains, great sagacity, and public-spirited labor, and lamented that he could only repay Malone's gift of gold with a gift of brass in the form of The Reflections on the French Revolution. Reynolds would gladly have seen "more disquisition;" Daines Barrington was "exceedingly gratified."[4]
Walpole, on the other hand, called it "the heaviest of all books ... with notes that are an extract of all the opium that is spread through the works of all the bad playwrights of that age," but Walpole admitted that Malone's researches were "indefatigable" (Letters, ix. 326). Malone's work found, indeed, detractors more outspoken than Walpole. James Hurdis, in his Cursory Remarks upon the Arrangement of the Plays of Shakespeare, characterised Malone's labours as "disappointing." Steevens, when reissuing his edition in 1793,[4] introduced many offensive references to Malone.[5]
Joseph Ritson charged Malone with a "total want of ear and judgment" in a pamphlet entitled Cursory Criticisms, 1792. "His pages abound" (according to Ritson) "with profound ignorance, idle conjectures, crude notions, feeble attempts at jocularity," and the like. Malone replied in April in A Letter to the Rev. Richard Farmer, D.D., of which the presentation copy to Farmer is in the British Museum. Malone there showed that after carefully collating the 100,000 lines of the text he had made 1,654 emendations. Ritson alleged only 13 errors, and in 5 he was mistaken.[4]
In 15 months Malone's edition was nearly sold out, and Malone almost at once issued a prospectus for a new edition in 15 volumes, on superior paper, and with illustrations; but this scheme was definitely abandoned in 1796 for a new octavo edition in 20 volumes: the 1st volume to be devoted to the life, the 2nd and 3rd to a fuller history of the stage. In the preparation of this work Malone was mainly occupied for the rest of his life.[5]
With a view to exhausting all possible sources of information Malone worked at Aubrey's manuscripts at Oxford for a fortnight in the summer of 1793, and arranged them with a view to publication. James Caulfield some years later complained that on this visit to the Bodleian, Malone used his influence with the authorities to prevent him from pursuing an examination of Aubrey's manuscripts, which he had begun in the previous year. Malone seems to have discovered that Caulfield had employed as copyist one Curtis, an assistant in the Bodleian, who was guilty of serious depredations in the library. When Caulfield published some portion of his transcripts from Aubrey's manuscripts under the title of The Oxford Cabinet (1797), Malone is reported to have bought up the whole edition (of 250 copies), and Caulfield thereupon issued An Enquiry into the Conduct of Edmund Malone, Esq., concerning the Manuscript Papers of John Aubrey, F.R.S., London, 1797.[5]
In January 1808 Malone issued privately a tract on the origin of the plot of The Tempest, associating it with the account of the discovery of the Bermudas issued in 1610. Douce had published like conclusions in his Illustrations in the previous year, but Malone's results were reached independently.[5]
Chatterton and Ireland forgeries[]
Twice Malone turned from purely Shakespearean researches to prick literary bubbles of the day. Jacob Bryant's endeavor to prove the genuineness of Chatterton's Rowley Poems drew from him, at Lord Charlemont's suggestion, a sarcastic rejoinder in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1782, and this he afterwards reissued as Cursory Observations on the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley, a priest of the fifteenth century in 1782. Thomas Warton and Tyrwhitt commended his efforts. Walpole wrote that Malone "unluckily has attempted humour, which is not an antiquary's weapon" (Letters, viii. 149, cf. 161), but in a letter to Malone he agreed that he had "pointed their own artillery against them victoriously" (ib. ix. 492).[5]
