Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 5th May 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 11

Page 11
Page 11
11 of 24

On this page

  • Text (3)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      — ¦ T~A4£Es-A-Ia>~Ju^__^ Tts / Hat! No M...

      a Denny pickwielc . Shall we , his elJers , then , have no more olack currant -with our jugged hare ? Shall there be , in fact , because . ye are virtuous , O ye Vegetarians , O ye Anti-tobacconists , Oye . teetotallers , « ° more beef and mutton , no more birds ' -eye and cavendish , no more " Cakes and Ale ? " ,

      3klat -5, 1sc0.J The Leader And Saturday...

      3 klAT -5 , 1 SC 0 . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 423

      Maloxe, The Shakspeeiax Commentator.* T ...

      MALOXE , THE SHAKSPEEIAX COMMENTATOR . * T HERE is little excuse for the man who writes a dull biography . The most uneventful life may be invested with an interest , if the writer have but ordinary sympathy with humanity ; and if he have not . he had better let his task alone . Edmond Mnlone , scholar , editor , and critic , was not . perhaps ,, a very promising subject for a memoir , but it promised something . The reader might expect fresh pictures of that literary society which comprised Johnson , Sir Joshua , Burke , the Wartons , Isa ' -ic Jleed , Geonre Stcevens , and a host of others , whose names still linger about C > vent Garden and the courts of Fleet Street—new contrasts of the hard laborious scholar and the social man—more curiosities of literary warfare , such as Shaksperian critics only know how to wnge . Little of these thins-s , however , will he find in Sir James Prior ' s book . It is singular , indeed , after going through the pncres of the memoir , to and bloodThe world does

      find how little it contains of real flesh . scant justice to men of Malone's class , obstinately persisting in believing them to be all mere Dryasdusts , fellows whose hearts are shrunken and colourless ns the ancient papers and parchments which thev love to pore over . Sir James Prior will not , in this ease at least , have helped to destroy the prejudice . A gentle-nan with" a mother and father his hero certainly is . He has also other relatives and friends ; but the chief attributes of the gentleman here presented to us are prefaces and ¦ ¦ marginal notes , parochial registers and legal records , scarce copies and edit tones priricij > rs , now readings and felicitous emendations . We . do not . say that this is altogether the author's fault .- It is possible that the " books , papers , and memoranda" which furnished Sir James with the materials for writing the private life of Malone would yield nothing better ; but in this case , the reader may ask , why -write a life ¦ of Edmond Malone ?

      TheMory of Malone ' s life is soon told . Tie was born ni Duolin , on the 4 th of October , 17-11 , being the son of Edmond Mnlone , a conspicuous man at the Irish bar , . and ' his wife the daughter of a London mer-• chant , named Collier . ¦ The future editor studied at Trinity College , Dublin—was destined for tlie Bar—removed to ' London , and entered -of the Inner Temple in ¦•¦ 1 703 ; became introduced ; 'to Johnson 1 — ana ' d ' e . a tour on the ^ continent' —returned to Dublin to . pursue the practice of the law , but soon showed a decided preference to contributing articles to the ' newspaper . * , and corresponding on literary subjects with his friends Ciietwood and SjuUiwell , and Lord Charlemont , the patron of Uurke—and finally blossomed out an editor in a new collection of Goldsmith ' s "works , published in Dublin . His father and mother both died about this period ; and his uncle

      Anthony Malone also dying , left his estate at JJaroustown and elsewhere to Edmond ' s elder brother , afterwards Lord Sunderlin ; and now , " having none whose wishes it was necessary to consult , " Edmond returned fo . London to cnlfivate ^ lre ' ^ c ^ TaTnt ^ Stcevens , and men of his class—to plunge into the battle of Shaksperinn criticism 1 hen raging ; -and to set up as professional editor , annotator , find critic , in which characters he is well known to the world . There is , indeed , some mysterious talk of a " Miss B—" and a lady with " thick legs ; " but beyond those strong tokens of material existence here and there brought forward , the ladies might be merclv allegorical figures representing that ardent study of old

      authors to which the Irish barrister was now about to be wedded for life . His correspondents discourse far loss of men than of books and manuscripts : one conveys to him the awful ' intelligence of the destiny of a learned friend ' s books , •' the ship in which th / jy were embarked '' having " foundered oil' IJocchy Head , " and " all his first editions gone to the bottom ! " What- wonder that the writer avoided the danger of an anti-elimnx by omitting to say whether any human lives were also sacriHcedP This , with the mention of the vjirious publications put forth by * Ms » Ione , positively " makes all the history , " unless we except that ' event which gives to the close all biographies such n terrible sameness—the death of its hero , which took place on the 25 th May , 3812 .

