David Mallet studied at the parish school at Crieff, worked as a tutor at Edinburgh University (1721-23), and studied at St. Mary Hall Oxford (B.A. 1724, M.A. 1734). After accompanying the sons of the duke of Montrose on their tour of Europe he made his residence in London, where he published poems and plays and Anglicized his name (perhaps in response to John Dennis, who had dubbed him "Moloch"). Pope introduced him to Bolingbroke, who found him a position as undersecretary to the prince of Wales (1742). In later life Mallet worked as a political pen for hire, accepting a legacy of £1000 from Sarah Churchill for a life of the Duke of Marlborough which he never wrote.
TEXT RECORDS:
1720A Pastoral, inscrib'd to Mr. M[itche]l.
1728The Excursion. A Poem.
1743 ca.A Fragment.
1743Prologue to the Siege of Damascus. Spoken by Lord Sandwich.
PUBLICATIONS:
William and Margaret: an old ballad. 1723.
A poem in imitation of Donaides. 1725.
The excursion: a poem in two books. 1728.
Eurydice: a tragedy. 1731.
Of verbal criticism: an epistle to Mr. Pope, occasioned by Theobald's Shakespear and Bentley's Milton. 1733.
Verses presented to the Prince of Orange on his visiting Oxford [with Walter Harte]. 1734.
Mustapha: a tragedy. 1739.
Alfred: a masque [with James Thomson]. 1740.
The life of Francis Bacon. 1740.
Poems on several occasions. 1743.
Works. 1743.
Amyntor and Theodora, or the hermit: a poem in three cantos. 1747.
A congratulatory letter to Selim on the three letters to the Whigs. 1748.
Bolingbroke, Letters on the spirit of patriotism: on the idea of a patriot king [ed. Mallet]. 1749.
Bolingbroke, Works [ed. Mallet]. 5 vols, 1754.
Britannia: a masque. 1755.
Observations on the twelfth article of war. 1757.
Works. 3 vols, 1759.
Edwin and Emma. 1760.
Verses on the death of Lady Anson. 1760.
Poems on several occasions. 1762.
Elvira: a tragedy. 1763.
Ballads and songs, ed. Frederick T. Dinsdale. 1857.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
Scottish
Presbyterian
Crieff School
Edinburgh University
St. Mary Hall Oxford
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
secretary
tutor
poet
dramatist
historian
Dr. John Armstrong
Viscount Bolingbroke
Earl of Bute
Lord Chesterfield
William Collins
John Dennis
Prince Frederick
Edward Gibbon
Rev. Walter Harte
Aaron Hill
David Hume
George Lyttelton
Joseph Mitchell
Alexander Pope
Allan Ramsay
Tobias Smollett
James Thomson
Benjamin Victor
Edward Young
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 35 (April 1765) 199; Thomas Percy, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765); Pearch, Supplement to Dodsley's Collection (1768-83); Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1776-82); Samuel Johnson, Life in Works of the English Poets (1779-81); Thomas Davies, in Life of Garrick (1780); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Correspondence with John Ker in European Magazine 23-25 (1793-94); Robert Anderson, British Poets (1795); "Birthplace of Mallet" Gentleman's Magazine 67 (January 1797) 8; Alexander Campbell, Introduction to the History of Poetry in Scotland (1798); Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); Samuel Jackson Pratt, Cabinet of Poetry (1808); Alexander Chalmers, English Poets (1810); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); Joseph Spence, Anecdotes (1820); Joseph Robertson, Lives of Scottish Poets (1821-22) 3:1:46-62; "Memoirs of David Mallet" The Minerva [New York] 2 (10 January 1824) 316-17; William Hazlitt, Select British Poets (1824); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Chambers, revised Thomson, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1832-35; 1870); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Peter Cunningham, "James Thomson and David Mallet" Philobiblion Society Miscellanies 4 (1857-58); Frederick Dinsdale, memoir in Ballads and Songs of David Mallet (1857); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); William Anderson, Scottish Nation (1859-63); Andrew R. Bonar, Poets and Poetry of Scotland (1864); James Grant Wilson, Poetry of Scotland (1876); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); George Eyre-Todd, in Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century (1896); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); H. W. Starr, "Notes on Mallet" Notes and Queries 22 (November 1941); Dobree, OHEL (1959); A. N. L. Munby, Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons (1971-75); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for David Mallet:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for David Mallet:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)
1. | 1721 Joseph Mitchell: David Mallet to John Ker, 3 September 1721; European Magazine 23 (May 1793) 339-40. |
2. | 1722 Allan Ramsay: David Mallet to John Ker, 10 September 1722; European Magazine 24 (July 1793) 25. |
3. | 1727 James Thomson: David Mallet to John Ker, 31 July 1727; European Magazine 25 (February 1794) 100. |
4. | 1732 Rev. Richard Bentley: David Mallet, in Of Verbal Criticism (1732); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 3:120. |
5. | 1733 Thomas Cooke: David Mallet, in Of Verbal Criticism (1733); Works (1759) 1:28. |
6. | 1733 Lewis Theobald: David Mallet, in Of Verbal Criticism (1733); Works (1759) 1:28. |
7. | 1733 Leonard Welsted: David Mallet, in Of Verbal Criticism (1733); Works (1759) 1:29. |
8. | 1744 Alexander Pope: David Mallet to Lord Orrery, 1 June 1744; ; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:522-23. |