eii 



DOBSON, WILLIAM. 



DODD, REV. WILLIAM, LL.D. 



616 



it led to bit involvement in a controversy respecting an ancient 

 manuscript, the discussions on which are said to have embittered his 

 life fur >ome years. This eontrovemy is in many point* one of the 

 mc*t singular and interesting in the whole history of literature. 



In 1818, shortly after the foundation of the Bohemian Museum at 

 Prague, ita conductors received an anonymous Utter, evidently 

 written in a feigned hand, inclosing a Bohemian manuscript, which 

 the writer of the letter stated that he bad purloined from his master, 

 wlio-e name was of course not given, because he knew that he would 

 rather burn it than present it to the museum. The manuscript con- 

 tained a poem, since well known under the name of ' The Judgment 

 of Libussa,' which thoee who maintain ita genuineness regard as the 

 moat ancient monument of the Bohemian language, and older than 

 the 10th century. Dobrowaky suspected ita authenticity from the 

 first, and immediately on seeing it pronounced it without hesitation 

 to be a forgery, the production of some Bohemian Chstterton, adding, 

 to his friend*, that he bad no doubt it wan from the hands of Waclaw 

 Hanks. Uanka was a young antiquary, who had recently made a tour 

 for the purpose of collecting poetical manuscripts, and had been 

 fortunate enough to find at Kralodvor a collection of ancient poetry 

 which has been since universally recognised as the finest relic of 

 ancient Bohemian literature, if it be really ancient, which was at first 

 not generally believed. 



The acouied protested his innocence; but the judgment of Dobrow- 

 aky in such matters was regarded as almost infallible, and it was 

 thought best by Bohemian patriots to let the matter fall quietly into 

 oblivion. In 1820 however Kakowiecki printed the fragment of 

 ' Libussa's Judgment' in his 'Prawda Rusba,' at Warsaw, as authentic; 

 in 1821 Admiral Sbishkov reproduced it in the 'Accounts' of the 

 Russian Academy at St. Petersburg ; and an opinion now began to 

 gain ground in Bohemia that. authentic or not it was a piece of great 

 value. Dobrowsky, indignant at the revival of the affair, published, 

 in Hormayr's ' Archiv,' a Vienna periodical, an article upon it, headed 

 ' Literary Fraud,' and concluding with the words that " it was the 

 obvious imposture of a scoundrel who wished to play his tricks on his 

 credulous countrymen." In 1828 however Hanka, then (and now) 

 librarian of the museum, made a third discovery. He stated that he 

 had purchased from a second-hand bookseller at Prague a volume 

 bound in parchment, and on removing and examining the cover 

 unfortunately without informing any one else of his proceedings 

 had found it was a portion of a manuscript of St. John's Gospel, 

 in Latin, with an interlineary Bohemian translation, supposed to be 

 of a date anterior to the tenth century. Dobrowsky examined this 

 manuscript, and pronounced in favonr of its genuineness. He was 

 then placed on the horns of a cruel dilemma : the manuscript of the 

 St. John bad many of the peculiarities which had been thought a 

 proof against the 'Libussa.' Dobrowsky was so thoroughly perplexed 

 that when a professor of chemistry proposed to apply some chemical 

 tests to the ink of the ' Libussa ' manuscript but said that of course 

 in doing so a part of it would be destroyed Dobrowsky opposed the 

 proposal, because, as he said, " the manuscript might be genuine after 

 all" An elaborate examination of the subject by Safarik and Palacky 

 (' Aeltestcn Denkmuler der Bohmischen Sprncbe,' Prague, 1840) left 

 them convinced that the manuscript was what it professed to be, and 

 Hanka enjoys the reputation, not of an excellent poet, but of a very 

 fortunate antiquary. The whole of his poetical discoveries were 

 translated into English by Wratislaw as undoubtedly genuine, and 

 published at Cambridge in 1852. Dobrowaky, who was much annoyed 

 at the turn the affair bad taken, died on a journey at Brunn in Mora- 

 via, on the 6th of January, 1 829, the year after the production of the 

 manuscript of .St. John. 



The works of Dobrowsky are numerous : a complete list of them is 

 given in Palacky s 'Joseph Dobrowakys Lcben und gelehrtes AVirken,' 

 Prague, 1833. It is singular that nearly all of them are in the German 

 language, it being in fact the opinion of Dobrowsky that the Bohemian 

 Unguage should only be made use of in works intended for the people. 

 The modern Bohemian writers have, on the contrary, lately made it a 

 point to write in their native language even their works of erudition. 

 Bis essays ' On the Introduction of Printing into Bohemia,' ' On the 

 earliest Bohemian Translation of the Bible, ' On the History of the 

 Bohemian Adamites,' Ac., first appeared in the German ' Transactions 

 of the Boheniian Scientific Society,' a most valuable series of volumes, 

 and almost all of his compositions in bis native language in the 

 'Casopia Ceakdho Muzeuma,' a Bohemian periodical His more 

 important productions are a ' German and Hohmiian Dictionary,' a 

 ' Grammar of the Bohemian Language,' a ' History of the Boheniian 

 Language and Elder Literature,' and, above all, the ' Institutiones 

 Lingual Slavics) Dialect! Veterii>,' Vienna, 1822, a book by which he 

 threw a flood of light on a subject before involved in obscurity. The 

 language treated of is that still used by the Russians in their church- 

 service, and the book has been recognised by the Russians as of the 

 highest value. 



