ABSTRACT
In the mid-eighteenth century, the Scottish philosopher David Hume had asserted that "Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of the imagination." His skepticism regarding belief and evidence was not highly regarded at first but became fundamental to the outlook of the Enlightenment later in the eighteenth century. Hume's caution can be seen in the careful note struck by Shakespearean editors such as Edward Capell and George Steevens, and especially in the work of Edmund Malone. Edmond Malone merits the greatest respect for having placed so much emphasis on obtaining, recording, and publishing biographical material about William Shakespeare. He was a scrupulous researcher who questioned many claims about Shakespeare and traced their origins, revealing that myths such as the deer poaching story were unlikely. Malone's attempt at a chronology of the plays, an essential prerequisite for any literary biography, remained in his own estimation conjectural.
