Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/179

 Dodsley to dread are the editions of Richardson and Croxall' (Works, iii. 360-1). In a few months two thousand were disposed of, but even this sale did not repay the outlay. He then began to prepare for a new edition, which was printed in 1764. Among the contributors to the interesting collection of 'Fugitive Pieces' edited by him in 1761 were Burke, Spence, Lord Whitworth, and Sir Harry Beaumont. When Shenstone died, 11 Feb. 1763, Dodsley erected a pious monument to the memory of his old friend in an edition of his works, 1764, to which he contributed a biographical sketch, a character and a description of the Leasowes. He had long been tormented by the gout, and died from an attack while on a visit to Spence at Durham on 25 Dec. 1764, in his sixty-first year. He was buried in the abbey churchyard at Durham.

'Mr. Dodsley (the bookseller)' was among Sir Joshua Reynolds's sitters in April 1760 ( and Life, 1865, i. 187). Writing to Shenstone 24 June he says: 'My face is quite finished and I believe very like' (, Select Letters, ii. 110). The picture was engraved by Ravenet and prefixed to the collected 'Trifles,' 1777.

He only took one apprentice, who was John Walter (d. 1803) of Charing Cross, not to be confounded with the founder of the 'Times' of the same name. Most of the publications issued by the brothers came from the press of John Hughs (, Lit. Anecd. v. 35).

Personally Dodsley is an attractive figure. Johnson had ever a kindly feeling for his 'patron,' and thought he deserved a biographer. His early condition lent a factitious importance to some immature verse, and his unwearied endeavours for literary fame gained him a certain contemporary fame. Some of his songs have merit—'One kind kiss before we part' being still sung—and the epigram on the words 'one Prior' in Burnet's 'History' is well known. As a bookseller he showed remarkable enterprise and business aptitude, and his dealings were conducted with liberality and integrity. He deserves the praise of Nichols as 'that admirable patron and encourager of learning' (Lit. Anecd. ii. 402). 'You know how decent, humble, inoffensive a creature Dodsley is; how little apt to forget or disguise his having been a footman,' writes Walpole to George Montagu 4 May 1758 (Letters, iii. 135). A volume of his manuscript letters to Shenstone in the British Museum has written in it by the latter 22 May 1759, that Dodsley was 'a person whose writings I esteem in common with the publick; but of whose simplicity, benevolence, humanity, and true politeness I have had repeated and particular experience.'

The following is a list of his works: 1. 'Servitude, a Poem, to which is prefixed an introduction, humbly submitted to the consideration of all noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies who keep many servants; also a postscript occasioned by a late trifling pamphlet, entitled "Every Body's Business is No Body's" [by D. Defoe], written by a Footman in behalf of good servants and to excite the bad to their duty,' London, T. Worrall [1729], 8vo. 2. 'The Footman's Friendly Advice to his Brethren of the Livery. . . by R. Dodsley, now a footman,' London [1731], 8vo (No. 1 with a new title-page). 3. 'An Entertainment designed for Her Majesty's Birthday,' London, 1732, 8vo. 4. 'An Entertainment designed for the Wedding of Governor Lowther and Miss Pennington,' London, 1732, 8vo. 5. 'A Muse in Livery, or the Footman's Miscellany,' London, printed for the author, 1732, 8vo (second edition 'printed for T. Osborn and T. Nourse,' 1732, 8vo, not so well printed as the first). 6. 'The Toy-shop, a Dramatick Satire,' London, 1735, 8vo (reprinted). 7. 'The King and the Miller of Mansfield, a Dramatick Tale,' London, printed for the author at Tully's Head, Pall Mall [1737], 8vo (reprinted). 8. 'Sir John Cockle at Court, being the sequel of the King and the Miller of Mansfield,' London, printed for R. Dodsley and sold by M. Cooper, 1738, 8vo. 9. 'The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green,' London, 1741, 8vo. 10. 'The Publick Register, or the Weekly Magazine,' London, 1741, 4to (Nos. 1 to 24, from Saturday, 3 Jan. 1741 to 13 June 1741). 11. 'Pain and Patience, a Poem,' London, 1742, 4to (dedicated to Dr. Shaw). 12. 'Colin's Kisses, being twelve new songs design'd for music,' London, 1742, 4to (see Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ix. 220; the words reprinted by Chalmers). 13. 'A Select Collection of Old Plays,' London, 1744, 12 vols. 12mo (with introduction on the history of the stage reprinted in 'second edition, corrected and collated with the old copies, with notes by Isaac Reed,' London, J. Dodsley, 1780, 12 vols. 8vo, twelve plays rejected and ten added, see Gent. Mag. 1. 237-8. 'A new edition [the third] with additional notes and corrections by the late Isaac Reed, Octavius Gilchrist, and the editor' [J. P. Collier], London, 1825-8, 13 vols. sm. 8vo, including supplement. 'Fourth edition, now first chronologically arranged, revised, and enlarged, with the notes of all the commentators and new notes, by W. Carew Hazlitt,' London, 1874-6, 15 vols. 8vo). 14. 'Rex et Pontifex, being an attempt to introduce upon the stage a new species of pantomime,' London, 1745,