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Edmond Malone
(1741 - 1812)

Portrait of Malone by Sir Joshua Reynolds
painted 1778 revised 1786

Introduction

Malone was surely the greatest Elizabethan scholar of the 18th Century. 

Malone's Advertisement (Preface) to his Supplement to the Edition of Shakspeare's Plays Published in 1778

ADVERTISEMENT

The various Commentaries on the plays of Shakspeare are already swelled to so large a size, that some apology may be necessary for a publication, of which the professed design is to increase their number.

Those who complain of the repeated impressions of this great poet, would do well to consider, whether the hopes, which were many years since entertained, of seeing a perfect edition of his works produced by the effort of a single person, were not rather sanguine than reasonable. By a diligent collation of all the old copies hitherto discovered, and the judicious restoration of ancient readings, the text of this author seems indeed now finally settled. The great abilities and unwearied researches of his last editor [Steevens], it must likewise be acknowledged, have left little obscure or unexplained. But the field of illustration is so extensive, that some time may yet elapse before the dramas of Shakspeare shall appear in such a manner as to be incapable of improvement. If, though the most eminent literati of Europe for above two centuries were employed in revising and expounding the writers of Greece and Rome, many ancient editions of classick authors have yet within our own memory been much improved by modern industry, why should it create surprize, that a poet, whose works were originally printed with so little care, whose diction is uncommonly licentious, and whose dialogue, agreeably to the nature of dramatick composition, is often temporary and allusive, should still stand in need of critical assistance?  Till his whole library shall have been discovered, till the plots of all his dramas shall have been traced to their sources, till every allusion shall be pointed out, and every obscurity elucidated, somewhat will still remain to be done. The books of the age of queen Elizabeth are now difficult to be procured ; and when procured, the aid that they afford to the commentator is not always to be obtained by a regular and systematick course of reading. Hence this species of illustration must necessarily be the slow and gradual work of time ; the result of various inquiries, instituted for different purposes.

This opinion is not now for the first time advanced ; for one of the most learned of our author's editors, whose vigorous and comprehensive understanding enabled him to throw more light upon the plays he undertook to revise, than all his predecessors had done, long since declared that "so many passages remain, in which Shakspeare evidently takes his advantage of the facts then recent, and of the passions then in motion, that he could not but suspect that time had obscured much of his art, and that many allusions yet remain undiscovered, which perhaps may be gradually retrieved by future commentators."

 To be continued...

 

 

Links to Malone's 1780 Supplement

Supplement to the edition of Shakspeare's plays published in 1778 by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. In two volumes. Containing additional observations ... to which are subjoined the genuine poems of the same author, and seven plays that have been ascribed to him; with notes by the editor and others, C. Bathurst, etc., 1780; from Google Book Search, full view and PDF.

Links to Malone's Edition of 1790

This is Malone's first great edition of the Works, including the poetry. Especially useful among the Malone materials in this edition are his pioneering An Attempt to Ascertain the Order in which the Plays of Shakspeare were Written, the Rise and Progress of the English Stage, The Dissertation on the Three Parts of King Henry VI, and Malone's edition of Romeus and Juliet, the source for Romeo and Juliet.  Malone is also important for his emphasis on the poetry, in contrast to his predecessors and specifically contra Steevens.  Though the title page states that Malone's edition appears in 10 volumes, it actually appeared in 11, volume I having two parts.  According to Simon Jarvis (Scholars and Gentlemen, p. 187) Malone (ironically) used the Isaac Redd edition of 1785 (Johnson-Steevens-Reed 3) as his base text, and then carefully collated the early editions against this base text.  In 1792 Malone proposed a new "splendid" edition of Shakespeare in "fifteen volumes, royal octavo" but the project was never realized.  Malone's second edition, if it can be called that, was compiled by his literary executor, James Boswell the younger in 1821 (linked below), nine years after Malone's death.

The plays and poems : of William Shakspeare, in ten volumes; collated verbatim with the most authentick copies, and revised: with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added, an essay on the chronological order of his plays; an essay relative to Shakspeare and Jonson; a dissertation ... an historical account ... by Edmond Malone, J. Rivington and Sons, ..., 1790.

 
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Last modified 09/21/09
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