The Museum, the "Super-Excellent Magazine"

• Published in: Studies in English literature, 1500-1900 1500-1900, 1973-07, Vol.13 (3), p.503-515
• Main Author: Tierney, James E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthologies; Authorship attribution; Little magazines; Neoclassical poetry; Periodicals; Poetic themes; Poetry; Rebellion; Religious poetry
• ISSN: 0039-3657; 1522-9270
• DOI: 10.2307/450003

Robert Dodsley's fortnightly, The Museum: or, Literary and Historical Register (London, 1746-1747) survives as a rather comprehensive portrait of its age. Edited by Mark Akenside, this periodical did not imitate the Gentleman's Magazine, as has been suggested. Unlike Cave's production, the Museum did not chronicle the times but rather reflected them. In its simple four-part format-essays, poetry, literary memoirs, and historical memoirs-the Museum more resembled the literary journal than the magazine by showing the larger aspects of the age's philosophical, political, religious, esthetic, and social concerns. Furthermore, whereas the Gentleman's republished essays and poetry from other periodicals, the Museum's contents were entirely original. By 1746, Dodsley's reputation as the fashionable London publisher of belle lettres drew original contributions from the three Wartons, "Kit" Smart, William Collins, Joseph Spence, David Garrick, Horace Walpole, and Samuel Johnson among a host of other authors whose reputations have dimmed with time. In fact, so formidable was the entire enterprise that Cave seemed threatened at its inception. Besides poetry and essays, the Museum provided reviews of significant publications, both domestic and foreign, as well as historical portraits of several national powers, together with a brief history of the '45, sometimes attributed to Henry Fielding. The Museum's role in the production of Dodsley's famous Collection of Poetry is certified by many authorial, editorial, and publishing circumstances.