Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/329

Rh when Gifford became the editor of Jonson, all these, as well as more modern men, were to be overthrown—Headley, A. Chalmers, Davies, Capell, Hurd, and others. While, as one of the late and principal offenders, Malone, then in his grave, became the primary object of abuse. The late eulogist of the living man became his reviler when dead. The terms “false, mean, base, malicious,” were liberally applied; and simple difference of opinion upon the literary merits of a writer who had lived two hundred years before, was thought sufficient to warrant language applicable only to the perpetrator of a serious moral offence. Such are some of the men who claim to be critics by profession. Habits of irresponsible abuse in anonymous criticism increase by indulgence. Native acerbity or vulgarity, thrust by accident or impudence into the chair of mere opinion, form examples not to imitate but to shun.

In reference to this gratuitous asperity, the younger Boswell justly writes:

Mr. Gifford knows not Mr. Malone’s notions of friendship. I regret that he did not know him better; for he was truly a man to be loved. I regret still more deeply that the grave has closed over a long catalogue of illustrious men, whose esteem and regard accompanied him through life, and that my feeble voice must offer that testimony to his notions of friendship which would have been borne with affectionate warmth by a Reynolds, a Burke, and a Wyndham. He 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 lighten with candour and good-humour to those of others. That suppleness of character which would yield without