the younger Boswell, to whom in his illness he had assigned the duty of completing and issuing the enlarged edition of Shakspeare in twenty-one volumes. But this scant outline was only meant to allay the curiosity of the moment. Had that gentleman lived, no doubt we should have had a fuller account of a round of persevering studies in ancient poetic and dramatic literature by his friend, such as few other critical antiquaries have achieved.
Although I had been often impressed by the want of more satisfactory information respecting Malone, accident led to the present attempt to supply it. While at Brighton in 1856, in conversation with an eminent literary friend and likewise with a warm lover of letters, Mr. William Tooke, the latter mentioned having a resident friend there, the Reverend Thomas R. Rooper, a connection of the Malone family,[1] who possessed several of the books, letters, prints, and memoranda of Edmond, which he deemed worthy of close examination. I remembered that one of the letters of that gentleman to Bishop Percy had been quoted by me in the Life of Goldsmith, twenty years before, stating that he had once possessed some manuscript verses of that poet, which had been so carefully folded in one of his books that they could not then or afterward be found. It immediately occurred to me that the lost lines might be among these memorials. Mr. Rooper was applied to, who kindly assented to the search, which however proved vain. But the introduction led to some conversations on Malone’s career and spirit of research,
- ↑ Nephew of Lady Sunderlin, wife to the elder brother of Edmond.
