is not one Englishman that can pronounce’ Malloch. ‘Old surly’ Dennis's jest on Moloch had probably no little influence on his decision (cf. ‘Mallock’ in the list of names in Dennis, Miscellaneous Tracts, 1727). He first figures as Mallet in the list of subscribers' names in Savage's ‘Miscellanies,’ 1726; but in the introductory verses and preface to the second edition of Thomson's ‘Winter’ he was still called Malloch, though Thomson then writes of him as Mallet. Dr. Johnson, ‘an unforgiving enemy,’ remarked in his octavo edition of the Dictionary, ‘alias means otherwise, as Mallet alias Malloch, that is, otherwise Malloch’ (cf. Boswell, iv. 217, v. 127).
On 22 Feb. 1730–1 Mallet produced his tragedy of ‘Eurydice’ at Drury Lane, with a prologue and epilogue by Aaron Hill (A. Hill, Letters, i. 30, 44, iii. 334, iv. 74). It was acted about thirteen times, and was revived with poor success in 1759 (Genest, Account of the Stage, iii. 288–9). Towards the close of the year he left the Montrose family, and went to Gosfield in Essex, to act as tutor to the stepson of John Knight, to whose wife, formerly Mrs. Newsham, he had been recommended by Pope (Pope, Works, ix. 448, &c.) Pope evinced some regard for him—because of his ‘love of adulation and adulators,’ says Cooke—and Mallet showed his appreciation by the publication of his poem on ‘Verbal Criticism’ (1733), in which he ridiculed Theobald (ib. ix. 498, x. 86). On 2 Nov. he, with his pupil, matriculated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he resided fairly regularly till 27 Sept. 1734. On 5 March following he received, at his request, the degree of M.A. from the university of Edinburgh, and on the 15th of that month he graduated B.A., and on 6 April M.A. of the university of Oxford.
Mallet advanced his interest by the tragedy of ‘Mustapha,’ produced at Drury Lane on 13 Feb. 1738–9. The prologue was by Thomson, and the play was dedicated to Frederick, prince of Wales, ‘who was so just as to insist on the tragedy as the first to be brought on’ that season (A. Hill, Letters, i. 328–32). Like Thomson's ‘Edward and Eleonora,’ but less openly, it was directed against the king and Sir Robert Walpole. With Quin as Solyman, and with the leading members of the prince's party and of Pope in the boxes (Pope, Works, x. 75), it achieved a great success, and ran for fourteen nights (ib. x. 93). Dodsley, in his edition of the works of Charles Boyle, fourth earl of Orrery [q.v.] , who wrote a piece with the same title, says that Mallet ‘made his play, by the help of a first minister and some other lucky incidents, as fashionable now as my lord Orrery's was heretofore.’ In 1740 Mallet published a short ‘Life of Bacon’ (see Boswell, ii. 194). Shortly afterwards Mallet and Thomson were commanded by the prince to write the masque of ‘Alfred,’ to celebrate both the birthday of the Princess Augusta and the anniversary of George I's accession. It was played in the gardens of Cliefden, before the Prince and Princess of Wales, on Friday, 1 Aug. 1740, with Quin, Mrs. Horton, and Mrs. Clive in the chief parts (Genest, iv. 324).
Mallet rapidly grew in favour with the opposition, and was appointed, 27 May 1742, under-secretary to the Prince of Wales, at a salary of 200l. (Gent. Mag. 1742, p. 275). The Duchess of Marlborough having left, in 1744, the sum of 1,000l. to Mallet and Glover, on condition that they would write a life of her husband, Mallet, on Glover's refusal, undertook the work. He never wrote a line, though for many years afterwards he professed to be ‘eternally fatigued with preparing and arranging materials’ (Davies, ii. 55–7; Hume, Letters, ed. Burton, ii. 139–41, 272–3; Boswell, ii. 386; cf. Alfred, Advt.) In 1745 he made a tour in Holland (A. Hill, Letters, ii. 249), and he published, in May 1747, ‘Amyntor and Theodora, or the Hermit.’ Mallet and Thomson had, through the good offices of George, first baron Lyttelton [q. v.], been in receipt of a pension of 100l. from the prince, but in 1748 they were deprived of it on account of the displeasure incurred by Lyttelton (Thomson, Poems, Aldine edit. i. cx). Mallet soon found compensation in the patronage of Bolingbroke, to whom he had been at an earlier date introduced by Pope. By Bolingbroke's direction he at once prepared an advertisement to an edition of the ‘Patriot King,’ published in 1749, in which he attacked the memory of Pope for having clandestinely edited and printed the work in 1738 (cf. Advt.; Pope, Works, v. 347). Mallet had chosen to forget not only Pope's kindnesses, but the fervour which had prompted him to write to Lord Orrery after the poet's death (1 June 1744)—‘his person I loved, his worth I know, and shall ever cherish his memory with all the regard of esteem, with all the tenderness of friendship’ (ib. viii. 522). This mean act involved Mallet in a short pamphlet-war with Pope's friends (cf. Boswell, i. 329), but he was rewarded by the gift of Bolingbroke's works, printed and in manuscript, of which he published an edition in 5 vols. in March 1754 (Goldsmith, Life of Bolingbroke). Dr. Johnson remarked on this enterprise that Bolingbroke had ‘spent his life in charging a gun against Christianity,’
