and all his immediate predecessors were distinguished men. His grandfather, while he was yet only a student at the Temple, was entrusted with a negociation in Holland; and so successfully acquitted himself, that he was honoured and rewarded by King William for his services. Having been called to the Irish bar about 1700, he became one of the most eminent barristers that have ever appeared in that country. His professional fame has only been eclipsed by that of his eldest son, the still more celebrated Anthony Malone, whose superiority has not, however, been universally acknowledged. To any one, who is even slightly acquainted with the history of Ireland, it would be superfluous to point out the extraordinary qualities which adorned the character of Anthony Malone. As a lawyer, an orator, and an able and upright statesman, he was confessedly one of the most illustrious men that his country has produced. Edmond, the second son of Richard, and the father of the late Mr. Malone, was born on the 16th of April, 1704. He was called to the English bar in 1730, where he continued for ten years to practise ; and, in 1740, removed to the Irish bar. After having sat in several parliaments, and gone through the usual gradations of professional rank, he was raised, in 1766, to the dignity of one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, an office which he filled till his death in 1774. He married, in 1736, Catherine, only daughter and heir of Benjamin Collier, esq. of Ruckholts, in the county of Essex, by whom he had four sons, Richard, now Lord Sunderlin; Edmond, the subject of our present Memoir; Anthony and Benjamin, who died in their infancy; and two daughters, Henrietta and Catherine.

Edmond Malone was born at his father's house in Dublin, on the 4th of October, 1741. He was educated at the school of Dr. Ford, in Molesworth-street; and went from thence, in the year 1756, to the University of Dublin, where he took the degree of Batchelor of Arts. Here his talents

volume of Archdall's Peerage of Ireland, which, it is believed, was drawn up by Mr. Malone himself, and which contains a full and interesting delineation of his grandfather and uncle.

very early displayed themselves; and, to use the words of a most respectable gentleman, his contemporary, "He was distinguished by a successful competition for academical honours with several young men, who afterwards became the ornaments of the Irish Senate and Bar." It appears that at his outset he had laid down to himself those rules of study to which he ever afterwards steadily adhered. His pursuits were various, but they were not desultory. He was anxious for general information, as far as it could be accurately obtained; but had no value for that superficial smattering which fills the world with brisk and empty talkers. When sitting down to the perusal of any work, either antient or modern, his attention was drawn to its chronology, the history and character of its author, the feelings and prejudices of the times in which he lived; and any other collateral information which might tend to illustrate his writings, or acquaint us with his probable views, and cast of thinking. In later years he was more particularly engrossed by the literature of his own country; but the knowledge he had acquired in his youth had been too assiduously collected, and too firmly fixed in his mind, not to retain possession of his memory, and preserve that purity and elegance of taste which is rarely to be met with but in those who have early derived it from the models of classical antiquity. He appears frequently at this period, in common with some of his accomplished contemporaries, to have amused himself with slight poetical compositions; and on the marriage of their present Majesties contributed an Ode to the collection of congratulatory verses which issued on that event from the University of Dublin. In 1763 he became a student in the Inner Temple; and in 1767 was called to the Irish bar. It might naturally have been expected that the example of his distinguished relatives, et pater Eneas et avunculus Hector, would have stimulated him to pursue the same career in which they had been so honourably successful; and that he would have attained to the highest rank in a profession for which he was so admirably fitted by his natural acuteness and steady habits of application; and accordingly, at his first appearance in the Courts, he

Mr. Steevens having published a second edition of his Shakspeare, in 1778; Mr. Malone, in 1780, added two supplementary volumes, which contained some additional notes, Shakspeare's poems, and seven plays which have been ascribed to him. There appears up to this time to have been no interruption to their friendship; but, on the contrary, Mr. Steevens, having formed a design of relinquishing all future editorial labours, most liberally made a present to Mr. Malone of his valuable collection of old plays, declaring that he himself was now become "a dowager commentator." It is painful to think that this harmony should ever have been disturbed, or that any thing should have created any variance between two such men, who were so well qua lified to co-operate for the benefit of the literary world. Mr. Malone, having continued his researches into all the topicks which might serve to illustrate our great Dramatist, discovered, that although much had been done, yet that much still remained for critical industry; and that a still more accurate collation of the early copies than had hitherto taken place was necessary towards a correct and faithful exhibition of the author's text. His materials accumulated so fast, that he determined to appear be fore the world as an Editor in form. From that moment he seems to have been regarded with jealousy by the elder Commentator, who appears to have sought an opportunity for a rup ture, which he soon afterwards found, or rather created. But it is necessary to go back for a moment, to point out another of Mr. Malone's produc tions. There are few events in lite

