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A six volume set of collected poems, illustrated throughout. Complete in six volumes and illustrated with engraved vignettes to title pages, head and tail pieces and some sheet music to the rear of volume IV. A charming anthology of poems. An important set in very good condition. Robert Dodsley (1703 - September 23, 1764) was an English bookseller and miscellaneous writer. He was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school. He is said to have been apprenticed to a stocking-weaver in Mansfield, from whom he ran away, going into service as a footman. In 1729 Dodsley published his first work, Servitude: a Poem written by a Footman, with a preface and postscript ascribed to Daniel Defoe; and a collection of short poems, A Muse in Livery, or the Footman's Miscellany, was published by subscription in 1732, Dodsley's patrons comprising many persons of high rank. This was followed by a satirical farce called The Toyshop (Covent Garden, 1735), in which the toymaker indulges in moral observations on his wares, a hint which was probably taken from Thomas Randolph's Conceited Pedlar. The profits accruing from the sale of his works enabled Dodsley to establish himself with the help of his friends--Alexander Pope lent him £100--as a bookseller at the "Tully's Head" in Pall Mall in 1735. Dodsley is, however, best known as the editor of two collections: Select Collection of Old Plays (12 vols., 1744; 2nd edition with notes by Isaac Reed, 12 vols., 1780; 4th edition, by William Carew Hazlitt, 1874-1876, 15 vols.); and A collection of Poems by Several Hands (1748, 3 vols.), which passed through many editions. In 1737 his King and the Miller of Mansfield, a "dramatic tale" of King Henry II, was produced at Drury Lane, and received with much applause; the sequel, Sir John Cockle at Court, a farce, appeared in 1738. Rebacked with leather spines and original calf leather boards. Externally sound. Minor rubbing to the head and tail of the spine, to the board and also to the extremities, with a small amount of loss. Previous owners bookplate to the front pastedown of each volume. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are generally bright and clean, with the odd spot throughout. Good.
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