DOBSON, WILLIAM, was born in the parish of St Andrews, 

 Holborn, in 1010. He was a rcry distinguished painter, and suc- 

 ceeded Vandjck in the favour of Charles I., who used to call him the 

 English Tintoret His father waa of a good f.mily of St, Albans, but 

 being at length in ] oor circumstances, bis son was apprenticed to 

 Mr. Peake, afterwards Sir Rolert Peakc, painter and picture-dealer, 



who kept a shop at Holborn Bridge ; but he learnt more, according to 

 R. Symonds, of Francis Cleyn, a German, who stood also in great 

 favour with Charles I. 



Sir Robert Peake set Dobon to copy pictures for him, and exposed 

 the copies for sale in his shop-window. One of these copies was seen 

 by Vandyck in a shop-window on Snow Hill, and having made 

 inquiries for the artist, he found him at work in a poor garret, whence 

 he took him and introduced him to the king. After the death of 

 Vandyck, Charles I. appointed Dobson sergeant-painter and groom of 

 the privy-chamber, and he accompanied the king to Oxford, where 

 he painted the king, Prince Rupert, and many of the nobility. The 

 Rebellion however and his own extravagance got Dobson into 

 difficulties, and he was thrown into prison for debt, from which he 

 was released by a Mr. Vaughan, whose portrait he painted, and he 

 considered it his best work in that class. He did not long enjoy his 

 liberty : he died in London in 1646, aged only thirty-six, and was 

 buried at St Martin's-in-the-Fields. 



Dobson painted both portrait and history ; and his portraits are 

 generally considered so excellent, that he has been termed the English 

 Vandyck : his reputation was certainly unrivalled by that of any 

 English portrait painter until the appearance of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 

 There are several excellent historical pictures by Dobson in various 

 parts of England. There is a 'Beheading of John the Baptist' at 

 Wilton, in which the head of John is from Prince Rupert ; at 

 Blenheim is Francis Carter, an architect and pupil of Inigo Jones, 

 with hi* family, a picture, says Walpole, equal to anything he had 

 ever seen by Dobson. Walpole mentions several other family pieces, 

 and many portraits with one or more figures, of which he particularly 

 praises one at Drayton, in Northamptonshire, of Henry Mordaunt, earl 

 of Peterborough, in armour, with a page holding his horse and an 

 angel giving him his helmet Walpole says further, "Dobson's wife, 

 by him, is on the stairs of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; and 

 his own head is at Earl Paulett's : the hands were added long since 

 by Gibson, as he himself told Vertue." He also etched his own 

 portrait Dr. Waagen mentions a few pictures by Dobson which are 

 not noticed by Walpole, all of which he uniformly praises, except in 

 the colouring, which he considers inferior. Considering Dobeon's 

 abort life and the very unsettled period in which he lived, a great 

 proportion of his works have evidently been preserved, and it is 

 to be regretted that there is not a single specimen of "the EnglUh 

 Vandyck " in the British National Gallery. Dobson is said by 

 Dargenville to have been the first artist to adopt the system of 

 requiring half the payment of a portrait at the commencement of it : 

 he did it to reduce the number of his sitters to within a practicable 

 limit 



(Walpole, Anccdotct of Painting, <kc. ; Waagen, Treaaura of Art 

 in England; D'Argenville, Abr(y( de la Vie da pltafameta Peintra.) 



DODD, THE REV. WILLIAM, LL.D., was born in 1729, at 

 Bourn, in Lincolnshire, of which place his father was vicar. In 1745, 

 he was admitted a sizar of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and took his 

 Bachelor's degree with reputation in 1750. Soon afterwards he 

 removed to London, where he contracted an imprudent marriage. In 

 1753 he received priest's orders from the Bishop of London; and 

 from this time he continued to obtain a succession of small prrtVr- 

 ments in the church, holding, in the latter part of his life, two chapels 

 in London with a rectory and vicarage in the country, and possessing 

 an ecclesiastical income of !-00/. a year. His character as a popular 

 preacher, and as a man of letters, aided by his assiduous courtship of 

 persons of rank, procured for him patronage of a high crdiT. Hi- 

 was one of the king's chaplains till he was displaced for a tiimoniac.il 

 offer; and in 1763 he was intrusted with the education of Pliilip 

 Stanhope, afterwards the famous Earl of Chesterfield. During all 

 this time his literary activity was great and varied. In February 

 1777 ho was arn-stcd on a charge of having forged the signature of 

 hi* late pupil, Lord Chesterfield, to a bond for 40002., of which he bad 

 obtained payment He repaid the money, but was brought to trial 

 and convicted. He was executed on the 27th of July 1777. Tho 

 writings of this unfortunate person are numerous, ami in their matter 

 exceedingly various. There are poems, among which are 'A Ni-w 

 Book of the Dunciad,' published anonymously in 1760; and the blank 

 verse poem, called Thoughts in Prison,' which was composed in tho 

 interval betwen his conviction and execution. Among the prose works 

 are many sermons, and the well-known ' Reflections on Death,' 1763. 

 A work of another character is his ' Beauties of Shakspcre," in which, 

 besides the extracts which make up the body of the volume, are inter- 

 spersed many criticisms. These, like Dodd's other works, are fluent 

 and tasteful rather than original or vigorous. Indeed some of them 

 are mere plagiarisms. It is worth while to observe, that just before 

 his apprehension he had entered on negotiations for publishing an 

 expensive edition of Shakspere's works ; and that the desire of raising 

 money for the engraving of the platen has been assigned as most 

 probably his reason for committing the forgery. It is further stated 

 in Cooke's ' Memoirs of Foote,' i. 196, that during his confincinc nt in 

 Newgate, Dodd completed a comedy he had begun some time before, 

 entitled 'Sir Roger de Coverl'-y ;' and that after his condemnation 

 be sent for Woodfoll the printer to consult with him respecting its 

 publication : but the comedy if finished was never acted or printed, 

 and we are disposed, although the story has often been repeated and 



