Dodsley

Dodsley, ROBERT, author and publisher, was born in 1703 near Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire. His father, who was a schoolmaster, apprenticed him to a stocking-weaver; but the boy was so ill-treated that he ran away, and was afterwards engaged as footman. His leisure he gave to reading, and at length published in 1732 a volume of poems, entitled A Muse in Livery, which was patronised by many fashionable ladies. His next production, The Toy Shop, a dramatic piece, was submitted in manuscript to Pope, who undertook to recommend it to Rich, the manager of Covent Garden Theatre, under whose management it was acted in 1735 with great success. With his profits, and the interest of Pope, who helped him with £100, Dodsley now commenced business as a bookseller, and was very successful, but still continued to write bright and successful plays, as The King and the Miller of Mansfield (1737), Sir John Cockle at Court (1738), The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (1741), and Rever et Pontifex (1745), which were republished in a collected edition of his dramatic works with the title of Trifles (1748). Meantime, he was conducting his business with such ability and spirit, that in the course of three years after commencement, he was in a position to buy copyrights. In 1738 he bought London from the yet unknown Johnson for ten guineas, and among the other famous authors for whom he published were Pope, Young, Akenside, Lord Chesterfield, Horace Walpole, Goldsmith, and Shenstone. Among his schemes were The Museum (1742-47), a collection of historical and social essays; The Preceptor, a book of instruction for the young; and the Annual Register, started in 1759, and long edited by Burke. Dodsley's most successful work was a tragedy called Cleone (1758), which was acted at Covent Garden with extraordinary success. With Cleone he closed his career of dramatic authorship. Dodsley's name is now chiefly remembered on account of his Select Collection of Old Plays (12 vols. 1744; 2d ed. by Isaac Reed, 12 vols. 1780; 3d. ed. by J. P. Collier, 13 vols. 1825-28; 4th ed. by W. C. Hazlitt, 15 vols. 1874-76); and his Collection of Poems by Several Hands (3 vols. 1748; 6 vols. 1758). Dodsley died on a visit to Spence at Durham, 25th December 1764. He was not only an honest and able, but an amiable man; Dr Johnson always speaks very kindly of his 'patron.' See Knight's Shadows of the Old Booksellers (1865).