Malone

Malone, EDMUND, editor of Shakespeare, was born in Dublin, 4th October 1741, graduated with credit at the university there, and was called to the Irish bar in 1767. Falling soon after into a fortune, he went to London to devote himself to literary pursuits, his first work being a 'supplement' to Steevens's edition of Shakespeare (1778). His contributions to Steevens's third edition of Shakespeare (1785) led to a serious quarrel between the two, in which Steevens was wholly to blame. Malone's own edition of the great dramatist (1790) was warmly received, especially the essays on the 'History of the Stage' and the 'Genuineness of the Three Plays of Henry VI.' As an editor Malone displays great good sense, conscientiousness, much acuteness, extensive research, and a becoming respect for the text of the earlier editions. He had been one of the first to express his unbelief in the antiquity of Chatterton's Rowley poems, and in 1796 he denounced the impudent forgeries of the wretched Ireland. Next year he published a posthumous edition of the works of his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds. His own death occurred 25th May 1812. He left behind a large mass of materials for another edition of Shakespeare, which at length appeared in 1821, in 21 vols., under the editorship of James Boswell the younger, and as the 'Variorum Shakespeare' is known and valued by all scholars. See Life by Sir James Prior (1860).