1

THE

LIFE OF ROBERT DODSLEY.

BY MR. CHALMERS.

Ax account of Mr. Dodsley was added to the new edition of the Biographia Britannica by Dr. Kippis, but without much information from personal inquiry, which at that time must have been in the doctor's power; nor does he appear to have seen The Muse in Livery, which would have cleared up the doubts respecting the early condition of our author. In endeavouring to supply these defects, I have, perhaps, been in some measure successful; but after every inquiry, the life of Dodsley can be little more than a contribution to the general history of literature.

Robert Dodsley was born at Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, in the year 1703. His father is said to have kept the free school at Mansfield, a situation in which it is natural to suppose he could have bestowed some education on his children; yet it is not easy to reconcile this with the servile track of life into which they were obliged to enter. He is described as a little deformed man, who, after having a large family by his first wife, married at the age of seventy-five a young girl of only seventeen years, by whom he had a child.

Of his sons, Alvary lived many years, and died in the service of the late sir George Savile: Isaac was for some time gardener to Mr. Allen of Prior-park, and afterwards to lord Weymouth at Long-leat. In these two families he spent fiftytwo years of his life, and has the credit of being the projector of some of the beautiful plantations at both those seats. He retired from Long-leat at the age of seventy-eight, and died about three years after. There was a third, John, whose name, with that of Alvary and of the father, I find among the subscribers to our poet's first publication. James, who was twenty-two years younger than Robert, will come to be mentioned hereafter, when he was taken into partnership. How he passed the preceding part of his time is not known.

Of Robert nothing is now remembered in his native town, but a traditional story that he was put apprentice to a stocking-weaver of that place, and that being almost starved, he ran away, and was hired by a lady, as her footman: this lady, it is added, observing that he employed his leisure hours in reading, gave him every encouragement, and soon after he wrote an entertainment which was shown to

Pope and others.

Part of this story is probable, but too much of his history is crowded into it. His first service was not that of a lady, nor was the entertainment (The Toy Shop) his first production.

Although he was probably not in many stations of the menial kind, it is cer tain that he was once footman to Charles Dartiquenave (or, as spelt by Swift) Dartineuf, esq. paymaster of the works, and the Darty who is noticed by Pope:

Each mortal has his pleasure: none deny

Scarsdale his bottle, Darty his ham-pye.

His gluttony, which was long proverbial, suggested to lord Lyttelton to introduce him in his Dialogues of the Dead, holding a conversation with Apicius. The story of the ham-pye, Dr. Warton assures us, was confirmed by Dodsley, who knew Dartineuf, and, as he candidly owned, had waited on him at dinner: or, as he said more explictly to Dr. Johnson, "was his footman."

He served afterwards in the same humble station, in the family of the hon. Mrs. Lowther, where his conduct procured him respect, and his abilities distinction. Several of his small poems were written while in this family, and being shown to his mistress and her visitors, he was encouraged to publish them by a very liberal subscription, including about two hundred names of considerable note. His volume had the very appropriate title of The Muse in Livery, or The Footman's Missellany, a thin octavo, published in the year 1732.

In his preface he alludes very feelingly to his many disadvantages. "What can be expected from the pen of a footman, a character that expresses a want both of friends, fortune, and all the advantages of a liberal education or a polite converse?" He seeks no other excuse for his verses, "than the candour and good nature of his readers, when they recollect that the author lies under all the disadvantages of an uncultivated mind; nay even his natural genius depressed by the sense of his low condition: a condition from which he never hopes to rise, but by the goodness of Providence influencing some generous mind to support an honest and a grateful heart, which will ever be found in the breast of the author, R. D." In an emblematical frontispiece is a figure intended to represent himself, the right foot chained to despair, the right hand chained by poverty to misery, folly, and ignorance, the left hand winged and endeavouring in vain to reach happiness, virtue, and knowledge.

The volume contains the Epistle to Stephen Duck; Kitty, a pastoral; The Petition; Rome's pardon, under the title of the Devil is a Dunce; Religion, a simile; The Epithalamium, called here, an Entertainment designed for the Wedding of Governor Lowther and Miss Pennington; and the Advice. These were reprinted in his volume of Trifles; of the rest, the Footman, the verses to the hon. Lady Howe, and those to his friend Mr. Wright, are added to the present collection. The Footman exhibits, in smooth and easy rhymes, the manners of the age; and the verses to lady Howe contain, in the second stanza, a piece of condolence, of wonderful simplicity. The other compositions in this publication are chiefly compli ments to his patrons, and may be omitted without injury to his memory as a poet. Those he reprinted, were carefully revised, and he made many alterations, which, however, are not worth specifying. The Epistle to Stephen Duck bestowed some

Harrod's History of Mansfield. C.

extravagant compliments on that poor poetaster, of which Dodsley lived to be ashamed.

