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Critical Essay by Michael F. Suarez
SOURCE: Suarez, Michael F. “Dodsley's Collection of Poems and the Ghost of Pope: The Politics of Literary Reputation.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 88, no. 2 (June 1994): 189-206.
In the following essay, Suarez argues that the first three editions of Dodsley's Collection of Poems were indebted to the patronage, editorial style, literary circle, and poetic ideals of Alexander Pope.
In 1756, Richard Graves published some verses praising his friend Robert Dodsley. One especially laudatory section celebrates the London publisher's great stature in the literary world of his day:
Where Tully's Bust, the Honour'd Name Point[s] out the Venal Page There Dodsley consecrates to Fame The Classics of his Age.
In vain the poets, from their mine Extract the shinning Glass; Till Dodsley's Mint has stamped the Coin And bade the sterling pass.(1)
Like most encomiastic poems, Graves's work verges on incredible hyperbole; yet these lines...
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This section contains 6,234 words (approx. 21 pages at 300 words per page) |
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