Robert, an eminent bookseller and ingenious writer, born in 1703 at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father is said to have been a schoolmaster. His first poetical attempts seem to have been made when he was a servant in the family of the Hon. Mrs Lowther; and were published under the title of the Muse in Livery. This was followed by an elegant little satirical farce called The Toyshop, the hint of which is said to have been taken from Randolph's Muse's Looking-glass, and which, having obtained the approbation of Pope, was acted at Covent Garden with great success. The profits accruing from the sale of these two publications enabled him to establish himself as bookseller in Pall-Mall; and his own merit and enterprising spirit soon procured him eminence in that profession. In 1737 a new piece entitled The King and the Miller of Mansfield was received with undiminished applause. His immediately subsequent farces, however, were not so popular. In 1738 he published a collection of his dramatic works in one volume 8vo, under the modest title of Trifles; which was followed by the Triumph of Peace, a masque, occasioned by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and a fragment on Publick Life. Dodsley was also the author of the Economy of Human Life, a work which acquired considerable celebrity; but for this it is supposed he was not a little indebted to the mistaken opinion which long prevailed of its being the production of Lord Chesterfield. The name of Dodsley is from this period associated with much of the literature of his time. Among other things he projected The Annual Register, The Museum, The World, and The Preceptor. To these various works Horace Walpole, Aken- side, Soame Jenyns, Lord Lyttleton, Lord Chesterfield, and others, were contributors. It would be tedious and uninteresting to enumerate the various other literary enterprises in which he engaged. His own latest production was a tragedy entitled Cleone, and was received with even greater enthusiasm than his earlier pieces. His personal character was excellent; he observed the strictest integrity in all his dealings; and lived on easy terms with authors of the highest rank and genius. Dodsley died at Durham while on a visit to a friend, 25th Sept. 1764.