In 1796 Malone published his better-known Exposure of the Ireland Forgeries: An inquiry into the authenticity of certain papers attributed to Shakespeare [see Ireland, Samuel]. Steevens, despite his quarrel, acknowledged this to be "one of the most decisive pieces of criticism that was ever produced." Burke declared that he had revived "the spirit of that sort of criticism by which false pretence and imposture are detected."[5]
Samuel Ireland retorted in An Investigation of Mr. Malone's Claim to the character of Scholar and Critic, 1796, and George Chalmers took up a similar attitude to Malone in his Apology and ‘Supplemental Apology,’ 1797. For many years Malone amused himself by collecting everything published on the Chatterton or Ireland controversy.[5]
Dryden's prose[]
As early as 1791 Malone projected an elaborate edition of Dryden's works and opened a correspondence with Sir David Dalrymple, lord Hailes, who was reported to be engaged in a similar scheme. In 1800 there appeared in 4 volumes The Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dryden; with An account of the life and writings of the author.[5]
While engaged on the edition, Malone made a transcript of the well-known Anecdotes of Joseph Spence, which were then unprinted. The transcript proved of service to S.W. Singer, who first printed the Anecdotes in 1820.[5]
The detailed care which Malone bestowed on Dryden's works excited the ridicule of George Hardinge, who published 2 long-winded pamphlets, entitled The Essence of Malone, 1800, and Another Essence of Malone; or, The beauties of Shakespeare's editor, in 2 parts, London, 1801, 8vo. Hardinge charges Malone with magnifying trifles; but though the attack is clever, it bears signs of malice, which destroys most of its value (cf. Nichols, Lit. Illustr. viii. 39).[5]
Sir Walter Scott, in his edition of Dryden, admitted that it would be hard to "produce facts which had escaped the accuracy of Malone, whose industry has removed the clouds which so long hung over the events of Dryden's life."[5]
A similar treatment of Pope seems to have been abandoned on the appearance of Joseph Warton's edition in 1797.[5]
Book collector[]
As a book collector Malone met with many successes. His library, he claimed, contained every dramatic piece mentioned by Langbaine, except four or five. In 1805 he bought from William Ford, a Manchester bookseller, a unique copy of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, 1593, for 25l. To obtain "ancient copies" of Shakespeare "was," writes the younger Boswell, "the great effort of his life;" and a large part of his moderate fortune was devoted "to purchases — to him of the first necessity, to many collectors of idle curiosity."[6]
Between 1771 and 1808 he spent 2,121l. 5s. on books and binding, and between 1780 and 1808 839l. 9s. on pictures and prints. His volumes were bound in half-calf with "E.M." in an interlaced monogram on the back. The library was accessible to every scholar. Engraved portraits of historical personages figured largely in it, and many of these ultimately passed to Rev. Thomas Rooper of Brighton, a relative of Malone's sister-in-law, Lady Sunderlin.[6]
Last years[]
According to the younger Boswell, Malone
- was indeed a cordial and a steady friend, combining the utmost mildness with the simplest sincerity and the most manly independence. Tenacious, perhaps, of his own opinions, which he had seldom hastily formed, he was always ready to listen with candour and good humour to those of others.