      Malone ' s life must hsivo had moro of romance in it than hero appears . A pursuit which led him away from a money-making profession , recompensed him for the loss of the Judy with tho "thick legs , " as well as " Miss ] $ — , " mid engrossed his daily thoughts throughout a long 1 life in a degree which to men of the world seined like some strange mildness , could nob have been so " harsh or crabbed " as dull souls believe . Mulono waa one of the earliest ot that school of literary " nntiqunvies who sought , with something- Hive painstaking- accuracy , for facts ,. not only literary but biographical ,

      concerning tbo writers of tho past . We say " fur spinethiug like accuracy / " because the character which he enjoyed in his lifvthno for this quality must now receive some abatement" by comparison with the higher standard of , editorshi p and litorary research which has since grown up . Nowhere is this truth tnorg conspicuous f linti in the number of anecdotes , Topinna , Maloniana , < fcc ., from Mnlone ' a manuscripts , which Sir James Prior has incorporated with his work , nnd which , though welcomo as enlivening nn otherwise dull book , must be read with caution . They abound , indeed , in errors and

      misstatements , so glaring that it is incredible that his biographer coujd have published them , as he has in nearly every case , without remark . Sir James Prior more than once dwells up ni Malone ' s accuracy , and quotes in the outset of his narrative one of his letters , in which he justly says , " Give me but time , place , and names . a \ id the genuineness or falsehood of any story may ba easily ascertained . " Tested , however , in this way , what becomes of Popianu . Malouiaua , and of half the stories with which Sir James Prior has tilled out his book ? Scarcely less Unjustifiable is the way in which he has reproduced , from Mulone ' s rough memoranda , stories which h . tve . since Malone ' s time , been rendered familiar to every reader . Why should we bo coniidentiallv let into the secret of how Sir Spencer Compton ( Lord

      Wilmington ) being- unable to draw up the first speech of King George the Secnnd . called ' in the aid of Sir Kobert Walpole . and so lost liis post , which Walpole then regained , when we have long had the whole story in Horace Walpole's well-known " Reminiscences ?" What can now be more absurd than starting a disquisition upon Junius with the remark , that "It has long been a question who wns the author-of the letters whicli appeared under the signature of ' Junius , ' in 17 ( 19 and 1770 . " and then unfolding the absurd theory that Junius was Burke ' s friend , Samuel Dyer ? What reader has not already met with the anecdote oi' Thomson justifying his not getting out of bed till midday on the ground that he " had no wof-in-c f" Who lias not heard that " 'Sir Joshua Key holds once saw Pope . " and that it was at an auction of books or pictures ? Why . the last popular edition of Popes works has , we think , an engraving representing the auction-room , Sir Joshua , and the poet .

      Again ., why should we be told in 1800 , as a piece of . curious intelligence , that " Swift made several observations on the margin of Burnetts History of his own Time , ' ' that Loz \ l Onflow had another copy " tilled with tin * remarks of his father the Speaker "—with the additional observation , , " they are short , he says , but very pointed and characteristic , " & c . Everybody who has read Burnett knows that . ' both Swift ' s n . ud Speaker Onflow ' s remarks have been long 2 > rinted with the "History , " in the form of marginal notes ; Surely it is too late in tie day to be told that . " Mr . Wnlpoju remembered " Pope ' s Pattv B ' . ount " walking to Mr . IJetheii's , in Arlington ¦ Street , after Pope ' s ' aoijtli . with her petticoats tucked up like a sempstress ;" for what reader interested in the HteraryMife of the last , century does not remember Walpole ' s inimitable description , in his lot revs , of Pope ' s Patty Mount , in her pattens on jt ,-rainy day , with nothing of her beauty * -remaining but" '* ' her blue eyes , " going up to visit " blameless ' ' I Jethcll . " who was ill " at the end of the street ?"

