The Toy Shop The King and the Miller of Mansfield

Robert DodsleyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
85K words
Chapters
9

Tags

English Originals Dramatic Literature Everyman HeroCrown and CommonerMistaken IdentityFolk WisdomSocial SatireHumor ReliefDramatic DialogueStage ScriptAncient StyleEnglish Folklore

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Toy Shop (1735) The King and the Miller of Mansfield (1737) by Robert DodsleyAuthor: Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 21, 2011

Editor's review

This volume collects two short plays by Robert Dodsley from the eighteenth century, The Toy Shop (1735) and The King and the Miller of Mansfield (1737), a light text for understanding Georgian popular drama and bourgeois taste. Dodsley was himself a publisher, playwright, and poet; both works are brief with brisk plots, carrying the moral satire and streetwise humor of the period, and written mostly in dialogue that reads more easily than the prose of the same era. Their value lies in offering a window onto eighteenth-century English stage taste, imaginings of social class, and commercial publishing, and they also serve as small-scale primary material for courses on British drama history. There is no need to seek profound interpretation; treat them as slices of their era. Slang and allusions in the dialogue may require notes or reference works. Overall they suit casual reading by drama enthusiasts and supplementary material for English majors.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Start with the shorter The Toy Shop to get familiar with the author's dialogue style and satire.
  2. Note the characters' identities and class settings as you read, and understand the humor against the backdrop of eighteenth-century English society.
  3. Try reading passages of dialogue aloud to appreciate the rhythm and tone of a script as a stage text.
  4. Mark slang or allusions as you go and look them up afterward in one go, to avoid frequent interruptions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9

FAQ

Are the two plays related? Both are plays by Dodsley from the 1730s, but their subjects and characters are not continuous, and they can be read independently. Their publication together is mainly a matter of convenience; reading either first does not affect comprehension, and starting with the shorter one is recommended.
How much English proficiency is needed? The text is eighteenth-century English; the sentences and dialogue are not especially difficult, but there is a good deal of slang, punning, and period allusion. Readers with college-level English reading ability who are willing to look up background information can generally read it through; beginners should use an annotated edition or reference works.
Is it suitable for classroom use? It works well as supplementary material for British drama history or eighteenth-century literature: the plays are short and easy to discuss in class. Teachers can select passages to analyze popular taste, moral satire, and stage technique, but should supply background on the period and the author's life.

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About the author

Robert Dodsley Author · British · 1703–1764

Robert Dodsley (1703–1764) was an English bookseller, publisher, poet and playwright, born near Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. In 1735 he opened a bookshop in Pall Mall, London, publishing works by Johnson, Pope, Gray and Goldsmith, and supporting Johnson in compiling his English dictionary. He edited A Select Collection of Old English Plays and A Collection of Poems by Several Hands, and founded periodicals such as The Annual Register, retiring in 1759. Four of his works are held here, including volumes 12, 13 and 15 of the old plays collection and The Toy Shop and The King and the Miller of Mansfield, commonly classed as inspirational growth. His editorial and publishing activities profoundly influenced the spread of eighteenth-century English literature; public information is limited, and his life is chiefly known through his publishing career.