Sept. 16. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



217 



LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16. 1854. 



NOTES AND QUERIES RESPECTING POPE AND HIS 

 ■WHITINGS. 



[The amount of illustration of Pope's literary history 

 ■which has been furnished by " N. & Q." since Mr. Mark- 

 land's Notes on the JEdwaids Correspondence (ante, •pAl.') 

 and C.'s Query respecting The Dunciad (p. 65.) first 

 "tapped" the subject in our columns, is a matter on 

 ■which -we may be permitted to congratulate ourselves, as 

 affording strong evidence of the utility of this Journal. 

 We trust that the discussion will do good service to Mr. 

 Murray's forthcoming edition of Pope ; and as it is desir- 

 able that all the materials, ■whether Notes or Queries, 

 should appear together, -we have in the present Number 

 collected them under this general heading. This we shall 

 repeat next ■week (with some articles which reached us 

 after the present were in type), and indeed until the sub- 

 ject has been thoroughly ventilated. — Ed. "N. & Q."] 



Pope and his Printers. — I have read with at- 

 tention the articles on Pope in the Atheiiceum, and 

 the article on The Dunciad, by the same writer, 

 in " N. & Q.," and questions suggest themselves 

 which I submit for consideration. 



Who was A. Dodd, with two dd's, the publisher 

 of the first edition — the pretended piratical 

 edition ; and who was A. Dod, with one d, the 

 publisher of the quarto ? I believe them to have 

 been one and the same. But who was he or she ? 

 Had the person any other known connexion with 

 Pope or the publication of Pope's works ? Can 

 any reason be assigned why having been so tised by 

 Pope in the first instance — then permitted to 

 publish the authorised quarto — the work was 

 taken from him or her, and subsequently Issued 

 by Gilllver ? Was this, too, for purposes of mys- 

 tification ? 



But who was this A. Dodd ? I could find no 

 mention of any printer or bookseller of that name 

 either in Dutton's Life or Timperley's Dictionary. 

 On farther search, I found the name of A. Dodd 

 advertised and recorded as joint publisher with 

 other booksellers, and occasionally described in 

 advertisements as " A. Dodd, without Temple Bar," 

 " A. Dodd, at the Peacock without Temple Bar." 

 From Nichols (Anec. vol. i. p. 62.) I learnt that a 

 Nicholas Dodd, a bookseller,.was one of the con- 

 tributors to the subscription raised for Bowyer, 

 after the fire in 1712. Thomas Gent, however, 

 furnishes more information than all my other 

 authorities. 



"Now it happened," he says, " that the widow of the 

 late Mr. Dodd, who had desired, on his death-bed, to get 

 me to assist her whenever opportunity served, wanted a 

 person to manage her printing business."— P. 145. 



Gent entered Into her service, " and never," he 

 says, " could there be a finer economist, or sweeter 



mother to her dear children." The lady subse- 

 quently married again, and " very Indifferently." 

 Gent remained but a short time with her, for he 

 heard that his first love had become a widow, and 

 knowing, as he says, that widows were not to be 

 trifled with, he started for York, and, as soon as 

 decency permitted, married the lady on the 10th 

 of December, the very day of the installation of 

 Archbishop Blackburne, — which took place, I 

 find, in 1724. 



Was this A. Dodd the widow of Nicholas Dodd ? 

 But Nicholas Is registered as among subscribing 

 booksellers — whereas the husband of Thomas 

 Gent's " widow " was a printer. Was the printing 

 widow and the bookseller A. Dodd the same per- 

 son ? In either case, what was the link of con- 

 nexion betwen A. Dodd and Pope ? Was it 

 direct, or through an Intermediate agent ? It has 

 been stated that Savage was in some way mixed 

 up with the publication of Curll's edition of the 

 Letters ; we know that he blew one of the loudest 

 trumpets about The Dunciad; and I find the fol- 

 lowing advertisement in The Daily Journal of 

 Jan. 81, 1729. 



" The Wanderer, a poem, by Richard Savage, &c., 

 printed for J. Walthoe, and sold by A. Dodd, at the Pea- 

 cock without Temple Bar." 



This was a critical moment in Savage's life. 

 Still the associations and coincidences are curious, 

 and I would ask of the better Informed, whether 

 It be possible that Savage was the link — the con- 

 necting link between Pope the printer and A. 

 Dodd ? At any rate we may Infer from this and 

 other advertisements that A. Dodd was not a 

 printer. I have found many advertisements of 

 books sold by "A. Dodd," and many " printed /or 

 A. Dodd." 



Who was the printer of the surreptitious edltlone 

 of The Dunciad and of the Letters f This is a 

 question of some literary Interest. Pope had a 

 good deal to do with printing — more, I suspect, 

 than we are aware of. I know of no circumstance 

 that could lead to the inference that he had a 

 private printing press in his own house, or at his 

 command ; and yet there was a great deal of sur- 

 reptitious printing with which he was connected. 

 It was printed copies, be it remembered, of Pope's 

 Letters that were delivered to Curll ; and here ■we 

 have two or three surreptitious printed editions of 

 The Dunciad, and yet no hint, so far as I know, as 

 to who was the printer. The printer must cer- 

 tainly have been a shrewd man to escape detec- 

 tion when so many active enquirers were at work, 

 all Interested in proving Pope's complicity ; he 

 must have been a remarkable man, too, for he 

 allowed Pope to denounce, to deny, to threaten, 

 to advertise for him, and even to move the House 

 of Lords and the Chancellor against him, and yet 

 remained silent, and kept the secret, living and 

 dead. 



