A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Malone, Edmund

Malone, Edmund (1741-1812). -- Critic, s. of an Irish judge, b. in Dublin, and ed. at Trinity Coll. there, 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 pub. a valuable ed. 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 ed. of Shakespeare, which was brought out under the editorship of James Boswell (q.v.). M. also wrote Lives of Dryden and others, and was the friend of Johnson, Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Burke.