the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Ibbot : 'Fit of the Spleen, A'

'I related a dispute between Goldsmith and Mr. Robert Dodsley, one day when they and I were dining at Tom Davies's, in 1762. Goldsmith asserted, that there was no poetry produced in this age. Dodsley appealed to his own Collection, and maintained, that though you could not find a palace like Dryden's "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day", you had villages composed of very pretty houses; and he mentioned particularly "The Spleen".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Dodsley      Print: Book

Ibbot : 'Fit of the Spleen, A'

' [Johnson said] You may find wit and humour in verse, and yet no poetry. "Hudibras" has a profusion of these; yet it is not to be reckoned a poem. 'The Spleen', in Dodsley's "Collection", on which you say he chiefly rested, is not poetry'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson      Print: Book

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