Edmond Malone

Born in Dublin in 1741, Edmond Malone trained in law at Trinity College Dublin and was called to the Irish bar. After inheriting enough money to leave legal practice behind, he moved to London and devoted himself to literary study, especially Shakespeare.

Malone became one of the most important Shakespeare scholars of his time. He worked to establish more reliable texts of the plays and was an early pioneer in studying their dates and historical context. His editions and essays helped move Shakespeare scholarship toward close research based on documents and sources rather than tradition and guesswork.

He was also active in the wider literary world, with friends and contacts that included leading writers and artists of the day. Malone is remembered not only for editing Shakespeare, but for exposing literary hoaxes and for helping shape the modern idea of scholarly editing. He died in 1812.