will transcribe “so that not even Nichols shall know the author.”
Towards the end of the year Malone was applied to by the Reverend Mr. Whalley, then preparing an edition of Ben Jonson, for such assistance as he could afford. But he had formed no love for that writer or his productions. Other commentators have expressed similar feelings. Some believe him to have been a personal enemy of his great contemporary—jealous, envious, and spiteful toward a genius superior to his own. This is perhaps unfair to “rare” Ben after the excellent poem written to his great contemporary’s memory. While living, indeed, many unhappy contentions arise among brethren; but after death, comes, or should come, truth. Yet little as either of their lives are known, it is scarcely fair to affix the passion of envy upon one who in the rivalries of a theatre may believe he has just cause for complaint. A passage from the reply of Malone fairly states his views: “I shall with great pleasure add my mite of contribution to your new edition of Ben Jonson, though I have very little hopes of being able to throw any light on what has eluded your researches. At the same time I must honestly own to you that I have never read old Ben’s plays with any degree of attention, and that he is an author so little to my taste that I have no pleasure in perusing him.” It appears by the same letter that he was then busy upon the “Second Appendix to my Supplement to Shakspeare.”
Accession to office of the Coalition Ministry gave him new occupation in trying to allure one of his
