DODD, THE REV. WILLIAM, LL.D., was born in 1729, at Bourn, in Lincolnshire, of which place his father was vicar. In 1745, lie was admitted a eizar of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and took his Bachelor's degree with reputation in 1750. Soon afterwards lie 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 ho continued to obtain a succession of small prefer ments in the church, holding, in the latter part of his life, two chapels io London with a rectory and vicarage in the country, and possessing an ecclesiastical Income of 8001, a year. His character as n popular preacher, and as a man of letters, aided by his assiduous courtship of persons of rank, procured for him patronage of a high order. lie was one of the king's chaplains till he was displaced for a eirnoniacal offer; and iu 1763 be was intrusted with the education of Philip Stanhope, afterwards the famous Earl of Chesterfield. During all this time his literary activity was great and varied. In February 1777 he was arrested on a charge of baying forged the signature of his lato pupil, Lord Chesterfield, to a bond for 40001., of which be had obtained payment. lie repaid the money, but was brought to trial and convicted. He was executed on the 27th of July 1777. The writings of this unfortunate person are numerous, and iu their matter exceedingly various. There are poems, among which are ' A New Book of the Dunciad,' published anonymously in 1750; and the blank verse poem, called ' Thoughts in Prison; which was composed in the interval Letwen 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 Shakepere,' 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 end tasteful rather than original or vigorous. indeed Pomo of them are mere plagiarisms!. It is worth while to observe, that just before his apprehension he had entered on negociations for publishing an expensive edition of Shakepere's works; and that the desire of raising money for the engraving of the plates has been assigned as most probably his reason for committing the forgery. It is further stated in Cooke's ' Memoirs of Foote,' L 195, that during his confinement in Newgate, Dodd completed a comedy he bad begun some time before, entitled ' Sir Roger de Coverley r and that after his condemnation he sent for Woodfali 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 never, as far as we are aware, contradicted, to doubt its correctness. Foote is a very unsafe authority for such a statement