Page images
PDF
EPUB

of wonder. Dodsley afterwards entered the service of Mr Dartineuf, a noted voluptuary, and one of the intimate friends of Pope; and having written a dramatic piece called The Toyshop (founded upon a play of the preceding century), it was shewn by his new master to that distinguished poet, who was so well pleased with it, that he took the author under his protection, and made interest for the appearance of the play upon the stage.

The Toyshop was acted at Covent Garden in 1735, and met with the highest success. In a malignant epistle addressed about that time by Curll, the bookseller, to Pope, it is insinuated that this was owing to patronage alone. But nothing can seem more improbable than that Pope and his friends should be deceived as to the merit of this piece, or that they should interest themselves about a production glaringly destitute of merit. In reality, The Toyshop is a very clever adaptation from the Muse's Looking-glass of Randolph, full of effective yet delicate satire, and supported by characters in the highest degree natural, and strikingly appropriate to the purpose of the piece.

The profits arising from this play, and the distinction which it obtained for the author, were such as would have induced many men in the circumstances of Dodsley to venture upon the precarious, but in many respects tempting, life of a 'town-writer,' or author by profession. With the sober and modest author of The Toyshop, different considerations prevailed. Having resolved to enter upon some regular trade, he chose that of a bookseller, as the most appropriate to his taste, and that in which he might expect to turn the favour of his friends to the best account; and, accordingly, he

opened a shop of that kind in Pall-Mall. In this new situation, comparatively difficult as it may be supposed to have been, the same prudence and worth which had gained him esteem in his former condition were not less strikingly exemplified. He was able to secure for himself and his establishment the countenance of many of the first literary persons of the day, including Pope, Chesterfield, Lyttleton, Shenstone, Johnson, and Glover, and also of many persons of rank who possessed a taste for letters; and thus, in the course of a few years, he became one of the principal persons of his trade in the metropolis. Proceeding at the same time in his career as an author, he wrote a farce entitled The King and the Miller of Mansfield, founded on an old ballad of that name, and referring to scenes with which he had been familiar in early life. This was produced at Drury Lane in 1737, and was so highly successful, that he was induced to write a less fortunate sequel, under the title of Sir John Cockle at Court. The former continues to be occasionally represented. His next dramatic performance was a farce, founded on a ballad, entitled The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, which was not attended with much success. His only other composition of this kind was Rex et Pontifex, which he designed as a novelty in pantomime, but which was never produced on the stage. The general character of his comic plays was pleasing; they had not what would now be called much strength, but they excelled the most of the contemporary productions of their class in morality.

From an early period of life, Dodsley would seem to have had a taste for the almost forgotten drama of the reigns of Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts—a vast mine of poetical wealth, which the fastidious delicacy of

later times had condemned to obscurity, on account of some peculiarities in a great measure external. In the present age, which is honourably distinguished by a revived relish of the beauties of the Elizabethan literature, the effort made by the subject of our memoir to resuscitate a portion of it will meet with due appreciation. Animated by a spirit of adventure, uncommon in his own time, he published, in 1744, a Collection of Plays by Old Authors, in twelve volumes duodecimo, prefaced by a history of the stage, and illustrated by biographical and critical notes; the whole being dedicated to Sir C. C. Dormer, to whom Mr Dodsley acknowledges great obligations for the use of materials. The work was reprinted in 1780, by Mr Isaac Reed, and once more in 1825, on each occasion with some important improvements and necessary additions; but no one was more sensible, or could have more generously expressed his sense of the value of Mr Dodsley's labours, than the erudite antiquary just named. Another of the more valuable works projected by Dodsley was the Preceptor, first published in 1749, and designed to embrace what was then thought a complete course of education. It contained treatises on reading, elocution, and composition; on arithmetic, geometry, and architecture; on geography and astronomy; on chronology and history; on rhetoric and poetry; on drawing; on logic; on natural history; on ethics, or morality; on trade and commerce; on laws and government; and on human life and manners—each being the composition of some person eminent in the branch of knowledge to which it referred. Dodsley's Preceptor attained a high popularity, and, in the course of a few years, went through numerous editions. We shall here advert to a few of the other

works originated by him, or in which he acted as editor. A Collection of Poems by Eminent Hands, in six volumes, was commenced in 1752, and presented for the first time to the world a considerable number of the most admired poetical compositions of the age. In 1758, he commenced the publication of an Annual Register, which was the first work of that kind that appeared in England. Several of the earlier volumes were compiled by Burke, and the work has ever since been conducted with remarkable judgment, as well as success, notwithstanding the appearance of more than one rival. His Select Fables of Æsop and other Fabulists appeared in 1760, and was at once pronounced a work of classical elegance. The first book contained ancient, the second modern, and the third original fables, the last being chiefly the composition of the editor.

The original works written by Dodsley during the same period were not numerous. In 1748, he produced a loyal masque on the occasion of the peace of Aix-laChapelle, and, two years afterwards, a small prose work, entitled the Economy of Human Life, in which the social duties are treated in a style intended to resemble that of the Scriptures and other oriental writings. Though the literary and philosophical merits of the latter work are not great, it attained great popularity, and became extensively useful among young persons, for whose instruction it was more particularly designed. Like other successful books, it was followed by numerous slavish imitations, such as the Economy of Female Life, the Economy of a Winter Day, the Second Part of the Economy of Human Life, the Economy of the Mind, and many other Economies. One book of a poem on Public Virtue, and an ode entitled Melpomene, next exercised his pen; and in

1758, he ventured to rise to tragedy, and composed Cleone, the fable of which he derived from a French fiction. Though Garrick expressed a mean opinion of the play, and it was consequently taken to Covent Garden, it long drew full audiences, which was in part attributed to Mrs Bellamy's acting of the heroine. An attempt by Mrs Siddons to revive it did not succeed, owing, it is said, to the excess of pathos which it required from her unequalled performance in scenes of maternal distress. Dr Johnson admired Cleone so much as to say, that, if Otway had written it, no other of his pieces would have been remembered; which being reported to the author, he modestly said, 'it was too much.' A less prepossessed critic allows it to be considerably inferior to the plays of Otway and Southern, but to be equal to any of the tragedies of the latter half of the eighteenth century, excepting Home's Douglas.

A long and prosperous professional career enabled Mr Dodsley to retire from business, some years before his death, with a large fortune, which, however, made no alteration upon his modest and amiable character. His humble origin was neither a matter which he was anxious to conceal, nor a subject of vulgar boasting. He did not forget it, nor did he allow it to affect his deportment in a manner that could be disagreeable to others. Johnson mentions, that on Dartineuf, the epicure, being introduced into Lord Lyttleton's Dialogues of the Dead, and the conversation turning one day upon that subject, Dodsley remarked: 'I knew him well, for I was once his footman;' an expression which seems to us to denote the most perfect exemption from the vice of affectation. 'Mindful,' says one of his biographers, 'of the early encouragement which his own talents

« PreviousContinue »