MALLET, DAVID. 



MALMESBURY, WILLIAM OF. 



70 



of the king, his widow Marie de' Medicis gave Malherbe a pension in 

 consequence of an ode which he addressed to her. In 1627 he had 

 the misfortune to lose his only surviving son in a duel, a loss which he 

 felt severely. He took steps to bring the offenders to justice, and even 

 wrote a letter to Louis XIII., in which he demanded satisfaction : this 

 letter is published among his works. Malherbe having repaired to the 

 camp before La Rochelle, where the court was then pressing the siege 

 of that place, he fell ill and died in a few days, in 1623, being seventy- 

 three years of age. 



Malherbe has been styled by competent judges the restorer of the 

 French language and poetry. He had a delicate ear and a refined 

 taste, and ho was very careful in the choice of his expressions. Mal- 

 herbe' s poetry is more remarkable for gracefulness of expression than 

 for power of thought. He was an elegant versifier rather than a real poet. 



(Poesies de Malhcrle, rangcei par Ordre Ckronokigique, avec la fie de 

 TAuteur, Paris, 1776.) 



MALLET, DAVID, was born about 1700, at Crieff, in Perthshire, 

 where his father, whose name wai James Malloch, and who is said to 

 have been one of the proscribed clan Macgregor, kept a small public- 

 house. He is supposed to have been sent first to college at Aberdeen, 

 but he afterwards studied at the university of Edinburgh ; and he was 

 attending the classes there and supporting himself by private teaching, 

 after the custom of the Scotch students, when, on the recommenda- 

 tion of the professors, he was appointed tutor to the sous of the Duke 

 of Montrose, with whom he made the tour of Europe. He first 

 became known as a writer by the publication of his ballad of 

 ' Margaret's Ghost,' or, as it was originally entitled, ' William and 

 Margaret,' which appeared anonymously in the 36th No. of Aaron 

 Hill's Tlain Dealer,' 14th of July 1724. There has been gome con- 

 troversy however as to Millet's claim to mora than the recasting of 

 this famous ballad. (See Percy's ' Heliques of antient English Poetry,' 

 17!<4, vol. iv. 332-36, where the ballad is given in the shape in which 

 it was finally published by Mallet, in his collected works, 1759; ' The 

 Hive," a collection of songs, voL i., 1724, where at p. 169 it is given as 

 it had appeared the same year in the ' Plain Dealer ; ' ' The Hive,' 

 vol. iii., published in 1725, where, at p. 157, is given the other poem 

 which has occasioned the controversy aa to the originality of Mallet's; 

 and 'The Friends,' 1773, vol. i., where the attempt was first made to 

 convict Mallet of plagiarism.) He now laid aside his paternal name, 

 and took that of Mallet, which he probably imagined had more of an 

 English sound, and was better suited to his ambition to be taken for 

 a native of South Britain : the earliest known mention of him under 

 his new name in print is said to occur in 1726. In 1728 he published 

 his poem of the ' Excursion,' in two cantos ; and in 1731 his tragedy 

 of ' Kurydice ' was performed at Drury Lane, but very indifferently 

 received. A poem entitled ' Verbal Criticism,' which he soon after 

 produced, was of some importance to. his fortunes by introducing htm 

 to the acquaintance of Pope, and through him to that of bis friend 

 Bolingbroke. Through these connections he obtained the situation of 



Jrivate secretary to Frederic, prince of Wales, with a salary of 200J. 

 n 1739 his tragedy of 'Mustapha' wag acted at Drury Lane, with 

 much applause, for the greater part of which however it was probably 

 indebted to some satirical hita at the king and the minister Walpole. 