The elegance of his manners evoked the admiration of Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. Socially he did his best to keep alive the traditions connected with Johnson and his associates, but, although not writing for money, he fully identified himself with the profession of letters.[6]
He edited in 1808 (although his name did not appear) some manuscripts left by William Gerard Hamilton; and on the death of Windham, which greatly grieved him,[5] he corrected some current rumors respecting his life in an article in the Gentleman's Magazine, June 1810, which he circulated privately as a pamphlet; it is also reprinted in Nichols's Literary Illustrations, v. 470 sq.[6]
Early in 1812 Malone's health, long declining, failed. From 17 March to 13 April he stayed at Taplow Court, Maidenhead, the residence of Lady Thomond. He died unmarried at Foley Place, 25 April 1812, and was buried in the family mausoleum in Kilbixy churchyard, near Baronston.[6]
Scholarship[]
Malone left his materials for the new edition of Shakespeare to James Boswell the younger, who completed his task in 1821. The new edition was in 21 volumes, and included, amid many other additions to the prolegomena, an essay on Shakespeare's meter and phraseology. In his preface Boswell defended his friend from the attacks of Steevens in his edition of 1793, and of Gifford in his edition of Ben Jonson. Boswell's Malone is generally known as the "3rd variorum" edition of Shakespeare, and is generally acknowledged to be the best. (The "1st variorum" is the name bestowed on the edition of Johnson and Steevens, edited by Isaac Reed in 1803; and the "2nd variorum" is that bestowed on a revision of Isaac Reed's work issued in 1813.)[6]
His publications prove him to have been a literary antiquary rather than a literary critic. He was "an excellent ferret in charter warrens," accurate in minute investigation, of unbounded industry, of incontrovertible honesty, and a sincere admirer of Shakespeare. "No writer, I think," wrote Andrew Caldwell to Bishop Percy, "ever took more pains to establish facts and detect errors" (Prior, p. 268).[6]
His zeal as a Shakespearean investigator was insatiable. "Till our author's whole library," he wrote in 1778 in his 1st Supplement, "shall have been discovered, till the plots of all his dramas shall have been traced to their sources, till every allusion shall be pointed out and every obscurity elucidated, somewhat will still remain to be done by the commentators on his works." In his treatment of the text of Shakespeare he depended with greater fidelity than any of his predecessors on the early editions; and in Shakespearean biography and theatrical history he brought together more that was new and important than any predecessor or successor. But when he attempted original textual emendation, his defective ear became lamentably apparent. His intellect lacked the alertness characteristic of Steevens or Gifford.[6]
Recognition[]
On 5 July 1793 the University of Oxford granted Malone the degree of D.C.L. (Foster, Alumni Oxon.)[5] In 1801 the University of Dublin conferred on him the degree of LL.D.[5]
By Malone's will, made in 1801, his library was placed at the absolute disposal of his brother. In 1815 Lord Sunderlin arranged that the greater part of it, including the rare works in early English literature, should be presented to the Bodleian Library, Oxford. At the time, these volumes were in the keeping of the younger Boswell, who in 1821 sent the books to Oxford. The catalogue, which was printed by the university in 1836, fills 46 folio pages. In 1861 Halliwell-Phillipps printed a hand list of the rarer early English literature in the collection. The Bodleian Library has also purchased at various later dates many of Malone's manuscript notes respecting Shakespeare and Pope and much of his literary correspondence.[6]
A portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which belonged to the Rev. Thomas Rooper, was presented by him in 1883 to the National Portrait Gallery, London. It was twice engraved; once for Bell's British Poets. Another portrait, by Ozias Humphrey, was sent, in 1797, to Lord Charlemont, who praised its fidelity.[6]
The Malone Society, devoted to the study of 16th- and early 17th-century English drama, was named after him.
See also[]
References[]
Lee, Sidney (1893) "Malone, Edmund" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 35 London: Smith, Elder, p. 433-438. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 8, 2018.- de Grazia, Margreta (1991). Shakespeare Verbatim: The Reproduction of Authenticity and the 1790 Apparatus. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-811778-7.
- Martin, Peter (2005) [first published 1995]. Edmond Malone, Shakespearean Scholar: A Literary Biography. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-61982-3.
- Prior, James (2010) [first published 1860]. Life of Edmond Malone, Editor of Shakespeare: With Selections from His Manuscript Anecdotes. London: Smith, Elder & Co.. ISBN 1-144-93232-7.
- Schoenbaum, Samuel (1991). Shakespeare's Lives. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-818618-5.
Notes[]
- ↑ John William Cousin, "Malone, Edmond," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 255. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 9, 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lee, 433.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Lee, 434.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 Lee, 435.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 Lee, 436.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 Lee, 437.
External links[]
- Books
- Works by Edmond Malone at Project Gutenberg
- Edmund Malone at Amazon.com
- About
- Edmund Malone in the Encyclopædia Britannica
- Edmond Malone at JamesBosell.info
- Malone, Edmond in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Malone, Edmund
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