Dodsley is, however, best known as the editor of two collections, one of plays, and one of poems. The first was the Select Collection of Old Plays (12 vols., 1744;A Select Collection of Old Plays (Robert Dodsley) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 5 November 2021. 2nd edition with notes by Isaac Reed, 12 vols., 1780; 4th edition, by William Carew Hazlitt, 1874–1876, 15 vols). Dodsley's collection of poems, A collection of Poems by Several Hands (1748, 3 vols.) was ‘to preserve to the public those poetical performances, which seemed to merit a longer remembrance than what would probably be secured to them by the Manner wherein they were originally published’ (Collection of Poems, 1748, vol. 1.iii–iv). Given his literary circle, he was able to fill three volumes of poetry by the time of the first edition on 15 January 1748. By March 1755 it had entered four editions and he added a fourth volume, and in 1758 volumes five and six, hence the change in titles.