 The next year, by command of the prince, he wrote, in conjunction 

 with Thomson, the masque of ' Alfred,' which was performed in the 

 gardens of Cliefden, in honour of the birthday of his royal bighness's 

 eldest daughter. It was afterwards entirely re-written by Mallet, 

 and acted at Drury Lane, in 1751, with no great success. Of Mallet's 

 remaining writings, the principal are, a ' Life of Bacon,' of extremely 

 little merit, prefixed to an edition of Bacon's Works, in 1740; his 

 poem of the ' Hermit, or Amyntor and Theodora,' 1747 ; and his 

 tragedy of ' Elvira,' acted at Drury Lane in 1703. To this last a 

 political meaning was at least ascribed by the public, and one that 

 was not to the advantage of the play, for Mallet had now become a 

 supporter of the unpopular administration of Lord Bute, who, soon 

 after this, and as was understood, by way of especial reward for this 

 particular service, gave him a place in the Custom-house. Mallet was 

 besides already in the receipt of a pension, which he had earned some 

 years before from the Duke of Newcastle's administration, by the 

 Maistance which he gave in directing the tide of the public rage against 

 the unfortunate Admiral Byng. Two other transactions complete the 

 history of his venal literary career : the first, his acceptance of a legacy 

 of 10001. left to him by Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, as the price 

 of a l^ifn of the great Duke, of which he never wrote a line ; the second, 

 hia basely ungrateful attack upon his newly deceased patron Pope, at 

 the instigation of his living patron Boliugbroke, in the affair of the 

 latter's ' Idua of a Patriot King." [BOLINOBROKE, VISCOUNT.] It is 

 believed however that he was in the end rather a loser than a gainer 

 by Bolingbroke's bequest to him of the property of his works, which was 

 his pay for this exposure of himself ; he refused the bookseller's offer of 

 300<U. for the works.'and then published them on his own account. 



Mallet was an avowed freethinker or infidel, and indeed he does not 

 seem to have had much principle of any kind. He was vain not only 

 literary talent*, but of his person, which, although short, is 

 described :ui having been rather handsome before he became some- 

 what corpulent, and which he was accustomed to stt off with all tho 

 advantages of dress. He appears to have modn a rather considerable 

 figure in society. He was twice married ; first, to a lady by whom ho 



had, besides other children, a daughter, who married an Italian gentle- 

 man named Cilesia, and wrote a play called ' Almida,' acted at 

 Drury Lane in 1771 ; secondly, to a Miss Elstob, by whom he got a 

 fortune of 10,000i. He died possessed of considerable property, 21st 

 of April, 1765. A collected edition of his poetical works was 

 published by himself, in 3 vols. 8vo, in 1759. 



MALLET, PIERRE. HENKI, born at Geneva in 1730, became 

 professor of belles-lettres at Copenhagen, where he wrote several 

 works on the history and antiquities of Scandinavia. He was made 

 member of the academy of Upsala, and became also correspondent of 

 the Acade'mie des Inscriptions of Paris. He afterwards returned to 

 Geneva, and was appointed professor of history in the academy of that 

 city. He died at an advanced age. His principal works are : 1, 

 ' Introduction a 1'Histoire du Danemarc,' Copenhagen, 1755 ; 2, ' Edda, 

 ou Monumens de la Mythologie et de la Poesie des Celtes," translated 

 into English by Bishop Percy under the title of ' Northern Anti- 

 quities and the Edda,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1770; 3, ' De la Forme 

 du Governement de la Suede,' 1756; 4, 'Histoire du Dauemarc,' 

 3 vols. 4to, 1777 ; 5, 'Histoire de la Maison de Hesse;' 6, 'Histoire 

 de la Maison de Brunswick.' 



Mallet must not be confounded with MALLET DO PAN, also a 

 Genevesa writer (born in 1750), who was well known for the various 

 journals which he edited in Paris and London, and especially for his 

 'Mercure Britannique," 1793-99, which, owing to the ability of the 

 conductor and the energy of its language, was one of the most 

 powerful organs of the Anti-Gallican press of that time. 



MALMESBURY, WILLIAM OF, one of the most valuable of our 

 old historians, is said to have been born in Somersetshire, about 1095 

 or 1096 : his father was a Norman, his mother an Englishwoman. 

