MAITLAND, SIR RICHARD (1496-1586).—­Poet, f. of M. of Lethington, Sec. of State to Mary Queen of Scots.  In his later years he was blind, and occupied himself in composing a History of the House of Seaton, and by writing poems, e.g. On the New Year, On the Queene’s Maryage, etc.  He held various offices, chiefly legal, but appears to have kept as far as possible out of the fierce political struggles of his time, and to have been a genially satirical humorist.

MALCOLM, SIR JOHN (1769-1833).—­Indian soldier, statesman, and historian, b. at Burnfoot, Dumfriesshire, went to India in 1782, studied Persian, was employed in many important negotiations and held various distinguished posts, being Ambassador to Persia and Governor of Bombay 1826-30.  He was the author of several valuable works regarded as authorities, viz., A History of Persia (1815), Memoir of Central India (1823), Political History of India from 1784 to 1823 (1826), and Life of Lord Clive (1836).

MALLET, originally MALLOCH, DAVID (1705-1765).—­Poet and miscellaneous writer, ed. at Crieff parish school and the Univ. of Edin., where he became acquainted with James Thomson, and in 1723 went to London as tutor in the family of the Duke of Montrose.  In the following year appeared his ballad of William and Margaret, by which he is chiefly remembered, and which made him known to Pope, Young, and others.  In 1726 he changed his name to Mallet to make it more pronounceable by Southern tongues.  His Excursion, an imitation of Thomson, was pub. in 1728.  At the request of the Prince of Wales, whose sec. he had become, he wrote with Thomson a masque, Alfred (1740), in which Rule Britannia first appeared, which, although he claimed the authorship, is now generally attributed to Thomson.  He also wrote a Life of Bacon; and on Bolingbroke bequeathing to him his manuscripts and library, he pub. an ed. of his works (1754).  On the accession of George III., M. became a zealous supporter of Lord Bute, and was rewarded with a sinecure.  In addition to the works above named M. wrote some indifferent dramas, including Eurydice, Mustapha, and Elvira.  Dr. Johnson said of him that he was “the only Scotsman whom Scotsmen did not commend.”

MALONE, EDMUND (1741-1812).—­Critic, s. of an Irish judge, b. in Dublin, and ed. at Trinity Coll. 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 pub. a valuable ed. 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 ed. of Shakespeare, which was brought out under the editorship of James Boswell (q.v.).  M. also wrote Lives of Dryden and others, and was the friend of Johnson, Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Burke.