some current rumours respecting his life in an article in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ June 1810, which he circulated privately as a pamphlet; it is also reprinted in Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations,’ v. 470 sq. Early in 1812 Malone's health, long declining, failed. From 17 March to 13 April he stayed at Taplow Court, Maidenhead, the residence of Lady Thomond. He died unmarried at Foley Place, 25 April 1812, and was buried in the family mausoleum in Kilbixy churchyard, near Baronston. A Latin epitaph in the mausoleum is by Dr. Beirnie, bishop of Meath, and gives full credit to his hospitality (Eclectic Review, May 1860, pp. 507 sq.).
Malone left his materials for the new edition of Shakespeare to James Boswell the younger, who completed his task in 1821. The new edition was in twenty-one volumes, and included, amid many other additions to the prolegomena, an essay on Shakespeare's metre and phraseology. In his preface Boswell defended his friend from the attacks of Steevens in his edition of 1793, and of Gifford in his edition of Ben Jonson. ‘Boswell's Malone’ is generally known as the ‘third variorum’ edition of Shakespeare, and is generally acknowledged to be the best; the ‘first variorum’ is the name bestowed on the edition of Johnson and Steevens, edited by Isaac Reed in 1803; and the ‘second variorum’ is that bestowed on a revision of Isaac Reed's work issued in 1813.
According to the younger Boswell, Malone ‘was indeed a cordial and a steady friend, combining the utmost mildness with the simplest sincerity and the most manly independence. Tenacious, perhaps, of his own opinions, which he had seldom hastily formed, he was always ready to listen with candour and good humour to those of others.’ The elegance of his manners evoked the admiration of Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. Socially he did his best to keep alive the traditions connected with Johnson and his associates, but, although not writing for money, he fully identified himself with the profession of letters. His publications prove him to have been a literary antiquary rather than a literary critic. He was ‘an excellent ferret in charter warrens,’ accurate in minute investigation, of unbounded industry, of incontrovertible honesty, and a sincere admirer of Shakespeare. ‘No writer, I think,’ wrote Andrew Caldwell to Bishop Percy, ‘ever took more pains to establish facts and detect errors’ (Prior, p. 268). His zeal as a Shakespearean investigator was insatiable. ‘Till our author's whole library,’ he wrote in 1778 in his first ‘Supplement,’ ‘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 by the commentators on his works.’ In his treatment of the text of Shakespeare he depended with greater fidelity than any of his predecessors on the early editions; and in Shakespearean biography and theatrical history he brought together more that was new and important than any predecessor or successor. But when he attempted original textual emendation, his defective ear became lamentably apparent. His intellect lacked the alertness characteristic of Steevens or Gifford.
As a book collector Malone met with many successes. His library, he claimed, contained every dramatic piece mentioned by Langbaine, except four or five. In 1805 he bought of William Ford, a Manchester bookseller, a unique copy of Shakespeare's ‘Venus and Adonis,’ 1593, for 25l. To obtain ‘ancient copies’ of Shakespeare ‘was,’ writes the younger Boswell, ‘the great effort of his life;’ and a large part of his moderate fortune was devoted ‘to purchases—to him of the first necessity, to many collectors of idle curiosity.’ Between 1771 and 1808 he spent 2,121l. 5s. on books and binding, and between 1780 and 1808 839l. 9s. on pictures and prints. His volumes were bound in half-calf with ‘E. M.’ in an interlaced monogram on the back. The library was accessible to every scholar. Engraved portraits of historical personages figured largely in it, and many of these ultimately passed to the Rev. Thomas Rooper of Brighton, a relative of Malone's sister-in-law, Lady Sunderlin.
By Malone's will, made in 1801, his brother, Lord Sunderlin, who was sole executor, received his Shinglas and Cavan property. Three thousand pounds were left to each of his sisters. His library was placed at the absolute disposal of his brother. But he suggested that it might either remain as a heirloom at Baronston, or might be presented to Trinity College, Dublin. In 1815 Lord Sunderlin arranged that the greater part of it, including the rare works in early English literature, should be presented to the Bodleian Library, Oxford. At the time, these volumes were in the keeping of the younger Boswell, to whom they had been lent in order to enable him to complete the edition of Shakespeare. In 1821 the younger Boswell sent the books to Oxford. The catalogue, which was printed by the university in 1836, fills forty-six folio pages. In 1861 Halliwell-Phillipps printed a hand list of
