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November 2012 What Malone Really Said De Vere Society Newsletter :KDW0DORQHUHDOO\VDLGDERXW6KDNHVSHDUH E\.HYLQ*LOYDU\ Edmond Malone (1741-–1812) is the scholar most cal account of Shakespeare’s works with some bio- credited with establishing the biography of ‘William graphical comments. Rowe treats biographical data Shakespeare. in about 1000 words, just under one-eighth of his Samuel Schoenbaum refers to him as “per- introductory essay, concerned almost entirely about haps the greatest of all Shakespearean scholars” his life in Stratford (up-bringing and retirement), and (1970, ix). Wells and Taylor describe him as “one of he offers few biographical data about Shakespeare in the greatest intellectuals of the English Enlighten- London despite some investigation on his own part. PHQWWKHPRVWWDOHQWHGDQGLQÁXHQWLDORIDOOVFKRODUV Later, Malone would dismiss Rowe’s Account as to have dedicated his energies to the explication of containing only ten biographical facts, of which eight Shakespeare’s life and work.” (1987, 55). His re- were false. cent biographer, Peter Martin, calls him a “scholar- Rowe’s Account was abridged and re-or- collector, editor, biographer, and critic”, referring to ganised by Alexander Pope in 1725, but without ac- his “heroic and obsessive” approach to his work and knowledgement. This Rowe-Pope version was fre- his “enormous contribution to Shakespeare studies” quently reprinted in the eighteenth century, appearing (1995, xv-–xvii). as a separate pamphlet in 1740 as a preface to the However, a careful reading of Malone’s collected works edited by Thomas Hanmer (1743), works reveals his own considerable scepticism re- William Warburton (1747), Samuel Johnson (1765) garding previously published assertions concern- and George Steevens (1773, 1778, 1785, 1793, 1803, ing Shakespeare’s life and writings. In this article I 1813). At the time Malone arrived in London, George explore the grounds for wondering whether Malone Steevens commented: ever – especially in his later years – doubted the attri- bution of the plays and poems to William Shakspere All that is known with any degree of certainty concerning of Stratford upon Avon. Shakspeare is – that he was born in Stratford upon Avon, – married and had children there - went to London, where he commenced actor, and wrote poems and plays, – returned 0DORQH¶V%DFNJURXQG to Stratford, made his will, died, and was buried. I must Malone was born in Dublin, the son of an eminent confess my readiness to combat every unfounded sup- lawyer. He was an outstanding student at Trinity Col- position respecting the particular occurrences of his life. lege, Dublin and at the Inner Temple, London. He re- [Quoted by Malone 1780, I, 654] turned to practise law in Ireland until he inherited a large sum of money in the mid-1770s and was able to 0DORQH¶V&RQWULEXWLRQV establish himself as a gentleman scholar in London. Confronted by this absence of knowledge concern- His house at 40 Langham Street, W1, is marked by ing the life of William Shakespeare, Malone set a blue plaque. He was thus able to walk to the Brit- about investigating records and archives, where he ish Library, then housed in the British Museum, as PDGHPDQ\VLJQLÀFDQWGLVFRYHULHVDPRQJWKHGRFX- well as visit archives in London, Stratford and other mentary evidence concerning Shakespeare’s fam- places. His particular ambition was to collect all the ily background. He investigated the parish register, documentary evidence about Shakespeare into “one Shakespeare’s memorials and the inscription on uniform and connected narrative” or, as we might Anne Hathaway’s tombstone at Stratford. He bor- say, into a literary biography. rowed the Stratford Corporation books and found references in the Worcester Diocesan Records, the .QRZOHGJHRI6KDNHVSHDUH¶V/LIH 3UHURJDWLYH&RXUWRI&DQWHUEXU\WKH6WDPS2IÀFH When Malone established himself in London, there and the College of Arms. He made accurate tran- was little interest in the biography of Shakespeare. scripts of various deeds and wills of Shakespeare David Garrick had made Stratford famous with his himself, John Hall, and Thomas Nashe, husband of 1769 Jubilee, but little was known about Shake- his grand-daughter Elizabeth. speare’s life beyond what had been written by Nicho- In addition, Malone challenged the many las Rowe in a short preface to his edition of the works myths which had arisen about Shakespeare in the in 1709. Rowe’s essay, entitled ‘Some Acount of the eighteenth century and restricted himself to contem- Life &c of William Shakespeare’, was mainly a criti- porary documents. Finally, he exposed the forger- 18 November 2012 What Malone Really Said De Vere Society Newsletter ies published by Samuel Ireland. His output can be mances are very fragmentary and it is not known if the summed up under three headings: (i) an attempt to as- plays performed were recently composed or even in