HISTORY

The Malone Society is named after Edmond Malone, the editor of the first variorum edition of Shakespeare.  Since its foundation in 1906, its purpose has been to make more accessible the materials essential for the study of English Renaissance drama.  Its publications are renowned for their meticulous scholarship and high standard of accuracy, and are indispensable to students of early drama, and to university libraries providing resources in the fields of English Renaissance literature and theatre history.

The Society, which is a registered charity, publishes editions of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century plays from manuscript, photographic facsimile editions of printed plays of the period, and editions of original documents relating to Renaissance theatre and drama.  Recent volumes include: newly discovered plays (The Wisest have Their Fools about Them); Shakespeare Quarto Facsimiles (Titus Andronicus' ); works by canonical authors (Gallathea and Sapho and Phao by John Lyly and Thomas Middleton's Hengist, King of Kent, or the Mayor or Queenborough ); rare or otherwise inaccessible texts (The Country Captain by William Cavendish); drama of the earlier sixteenth century (Common Conditions); and various collections of documents relating to the drama of the period. Volumes for 2006 are Guy of Warwick and Famous Victories. Please visit the publications pages for more information or to order volumes from the back catalogue. The featured volume for this month is John John the Husband, Tyb his Wife and Sir John the Priest.

Members of the Society pay an annual subscription (£20 in the United Kingdom) and in return receive the annual volume.  Publications of the Society currently in print are available to members at prices substantially below those at which they are offered to the general public.

To join the Malone Society, please contact your Local Representative.

NEWS

Call for Proposals:
The Society is inviting proposals from scholars wishing to edit specific plays or collections of documents and expressions of interest from scholars willing to edit plays or collections of documents as recommended by the Editorial Board. Candidates should have carried out doctoral or postdoctoral work in an area or topic of relevant research interest. Previous experience in editing is desirable but not essential. Proposals and CVs should be sent to Dr Paul Dean (Pauldean505@btinternet.com) and should not exceed 2,000 words in length.

Praise for The Woman's Prize
The Society's latest volume, a full-colour photofacsimile, reproduced in actual size, of John Fletcher's The Woman's Prize, is one of several commemorating the centenary of our foundation in 1907.  It was prepared by Meg Powers Livingston and was recently enthusiastically reviewed in the TLS by Laurie Maguire, who noted that 'The reader can enjoy flicking back and forth from Powers's descriptions and analysis to the high-quality pictorial evidence' and predicted that the continuing adaptability of the Society in the digital age 'points towards several more Society centenaries'. William Proctor Williams has also praised this volume (‘a magnificent facsimile') and the work of the Society: ‘So where does the Malone Society stand in the age of the pixel? … I submit that no matter how good the resolution is on your computer screen, … the Malone Society Reprint is a superior and more scholarly useful item than the digital form. … I trust that some reviewer a hundred years from now will get the same pleasure from reviewing the Society's bicentennial volume as I had reviewing The Woman's Prize ' ( Notes and Queries , 57 (2010), 136-8.