His next attempt was more successful than the publication of his poems, and considering the disadvantages of a life of servitude, more extraordinary. He wrote a dramatic piece, entitled The Toy Shop, the style of which discovers an improvement which to those who had just read The Muse in Livery, must have appeared wonderful. This the author determined to submit to Pope in manuscript. He tells us he had a great regard for that poet, before he had the honour of being known to him, and "it was a great mortification to him that he used to think himself too inconsiderable ever to merit his notice or esteem. However, some time after I had wrote the Toy Shop, hoping there was something in it which might recommend me to him in a moral capacity, at least, though not in a poetical one, I sent it to him, and desired his opinion of it, expressing some doubt that, though I designed it for the stage, yet unless its novelty would recommend it, I was afraid it would not bear a public representation, and therefore had not offered it to the actors."

Pope's answer to this application may appear in this place without impropriety, as it has escaped the collectors of his letters, and exhibits his kindness to, unprotected genius in a very favourable light.

“SIR,

Feb. 5, 1732-3.

"I was very willing to read your piece, and do freely tell you, I like it, as far as my particular judgment goes. Whether it has action enough to please the stage, I doubt: but the morality and satire ought to be relished by the reader. I will do more than you ask me: I will recommend it to Mr. Rich. If he can join it to any play, with suitable representations, to make it an entertainment, I believe he will give you a benefit night; and I sincerely wish it may be turned any way to your advantage, or that I could show you my friendship in any instance.---I am &c.”

Pope accordingly recommended it to Mr. Rich, and ever after bestowed "his favour and acquaintance" on the author. The hint of this excellent satire, for it scarcely deserves the name of drama, was taken from Randolph's Muse's Looking Glass. It was acted at Covent Garden theatre in 1735, and met with great success; but was yet more popular when printed, being indeed much better calculated for the closet than the stage. There is an ease and elegance in the style which raise our opinion of Dodsley's natural talents, and so many circumstances of public and private absurdities are brought together, as to afford a decisive proof that he had a mind far above his situation, and that with habits of attentive observation of life and manners, he cherished the justest moral feelings.

Such was his situation, however, that for some time he was supposed to be only the nominal author of the Toy Shop; but when he asserted his claim he became more noticed, and the theatre more easily accessible to his future dramatic attempts. The profits of his volume of poems, and of the Toy Shop, enabled him to set up in business, and with much judgment he chose that of a bookseller, which his friends might promote, and which might afford him leisure and opportunity to cultivate his talents. At what time he quitted service is not known, but he cominenced the bookselling trade at a shop in Pall Mall in the year 1735, and by Pope's friendly

interest, and his own humble and prudent behaviour, soon drew into his little premises such a society of men of genius, taste and rank, as have seldom met. Many of these he afterwards had the honour of uniting together in more than one scheme of literary partnership.

In the mean time, the success of his first dramatic piece encouraged him to attempt another better adapted to stage rules. This was his farce of The King and the Miller of Mansfield, the plot of which is formed on a traditional story in the reign of Henry II. It was performed in 1736-7, and with applause scarcely inferior to that of the Toy Shop. In 1737-8 he produced Sir John Cockle at Court, intended as a sequel to The King and the Miller, but it had the usual fate of sequels, to suffer by comparison. His next dramatic performance was The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, a ballad farce, acted in 1741, but with little success. The songs, however, are now added to his poetical miscellanies, and are not unfavourable specimens of lyric simplicity.

Almost from the commencement of trade Dodsley became a speculator in various literary undertakings, either original or compiled. So rapid was his success, that before he had been three years in business he became a purchaser of copyrights, and it is among the most striking of those occurrences which diversify the lives of men of literary eminence, that in 1738 the truly illustrious Dr. Samuel Johnson was glad to sell his first original publication to humble Robert Dodsley, for the small sum of ten guineas. We find by Mr. Boswell's very interesting account of this transaction, that Dodsley was the first to discover the merits of Johnson's London, and was desirous to purchase an article of which, as a tradesman, he had not miscalculated the value. But before this time Dodsley's shop must have been in considerable reputation, as in April 1737 he published Pope's Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, and in the following month Pope assigned over to him the sole property of his Letters, and afterwards that of vols. 5 and 6 of his works, and some of his detached pieces. Not long after Young and Akenside published their works at his shop, and as early as March 1738-9 he became a partner with some of his brethren in the copyright of established authors.

The first of his literary schemes was a periodical journal, which appears to have escaped the researches of his biographers, entitled The Public Register, or Weekly Magazine, begun January 3, 1741, each number of which consisted of sixteen quarto pages, handsomely printed, and was sold for three pence. Although Dodsley appears to have lived on friendly terms with Cave the printer, who referred Johnson to him as a fit publisher of the London, yet this Register was undoubtedly one of the many attempts made at that time to rival the uncommon and much envied success of the Gentleman's Magazine, and like them was soon obliged to yield to the superior popularity of that valuable miscellany. Dodsley and Cave abused one another a little, as rival projectors, but were probably reconciled

About this time he had the misfortune to incur the displeasure of the house of lords by publishe ing Paul Whitehead's satire entitled Manners. Ben Victor was partly the means of saving him from the worst consequences of this affair, by requesting the earl of Essex (one of those libelled in the poem) to present an humble petition from Dodsley, which his lordship did with so much effect, that Dodsley was discharged on paying his fees, which came "to seventy odd pounds: a tolerable sum,” Victor adds, " for one week's scurvy lodging in the Butcher-row," Victor's Letters, vol. 1. C.