Edmond Malone

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Edmond Malone (portrait by Joshua Reynolds , 1778)

Edmond (Edmund) Malone (born October 4, 1741 in Dublin , † April 25, 1812 in London ) was an Irish literary scholar and author who mainly dealt with the life and work of William Shakespeare .

Life

Malone, whose father was a barrister and member of the Irish House of Commons , studied at Trinity College Dublin and was appointed to the bar in 1767 after completing his studies .

The inheritance after the death of his father in 1774 enabled him to travel to London, where he quickly joined literary and artistic circles. There he met personalities such as Samuel Johnson and James Boswell , whom he significantly supported in the publication of Johnson's biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). His portrait of the painter Joshua Reynolds , which can now be seen in the National Portrait Gallery in London , was created during this time . He was one of Reynolds' executors and posthumously published a collection of his works with memoirs in 1798.

Other friends of that time included Horace Walpole , Edmund Burke , George Canning, and especially James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont and George Steevens , who encouraged him to study the life and work of William Shakespeare. The resulting treatise Attempt to ascertain the Order in which the Plays of Shakespeare were written (1778) was widely recognized. In 1780, two supplementary volumes followed the Shakespeare edition published by Steevens, some of which contained depictions of the world of theater at the time of Elizabeth I, as well as texts from more questionable stage works . A volume of the appendix was published in 1783. In 1782 he was the first to publish a treatise in which he doubted the authenticity of the Rowley poems discovered by Thomas Chatterton .

His refusal to change some of his comments for the 1785 ten-volume edition of Shakespeare by Isaac Reed , who opposed George Steevens, led to a dispute between Malone and his friend Steevens.

For the next few years, Malone devoted himself to his own 11-volume edition of Shakespeare , based on the edition by Lewis Theobald and published in 1790, of which in particular his essays on theater history, the biography of Shakespeare and his attack on the authenticity of the three parts of Henry VI. are of literary value. The issue was received differently: while Burke praised it and Walpole viewed it critically, it was panned by John Ritson . Malone's edition showed tireless research and a respect for previous editions. In addition, he was also involved in the revision of Shakespeare works that were partly forgotten at the time, such as the sonnets .

Another treatise appeared in 1796 in which he was one of the first to denounce the Shakespeare forgeries committed by William Henry Ireland . His extensive edition of the works of John Dryden , published in 1801, was a further testament to his diligent, accurate and learned work. In 1801 the University of Dublin awarded him a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.).

At the time of his death, he was working on a new edition of Shakespeare's works. The manuscript and extensive material that he gave to James Boswell 's son of the same name were published by him in 1821 under the title The Shakespeare Variorum in 21 volumes. His own book collection was bequeathed by his older brother, Lord Sunderlin, to the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford , which later acquired many of his manuscripts, notes and literary correspondence. The British Museum has some of his letters and the Samuel Johnson dictionary he annotated.

The Malone Society was founded in his honor in 1907 .

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personal data
SURNAME Malone, Edmond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Malone, Edmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish writer and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1812
Place of death London