 When a boy he was placed in the monastery whence he derived his 

 name, where, in due time, he became librarian, and, according to 

 Leland, precentor, and ultimately refused the dignity of abbot. He 

 is generally supposed to have died about 1143, though Sharpe, in his 

 translation of Malrnesbury's ' History of the Kings of England,' says 

 it is probable that he survived this period some time, for his ' Modern 

 History ' terminates at the end of the year 1142 : and it appears that 

 he lived long enough after its publication to make many corrections, 

 alterations, and insertions in that work, as well as in the other 

 portions of his history, or those alterations and additions must have 

 been made by some other person without .intimating the fact of their 

 being by another hand. Some notion of Malmesbury's diligence may 

 be afforded by the following list of his works : 1, ' De Gestis Return ' 

 (the history of the kings of England). The first three books were 

 probably written after 1120. After some delay he wrote the fourth 

 and fifth books, which he dedicated to Robert, earl of Gloucester, at 

 who.se request he afterwards composed, 2, 'Historic Novell*' (the 

 modern history). This appears to have been begun after the death 

 of Henry I. 3, ' De Gestis Pontifioum ' (the history of the prelates 

 of England), containing, in four books, an account of the bishops and 

 of the principal monasteries, from the conversion of the English by 

 St. Austin to 1123, to which he added a fifth, that is, 4, 'De Vita 

 Aldhelmi,' completed in 1125; 5, ' De Vita Dunstaui,' in two books, 

 extant in the Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson, 263, written at the 

 request of the monks of Glastonbury ; 6, ' Vita S. Patricii,' in two 

 books, quoted by Leland in his ' Collectanea,' torn, iii., p. 272, but of 

 which no manuscript is at present known, any more than of, 7, ' Vita 

 S. Benign! ; ' 8, 'Passio S. Indracti,' MS., Bodley, Digby, 112 ; 9, ' De 

 Antiquitato Glastoniensig licclesise,' addressed to Henry, bishop of 

 Winchester, and of course written after 1129 ; 10, ' Vita S. Wulstani, 

 Episcopi Wigorniensis,' a translation from the Anglo-Saxon, the 

 greater part of which is published by Wharton in his ' Anglia Sacra ; ' 

 11, ' Chronica,' in three books, supposed to be lost; 12, 'Miracula S. 

 Elgifio,' in metre; 13, 'Itinerarium Joaunis Abbatis Meldunensis 

 versus Romam,' drawn up after 1140, a manuscript of which was 

 formerly in the possession of Bale; 14, ' Expoaitio Threnorum 

 Hieremise,' MS., Bodley, 868; 15, 'De Miraculis Divse Marice libri 

 quatuor,' noticed by Leland in his 'Collectanea/ torn, iv., p. 155; 16, 

 ' De Serie Evangelistarum," in verse. This also is mentioned by 

 Leland (ibid., p. 157), but neither this nor the preceding work is at 

 present in our manuscript libraries. 1 7, ' De Miraculis B. Andrea),' 

 MS., Cotton, Nero E. i. ; 18, ' Abbreviatio Amalarii de Ecclesiasticis 

 Offioiis,' MS., Lambeth, 380; 19, 'Epitome Historian Aimouis Floria- 

 ceusis,' MS., Bodley, Solden, Arch., B. 32. This work contains an 

 extract from the ' Breviarium Alaricianum,' or Visigoth Code, made 

 by the author with the object of giving a view of the Roman law. 

 (Selden, Ad Fletam,' c. 7, 2.) 20, ' De Dictis et Factis memora- 

 bilibus Philosophorum,' llarl. M.S. 3909. Tanner ascribes one or two 

 other pieces to him. 



William of Malmesbury's greater historical works, 'De GestU 

 Regum,' ' Novelise,' and ' De Gestis Pontificum,' were published by Sir 

 Henry Savile among the 'Soriptores post Bedatn,' fol. 1596, reprinted, 

 fol., Fraucof., 1601 ; but a far superior edition of the ' De Gestis Regum,' 

 and the ' Historic Novella:,' is that printed by the English Historical 

 Society under the editorial care of Mr. T. Duffus Hardy, 2 vol*. 8vo, 

 1840. A translation of the 'De Gestis Regum,' into English, by th 

 Rev. John Sharpe, was published in 4to, London, 1815 ; and reprinted, 

 with some alterations, as a volume of ' Bonn's Antiquarian Library,' 

 under the care of Dr. Giles, 1847. Gale printed Malmesbury's 



