An edition of A muse in livery by Robert Dodsley

Abstract

Robert Dodsley was a footman who became a bookseller in London during the first half of the eighteenth century. This thesis is an edition of A Muse in Livery which was the first published collection of his own writings. The contents were written while he was still in service and contain a substantial autobiographical content. In my introduction to this thesis I look at Dodsley's ambition to improve his station in life in the light of other lower class authors, and the ways in which he promoted himself as a footman poet to potential patrons. I also examine the publishing history of A Muse in Livery in the context of the recently passed 'Statute of Anne' or 'Copyright Act' of 1710. A Muse in Livery has not been re-published since 1732 and very little work has ever been done on Dodsley's own writing. The copy text for this thesis was a rare first edition of A Muse in Livery which is held by very few libraries in the world, and which has not been microfilmed.