Edmond Malone
Who was Edmond Malone?
Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor (1741-1812)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Edmond Malone (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Edmond Malone was born on October 4, 1741, in Dublin, Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and trained as a lawyer, but his real passion was literature and scholarship. After his father's death in 1774 left him financially secure, Malone left his law career behind and moved to London. There, he joined the city's lively intellectual circles, mixing with notable figures like Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Horace Walpole, George Canning, Oliver Goldsmith, and Lord Charlemont.
Malone became well-known for his work on William Shakespeare. With encouragement from Lord Charlemont and critic George Steevens, he focused on the chronology of Shakespeare's plays. In 1778, he published his key essay, 'An Attempt to Ascertain the Order in Which the Plays Attributed to Shakspeare Were Written.' This essay was important because it linked the development of the plays to specific periods in Shakespeare's life and career, allowing a biographical study of the playwright. Its insights were respected long after Malone's death. In 1780, he contributed two supplementary volumes to Steevens's edition of Samuel Johnson's Shakespeare, exploring the history of the Elizabethan stage and examining plays of uncertain attribution, with an additional appendix volume in 1783.
Malone's friendship with Steevens fell apart after Malone refused to change notes that contradicted Steevens's views in Isaac Reed's 1785 edition of Shakespeare, leading to a lasting rift. Malone published his own edition of Shakespeare's complete works in 1790, which became a landmark of eighteenth-century textual scholarship. It was based on extensive archival research and set new standards for editing early modern texts. A posthumous edition, unfinished at Malone's death, was completed by James Boswell the younger and published in twenty-one volumes between 1821 and 1823, known as the Third Variorum Shakespeare.
Beyond his work on Shakespeare, Malone was pivotal in other literary activities of his time. He was a close friend and helper to James Boswell, aiding significantly in the revision and proofreading of the Life of Samuel Johnson and adding notes to four later editions. After Sir Joshua Reynolds died, Malone served as an executor and in 1798 published a collection of Reynolds's writings, including a biographical memoir. He also played a key role in exposing the Shakespeare forgeries by William Henry Ireland in the 1790s, which had initially fooled many scholars and literary figures. Malone's careful analysis revealed the documents as fakes.
Edmond Malone died on May 25, 1812, in London. His work turned the study of Shakespeare into a field based on historical evidence, archival research, and careful textual analysis.
Before Fame
Edmond Malone was born in Dublin in 1741 to a well-known Anglo-Irish family and got a gentleman's education at Trinity College, Dublin, one of Ireland's top schools. He later studied law and became a barrister in Ireland. His father's death in 1774 relieved Malone from financial concerns, allowing him to follow his passion for literature.
When he moved to London in the mid-1770s, Malone entered an environment rich in intellectual exchange. The city's coffee houses, clubs, and private gatherings brought together writers, critics, artists, and politicians, making literary scholarship both feasible and rewarding. With the help of Lord Charlemont and George Steevens, Malone became particularly interested in Shakespearean studies. At that time, editors and critics were busy trying to create reliable versions of Shakespeare's plays and piece together his life story.
Key Achievements
- Published 'An Attempt to Ascertain the Order in Which the Plays Attributed to Shakspeare Were Written' (1778), establishing the foundation of modern Shakespearean chronology.
- Produced a landmark ten-volume edition of Shakespeare's complete works in 1790, setting new standards for historical and textual editing.
- Played a leading role in exposing the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries of the 1790s, authoring a detailed published refutation.
- Collaborated closely with James Boswell on multiple editions of the Life of Samuel Johnson, contributing annotations and editorial revisions.
- Edited and published a posthumous collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds's writings in 1798, with an accompanying biographical memoir.
Did You Know?
- 01.Malone sat for a portrait by his close friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, which is now held in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
- 02.William Henry Ireland's Shakespeare forgeries, which Malone helped expose, included a purported manuscript of King Lear and even an entirely fabricated play called Vortigern, which was actually staged at Drury Lane in 1796 before being publicly ridiculed.
- 03.The posthumous edition of Shakespeare that Malone left unfinished at his death was completed by James Boswell the younger and ran to twenty-one volumes, becoming one of the most important editions in the history of Shakespeare scholarship.
- 04.Malone annotated four separate editions of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, making him one of the most significant early commentators on that celebrated biography.
- 05.Malone's 1778 essay on the chronological order of Shakespeare's plays was the first serious attempt to use internal and external evidence to date each play, a methodology that underpins Shakespeare biography to this day.