gave every promise of future eminence. But an independent fortune having soon after devolved upon him, he felt himself at liberty to retire from the bar, and devote his whole attention in future to those literary pursuits which have laid the foundation of his fame, and have entitled him to the gratitude of every English scholar. With a view to those superior opportunities for information and study, and the society which London affords, he soon after settled in that metropolis; and resided there with very little intermission for the remainder of his life. Such society, indeed, as he met with there must have been a perpetual feast of intellectual enjoyment to one so well-qualified to appreciate its value. It is no exaggeration to say that centuries may elapse before two such men as Burke and Johnson can be brought together; and how long may we look in vain for such a combination of various and splendid talent as was collected by the liberal and tasteful hospitality of Sir Joshua Reynolds, himself one of the brightest ornaments of the age in which he lived. Among the many eminent men with whom he became early acquainted, he was naturally drawn by the enthusiastic admiration which he felt for Shakspeare, and the attention which he had already paid to the elucidation of his works, into a particularly intimate intercourse with Mr. Steevens. The just views which he himself had formed led him to recognize in the system of criticism and illustration which that gentleman then adopted, the only means by which a correct exhibition of our great Poet could be obtained, Mr. Steevens was gratified to find that one so well acquainted with the sub-rary history more extraordinary in all ject entertained that high estimation of his labours which Mr. Malone expressed; and very soon discovered the advantage he might derive from the communications of a mind so richly stored. Mr. Malone was ready and liberal in imparting his knowledge, which, on the other part, was most gratefully received. In one of Mr. Steevens's letters, after acknowledging in the warmest terms the value of Mr. Malone's assistance, he adopts the language of their favourite, Shaks peare:

"Only I have left to say, More is thy due than more than all can pay."

its circumstances than the publication of the poems attributed to Rowley, Mr. Malone was firmly convinced that the whole was a fabrication by Chatterton; and, to support his opinion, published one of the earliest pamphlets which appeared in the course of this singular controversy. By exhibiting a series of specimens from early English writers, both prior and posterior to the period in which this supposed Poet was represented to have lived, he proved that his style bore no resemblance to genuine antiquity; and by stripping Rowley of his antique garb, which was easily done by the substitution of modern sypony,

mous

mediately after proceeds to sneer at Mr. Tyrwhitt. It may readily be supposed that Mr. Malone would not feel. very acutely the satire which associated him with such companious. But, to counterbalance these puny or peevish hostilities, his work gained the highest testimonies of applause from all who were best qualified to judge upon the subject, and from men whose approbation any one would be proud to obtain. Dr. J. Warton, in a most friendly letter, which accompanied a curious volume of old English poetry which had belonged to his brother Thomas, and which he presented to Mr. Malone as the person for whom its former possessor felt the highest esteem and the most cordial regard, observes to him that his edition is by far, very far, the best that had ever appeared. Professor Porson, who, as every one who knew him can testify, was by no means in the habit of bestowing hasty or thoughtless praise,

declared to the Writer of this account, that he considered the Essay on the three parts of Henry the Sixth

as one of the most convincing pieces of criticism that he had ever read. The following letter from Mr. Burke will not only exhibit the high opinion which he entertained of Mr. Malone, but will be read with interest, as furnishing an additional instance of the powers which that great statesman could display even in a complimentary letter to a friend; and how every topick became generalized, when it fell under the contemplation of his truly philosophical mind.

"MY DEAR SIR,

[No date.] "Upon my coming to my new habitation in town, I found your valuable work upon my table. I take it as a very good earnest of the instruction and pleasure which may be yet reserved for my declining years. Though I have had many little arrangements to make, both of a publick and private nature, my occupations were not able to overrule my curiosity, nor to prevent me from going through almost the whole of your able, exact, and interesting History of the vial thing to those who wish to study huStage. A history of the Stage is no triman nature in all shapes and positions. It is of all things the most instructive, to see not only the reflection of manners and characters at several periods, but the modes of making their reflection, and the manner of adapting it at those pe

kind. The Stage indeed may be considered as the republick of active literature, and its history as the history of that state. The great events of political history, when not combined with the same helps towards the study of the manners and characters of men, must be a study of an inferior nature.

an eye of any colour, to what revolves or rolls over our heads, and to the waves of the sea, pearcynde ea peacende ræ." Had Mr. Tooke produced an instance from any one author, who wrote in Eng-riods to the taste and disposition of manlish, of welkin having been used in the sense of rolling, or in any other than that of the sky, or been able to persuade us that Shakspeare was an AngloSaxon, there might have been some ground for his criticism,though no excuse for his petulance. Ingenious etymology is always amusing, and, where we are in the dark with regard to the meaning of a word, may sometimes furnish us with a clue to discover it; but to adhere to the primitive and obsolete signification of a term, when in the course of those changes which every language undergoes it has deflected into another sense, which is known and established, is surely little better than idle pedantry. As well might we maintain that hostis, in the age of Augustus, meant only a stranger, because Cicero informs us that it was so used in the earlier ages of the Republick; or, to take our examples from our own language, with as much propriety might we say that a man is a knave in proportion as he is poor, (Vide EПEA ITEР. vol. II. p. 425,) or describe a beautiful young lady as being uncouth, because we have not the honour of her acquaintance, and she is therefore unknown to us.

"You have taken infinite pains, and pursued your enquiries with great sagacity, not only in this respect, but in such of your notes as hitherto I have been able to peruse. You have earned your repose by publick-spirited labour. But I cannot help hoping, that when you have given yourself the relaxation which you will find necessary to your health, if you are not called to exert your great ta lents, and employ your great acquisitions in the transitory service to your country which is done in active life, you will continue to do it that permanent service which it receives from the labours of those who know how to make the silence of their closets more beneficial to the world than all the noise and bustle of courts, senates, and camps.

"I beg leave to send you a pamphlet which I have lately published. It is of an edition more correct, I think, than any

of