certain the order of the works; (ii) biographical infer- which version a play was performed: Richard II was ences from the plays; and (iii) a life of Shakespeare. played at the Globe on the eve of the Essex Rebellion, but it is not known whether the deposition scene was &KURQRORJ\RI:RUNV included or even if the play was Shakespeare’s. The publication records offer no link with composition. Malone must have been working on an outline chro- Both 1 Henry VI and Two Gentlemen of Ve- nology of the works before he came to London. His rona are thought to date to the early 1590s, yet were essay ‘An Attempt to Ascertain the Order in Which not published until the First Folio in 1623. Malone the Plays Attributed to Shakspeare Were Written’ was was commendably cautious about his chronology: ÀUVW SXEOLVKHG DPRQJ WKH SUHIDWRU\ PDWHULDO RI WKH Johnson-–Steevens second edition of 1778 (vol. I), If the dates here assigned to our author’s plays should not occupying 76 pages. An expanded version appeared in every instance, bring with them conviction of their pro- in Malone’s own edition of the works (1790, vol. I, priety, let it be remembered that this is a subject on which part I) now in 126 pages. A third version was pre- conviction cannot at this day be obtained; and that the ob- pared by Malone’s literary executor, James Boswell servations now submitted to the publick, do not pretend junior, in the posthumous edition of 1821 (vol. II), to any higher title than that of An ATTEMPT to ascertain expanded again to 180 pages. Most of the expansions the chronology of the dramas of Shakspeare. [1778, 1790, concerned further documentation regarding perfor- 1821] mances and Malone’s discussion. There are remark- ably few changes to his preferred dates, something %LRJUDSKLFDO,QIHUHQFHVIURP3OD\V upon which Malone congratulated himself. 0DORQHZDVWKHÀUVWZULWHUWRPDNHELRJUDSKLFDOLQ- Malone’s chronology has been largely ac- ferences from the works of Shakespeare. Originally, cepted by later scholars such as Edward Dowden WKHVHZHUHFRQÀQHGWRDIHZREVHUYDWLRQVRQWKHVRQ- (1874), Sir Edmund Chambers (1930) and by Stanley nets, which appeared in his 1780 supplement (vol. I). Wells and Gary Taylor (1987). However, Malone re- He accepts Steevens’s suggestion that the expression mained extremely guarded about the status of these “my pupil pen” in Sonnet 16 “may be considered GDWHVGXHWRDODFNRIVXIÀFLHQWPDWHULDOWRHVWDEOLVK as a slight proof that the poems before us were our certainty: author’s earliest compositions.” Malone recorded a The materials for ascertaining the order in which his plays similar comment on “this growing age” in Sonnet were written, are indeed so few, that, it is to be feared, 32 to suggest that Shakespeare may have written nothing very decisive can be produced on this subject. In this poem when he was older. Regarding Sonnet 93, the following attempt to trace the progress of his dramatick where the poet refers to himself “like a deceived hus- art, probability alone is pretended to. The silence and inac- band”, Malone wrote a lengthy note on the subject of curacy of those persons, who, after his death, had the re- jealousy, but was well aware that his point was con- visal of his papers, will perhaps for ever prevent our attain- jectural and not factual: ing to any thing like proof on this head. [1778, 1790, 1821] All I mean to say is, that he appears to me to have written These points have been elaborated in Dating Shake- more immediately from the heart on the subject of jeal- speare’s Plays (2010). There is no evidence of when ousy, than on any other; and it is therefore not improbable any work was composed or when authorial revisions that he might have felt it. The whole is mere conjecture. took place (if ever): Henry V and Hamlet both exist in shorter and in longer forms. The records of perfor- At this point, he quoted Steevens’s comment that very little was known for certain about Shakespeare Shakespeare and his Au- (Malone 1780, vol. I, 654). Malone (to his credit) thors : Critical Perspec- then quotes Steevens’s rejection of the jealous- Shakespeare hypothesis: tives on the Authorship Question That Shakspeare has written with the utmost power on the Ed: William Leahy subject of jealousy, is no proof that he ever felt it. Because he has, with equal vigour, expressed the varied aversions 3SELEOLRJUDSK\DQGLQGH[ of Apemantus and Timon to the world, does it follow that Continuum 2010 (hardback he himself was a Cynic or a wretch deserted by his friends? SDSHUEDFN STEEVENS. 19 November 2012 What Malone Really Said De Vere Society Newsletter Malone counters this, believing that he himself had also explains why he includes Rowe’s “meagre” Ac- full awareness of “the whole tenour of his [Shake- count, so as to add his own footnotes and challenge speare’s] character” which put him in a position to say almost everything Rowe had written about Shake- which feelings Shakespeare derived from personal ex- speare.