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Notes
In addition to the work of Chapman, Courtney, and Straus (cited below), see William B. Todd, "Concurrent Printing: An Analysis of Dodsley's Collection of Poems by Several Hands," PBSA, 46 (1952), 45-57, and "Cancelled Readings in Dodsley's 'Collection of Poems,'" NQ, 197 (1952), 143-144; and Donald D. Eddy, "Dodsley's Collection of Poems by Several Hands (Six Volumes), 1758: Index of Authors," PBSA, 60 (1966), 9-30. I wish to thank Professor James E. Tierney for the opportunity to examine his edition of Dodsley's letters, now in preparation, and for many helpful suggestions concerning this study.
See R. D. Havens, "Changing Taste in the Eighteenth Century: A Study of Dryden's and Dodsley's Miscellanies," PMLA, 44 (1929), 501-536.
"Dodsley's Collection of Poems by Several Hands," Oxford Bibliographical Society: Proceedings & Papers, 3, Pt. 3 (1933), 269.
Dodsley's Collection of Poetry: Its Contents and Contributors (1910), p. 2; this is corroborated by Dodsley's correspondence (BL Add. MS. 28959, ff. 10-11).
For a discussion of Dodsley's influence on Collins' texts, see the forthcoming edition of Collins' works edited by Richard Wendorf and Charles Ryskamp.
The information and quotations in this paragraph are taken from Straus, pp. 108-110; see also Ralph M. Williams, Poet, Painter, and Parson: The Life of John Dyer (1956), pp. 129, 136, 139.
Correspondence of Thomas Gray, ed. P. Toynbee and L. Whibley (1935), I, 294-295 (Letter 144). Further references to this edition are often provided by letter in the text.
Several other discrepancies should be noted. In one instance ("Harry," l. 35) the text in the Collection follows the Wharton text but was changed (presumably by the author) to "Susan" in later printings of the miscellany and in Dodsley's 1753 and 1768 editions of Gray's poetry (it appeared first as "Susan" in Gray's Commonplace Book). At another point ("beauteous," l. 14) Dodsley's reading differs from both Wharton and the 1753 and 1768 editions ("angel"); "beauteous" is also the reading in the Commonplace Book, however, and therefore it was apparently the reading in Gray's letter to Walpole as well (which Dodsley followed). Finally, in two places ("looks," l. 25; "tempts," l. 40), Dodsley's readings differ from both the Commonplace Book and Gray's letter to Wharton: "Eye" ("Eyes" in Wharton); "strikes." Here, however, Dodsley's readings were preserved in the editions of Gray's poetry published in 1753 and 1768, and thus it seems safe to conclude that Gray had originally suggested these readings in his letter to Walpole. Despite the recent editions of Gray's poetry by H. W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson (1966) and Roger Lonsdale (1969), the problems of textual transmission and determination of a copy-text for these poems appear not to have received a full textual discussion.
Letter 466, to James Beattie, who supervised the Foulis edition; see also Letter 465, to James Dodsley.
Letter 159. Gray also took Dodsley and his "matrons" to task for another variant, but he had in this case actually suggested the change and asked for Walpole's opinion (see Letters 157 and 159). Gray's attitude towards Dodsley in this series of letters suggests that Walpole himself was not responsible for the changes.
See Thomas Gray, An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard, ed. F. G. Stokes (1929), pp. 19, 27, 34-35.
Letter 172; another letter to Dodsley (I, 366) has not survived. For Gray's meetings with Dodsley, see Straus, pp. 158, 164.
The Letters of William Shenstone, ed. Marjorie Williams (1939), p. 131 (Letter LXIII). Further references to this edition are provided by letter in the text.
Cf. Shenstone's description of his friend at the head of Dodsley's collected correspondence: "A Person whose writings I esteem in common with the Publick; But of whose Simplicity, Benevolence, Humanity, & true Politeness, I have had repeated and particular experience" (BL Add. MS. 28959, f. 2).
7 July 1746 (Bodleian MS. Eng. Misc. d. 174, p. 15); cf. also pp. 71-72, regarding Cooper's Letters Concerning Taste (1754): "as I know you are so fond of accurasy, I have taken uncommon Pains & have polish'd these trifles as much as I was able." Thomas Lisle, who edited Edward Lisle's Observations in Husbandry (published by Dodsley in 1756), expressed similar confidence: "be so good as to correct what You find amiss in them, & send them to the Press, without giving yourself the trouble of consulting me: I shall willingly stand to your amendments" (Bodleian MS. Eng. Letters d. 40, f. 107).
Dodsley altered both the accidentals and the substantives of early dramatic texts in compiling his Select Collection of Old Plays in 1744; see R. C. Bald, "Sir William Berkeley's The Lost Lady," The Library, 4th ser., 17 (1937), 395-426, and A. T. Brissenden, "Dodsley's Copy-Text for The Revenger's Tragedy in his Select Collection," The Library, 5th ser., 19 (1964), 254-258. Both Bald and Brissenden, drawing upon Dodsley's annotated copies of the texts, claim that he shared the role of normalizing accidentals with his compositors.
A similar case for alteration could be made for James Dodsley's handling of Gray's manuscripts (prepared for the printer) of "The Fatal Sisters," "The Descent of Odin," and "The Triumphs of Owen" when these pieces were included in Poems by Mr. Gray (1768). There is reason, of course, to believe that Gray "intended" his accidentals to follow the form Dodsley chose for them; this is his attitude, at least, towards the Foulis edition in 1768. Gray wrote to James Beattie: "please to observe, that I am entirely unversed in the doctrine of Stops, whoever therefore shall deign to correct them, will do me a friendly office: I wish I stood in need of no other correction" (Letter 466).
See Bertrand H. Bronson, Printing as an Index of Taste in Eighteenth-Century England (1958), reprinted in his Facets of the Enlightenment (1968), pp. 326-365. J. Smith, The Printer's Grammar (1755), indicates that authors themselves were sometimes given the choice of capitalization and italicization: "Before we actually begin to compose, we should be informed, either by the Author, or Master, after what manner our work is to be done; whether the old way, with Capitals to Substantives, and Italic to proper names; or after the more neat practice, all in Roman, and Capitals to Proper names, and Emphatical words" (p. 201); cited by Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography (1972), p. 339 n.
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