SOURCE: Tierney, James E. Introduction to The Correspondence of Robert Dodsley 1733-1764, pp. 3-64. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

In the following excerpt, Tierney examines Dodsley's work as dramatist, journalist, editor, publisher, and bookseller.

Life, Writings and Associates

Writing to Thomas Percy in 1761, William Shenstone took obvious delight in recounting an anecdote arising from Lady Gough's recent visit. Apparently the Lady had taken the liberty of peeking into a letter from Dodsley that lay open on the table. Confusing the bookseller with the deistical pamphleteer Henry Dodwell (d. 1784), she soon thereafter sent Shenstone the advice that he should “break off all correspondence with that Dodwell; for that she had heard he was an infidel.” Since then, Shenstone hastens to tell Percy, she has “accused our Friend Dodsley of no Less than Blasphemy; by reason that he in his verses makes so free with silvan Gods & rural deities.”¹

One smiles...