      We could quote a score of suuh cases of . sLak * -anecdotes given us new ; but the number of those which , though " new /* arc ' ¦ not true , " is unfortunately no loss . Take one or " two . Malone , in a letter from Avignon , now published , gives the following anecdote ot that town : — "Avignon is very far from bei »» £ a ]> l ; ice one would . wish to settle in . It has no sort of trade or business , no public entertainments , and ia besides an old , straggling , ugly town . ¦ It was rendered f . unoiis for some time by the residence of the " oil Pretender , and in the y . 'itr 17-K 3 . his son retired thither after the rebellion . He lived very magnificently , but bo void of gratitude , <» r even common decency , ' . \ s to give a grand ball , at which he danced , sit the very time he well knew his party , Lords BuiiiTariTTo ~? Erfd ~ lCriTnTrilT ^^ ¦— ~ -

      This is a grave charge against the young Pretender , who , whatever he may afterwards liave sunk to , was at this time a line , dashing fellow , of really manly qualities . Fortunately , this is one of those cases in which " iinw , place , and names " enable us to . testthe story , find pronounce it decidedly spurious ; for Kilmallock and the brave Balmarino wcr * executed On the IStli of August , 17 Mi , sit the time when Charles Edward' was still a wanderer and a fugitive .- The young Pretender , in tuiorf ; , did not dunce ab Avignon on August . JS , simply because he did not . get away and arrive in Paris till October , and did not go . ' to Avignon till long after . Here , strain , we find the old story of Lord Oxford ' s letter to the Duke of Marl borough , which led , as is alleged , to the suspension of proceedings against tho former , and which has agiiin and again been shown to bo inconblunders d

      sistent with proved facts : and , among a score of . an absurd . inis-Htatemonts concerning Lady Mary Montagu , wo have tho remarkable pioea of'information that on hor deathbed she gave seventeen largo volumes in manuscript of hor U'ttei-8 , memoirs , and poems , to the clergyman who attended' her , with nn injunction to publish them , " but that Lady lint ? , to prevent ; this , ' prevailed on her husband " to giro tho clergyman a good Crown living ; " and that ? ' for this bribo he broke his trust . " This was , no . doubt , tho vague story lloating about in Malone ' s cinys ; but . Sir Jauics Prior ought to have known that the true version has been before tho world ever since Dallaway ' ri edition of Lady Montagu's works in 1803 . He may there , or in tiny of the numerous editions hi ' iico published , kco that tliero is scarcely ono particular in which ho has not ridiculously exaggerated and misrepresented th « whole utory .

      Some of the anecdotes are new to us , and ono or two may bo worth quoting-...... Hero is a new paragraph ot \ yulpolijuuv : — " Mr . Lock , of 'KWlmry Piirk , wellkn ' own for liis collcctifin of jiiotiircH , statues , & o ., was a nnttiral son . Qn hi « inarriitj ^ t witli tlio daughter ol Ludy Hobaub , who had been very gulluut , JIoimco \ V » l |> olc said very hapiiily , ' Then everybody ' ^ duu ^ hter id married to nobody ' s Ron . ' " 1 Here , too , is ' on unecdoto of . Iohnson , which represents tho sturdy loxicogrupher in an entirely now chara < : ter : — " Johnson , it nppeara , was willing to change t ] io nir r . f Holt Court for thiit of u nuburbiiii piUiicc ; . lie tbereforo uppllc-1 for if retri'ut , wliere Bcvenil parties of Hinuil nieana , and of some public cliurm , turn tlicir ( tVOfJ with Bimllar cxpcctaitiona of lindinga home Ho fuiU-d , yvhrthcr with this knowlodgo of bia , Mtijcsty is doubtful . Tho following la tliu letter oi applioiition and reply : —

      * J-Afo Ofhdmonrf Mttlonr, Wilt Or Ofs/T...

      * J-Afo ofHdmonrf Mttlonr , Wilt or ofS / t < ik « i > c < t > v . With Welections from n \ B MunuBoript Anecdotes . By £ ii * Jamks X ' kior . London : tfinitb , Hldor . m » d Co .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05051860/page/11/