DODSLEY, Robert [1703 -1764]
The Brown Cow in Mansfield - the building now on the site of the house where Robert Dodsley was born
At the time this picture was taken (March 2014) the pub featured a window display including a book about Dodsley and various other exhibits reminiscent of the 18th century
The Grammar School, Mansfield - as it appears today (2014)
Title page from Thomas Gray's 'Elegy' from Vol.IV of 'A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes' published by Robert Dodsley in 1775.
This very famous poem was first published by Dodsley in 1751, though it had been written some nine years earlier.
The King and the Miller of Mansfield
The King is about to knight John Cockle. It seems that 18th Century theatre did nothing to show authentic Medieval costume
Title page from 'The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green' - a musical piece - published by Dodsley in 1741
Author of Mansfield
ROBERT DODSLEY
Eminent 18th Century Publisher and Author
Born in 1703 in Ratcliffe Gate, Mansfield, his father was Headmaster of the Grammar School. Robert was apprenticed at 12 as a stocking weaver, but, disliking that employment, succeeded in having his indentures cancelled.
He subsequently obtained work as footman in the house of the Hon. Mrs Lowther in London. It is said that while walking from Mansfield down to London he was given a lift by someone who realised, from their conversation, that Dodsley would not remain a footman for long!
His first attempt as an author took place while still a servant when he published, by subscription, a volume of poems called Muse in Livery which attracted favourable public attention.
He then entered the service of a Mr. Dartineuf, described as a 'noted voluptuary' and friend of Alexander Pope. Here Dodsley wrote an elegant dramatic work entitled The Toy Shop, being a satire on current fashions and absurdities.
The piece attracted the attention of Pope who continued from that time to be Dodsley's friend and patron.
It was through Pope's influence that The Toy Shop was performed at the Covent Garden Theatre in 1735, receiving many plaudits.
Profits from the play allowed Dodsley to set up as a bookseller/publisher in London 's Pall Mall, where his shop was patronised by many of the literary giants of the day, including Dryden, Thomas Gray (whose famous Elegy he first published) and Dr Johnson.
At the same time he furthered his own career in literature with a farce called The King and Miller of Mansfield (1737) founded on an old ballad and drawing upon scenes with which he would have been familiar from childhood.
Again, his play proved very popular, so much so indeed that the following year he produced a sequel entitled Sir John Cockle at Court.
Subsequent dramatic pieces of note include:
1741 – The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (a musical work)
1745 – Rex et Pontifex (a pantomime)
1748 – A Loyal Masque in honour of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
1748(?) – Economy of Human Life
1749 – The Preceptor – a kind of ‘complete educator’
1758 – Cleone (a tragedy admired by Dr. Johnson and had a long run at Covent Garden). Annexed to this tragedy was an ode entitled Melpomene; or the regions of Terror and Pity
In the realm of publishing may be mentioned:
Trifles – a collection of Dodsley’s own works
Public Virtue – a longer poem
A Collection of Poems by different hands – 6 volumes
His Annual Register, at first edited by Edmund Burke, appeared from 1758 to 1790, but was eventually put out of business by more successful rivals.
Dodsley is also noted as the first to risk printing Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy which, not surprisingly considering how original it is, had been turned down by several less adventurous publishers.
He died at the home of his friend Rev. Joseph Spence at Durham in 1764, of (it is said) that classic 18th Century ailment, gout.
He is buried in the Abbey churchyard at Durham in a tomb inscribed:-
If you have any respect, for uncommon Industry and Merit, regard this place, in which are deposited the Remains of
Mr. ROBERT DODSLEY Who, as an Author,
raised himself much above what could have been expected from one in his rank of life, and without learned education;
and who, as a Man, was scarce exceeded by any in Integrity of Heart, and Purity of Manners and Conversation.
He left this life for a better, Sept 25, 1764, In the 61st year of his age.
Despite gaining his fame and social position in London, Dodsley never forgot the place of his birth. In one of his poems he exclaims
O native Sherwood! Happy now the bard,
Might these rural notes, to future time,
Boast of tall groves, that nodding o’er thy plain
Rose to their tuneful melody. But ah!
Beneath the feeble efforts of a muse
Untutored by the love of Greece or Rome
A stranger to the fair Castalian springs
Whence happier poets inspiration draw,
And the sweet magic of persuasive song,
The weak presumption, the fond hope expires.
Many of Dodsley's publications, including a complete run of the Annual Register, are held in the Local Studies Collection at Mansfield Library.