(1741-1812) Critic, son of an Irish judge, born in Dublin, and educated at Trinity College there, studied for the law, but coming into a fortune, decided to follow a literary career. Acute, careful, and sensible, he was a useful contributor to the study of Shakespeare, of whose works he puborn a valuable edition in 1790. He also aided in the detection of the Rowley forgeries of Chatterton, and the much less respectable Shakespeare ones of Ireland. At his death he was engaged upon another edition of Shakespeare, which was brought out under the editorship of James Boswell (q.v.). Malone also wrote Lives of Dryden and others, and was the friend of Johnson, Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Burke.