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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Susannah Dobson''' née Dawson (c. 1742<ref>Temma Berg: ''The Lives and Letters of an Eighteenth-Century Circle of Acquaintance'' (Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ElSpOmbJeIkC&pg=PA83 Retrieved 19 May 2017], p. 56.</ref> – 29 September 1795) was a translator from the south of England, the daughter of John Dawson of "the parish of St Dunstan, London".<ref>Probably [[St Dunstan-in-the-West]].</ref><ref name="ODNB">Antonella Braida, "Dobson, Susannah (d. 1795)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7718 Retrieved 7 October 2014, pay-walled.]</ref> She was notably concerned with the 14th-century Italian [[humanist]] [[Petrarch]].
'''Susannah Dobson''' née Dawson (c. 1742<ref name="books.google.com">Temma Berg: ''The Lives and Letters of an Eighteenth-Century Circle of Acquaintance'' (Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ElSpOmbJeIkC&pg=PA83 Retrieved 19 May 2017], p. 56.</ref> – 29 September 1795) was a translator from the south of England, the daughter of John Dawson of "the parish of St Dunstan, London".<ref>Probably [[St Dunstan-in-the-West]].</ref><ref name="ODNB">Antonella Braida, "Dobson, Susannah (d. 1795)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7718 Retrieved 7 October 2014, pay-walled.]</ref> She was notably concerned with the 14th-century Italian [[humanist]] [[Petrarch]].


==Life==
==Life==
Susannah Dawson married in 1759 a physician and medical writer, Dr [[Matthew Dobson (physician)|Matthew Dobson]] of [[Liverpool]], where she wrote her ''Life of Petrarch''. He died in [[Bath, Somerset]] in 1784. Their three children were Susannah (born 1764), Dawson (born 1766), and Elisa (1760/1761–1778). It has also been suggested that Susannah Dawson was born in [[Toxteth]], near Liverpool, in 1742.<ref>Temma Berg: ''The Lives and Letters of an Eighteenth-Century Circle of Acquaintance'' (Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ElSpOmbJeIkC&pg=PA83 Retrieved 19 May 2017], p. 56.</ref>
Susannah Dawson married in 1759 a physician and medical writer, Dr [[Matthew Dobson (physician)|Matthew Dobson]] of [[Liverpool]], where she wrote her ''Life of Petrarch''. He died in [[Bath, Somerset]] in 1784. Their three children were Susannah (born 1764), Dawson (born 1766), and Elisa (1760/1761–1778). It has also been suggested that Susannah Dawson was born in [[Toxteth]], near Liverpool, in 1742.<ref name="books.google.com"/>


[[Frances Burney]] mentions that in 1780 Susannah Dobson had ambitions to join [[Hester Thrale|Mrs Thrale]]'s circle, but the latter was not keen: "Mrs Dobson... persecutes me strangely as if with violent & undesired Friendship; yet Mrs Lewis says She is jealous."<ref>ODNB, quoting ''Thraliana: the Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (later Mrs. Piozzi), 1776–1809'' (London, 1951).</ref> One modern view of what Thrale wrote is that it implied Dobson was a lesbian.<ref>Berg, p. 83.</ref> Burney wrote of her, "Though coarse, low-bred, forward, self-sufficient, and flaunting, she seems to have a strong masculine understanding." Her husband, Dr Dobson, had become Mrs Thrale's physician.<ref name="ODNB"/> [[Samuel Johnson]], however, praised her as a "Directress of rational conversation".<ref name="Feminist">''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', ed. Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 299.</ref>
[[Frances Burney]] mentions that in 1780 Susannah Dobson had ambitions to join [[Hester Thrale|Mrs Thrale]]'s circle, but the latter was not keen: "Mrs Dobson... persecutes me strangely as if with violent & undesired Friendship; yet Mrs Lewis says She is jealous."<ref>ODNB, quoting ''Thraliana: the Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (later Mrs. Piozzi), 1776–1809'' (London, 1951).</ref> One modern view of what Thrale wrote is that it implied Dobson was a lesbian.<ref>Berg, p. 83.</ref> Burney wrote of her, "Though coarse, low-bred, forward, self-sufficient, and flaunting, she seems to have a strong masculine understanding." Her husband, Dr Dobson, had become Mrs Thrale's physician.<ref name="ODNB"/> [[Samuel Johnson]], however, praised her as a "Directress of rational conversation".<ref name="Feminist">''[[The Feminist Companion to Literature in English]]'', ed. Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 299.</ref>


Susannah Dobson died 30 September 1795, and was buried at [[St Paul's, Covent Garden]].<ref name="ODNB"/>
Susannah Dobson died 30 September 1795, and was buried at [[St Paul's, Covent Garden]].<ref name="ODNB"/>
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Dobson's second work was to translate and abridge [[Sainte-Palaye]]'s ''The Literary History of the Troubadours'', which appeared in 1779. In 1784 she translated the same author's ''Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry'', and in 1791 [[Petrarch]]'s ''[[De remediis utriusque fortunae]]'', as ''Petrarch's View of Human Life''.<ref>[http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?menuitem=0&fromTop=true&fromPreferences=false&fromEshelf=false&vid=BLVU1 British Library. Retrieved 5 January 2020.]</ref>
Dobson's second work was to translate and abridge [[Sainte-Palaye]]'s ''The Literary History of the Troubadours'', which appeared in 1779. In 1784 she translated the same author's ''Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry'', and in 1791 [[Petrarch]]'s ''[[De remediis utriusque fortunae]]'', as ''Petrarch's View of Human Life''.<ref>[http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?menuitem=0&fromTop=true&fromPreferences=false&fromEshelf=false&vid=BLVU1 British Library. Retrieved 5 January 2020.]</ref>


Also ascribed to Susannah Dobson are the anonymous didactic ''Dialogue on Friendship and Society'' (1777) and ''Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry'', an original scholarly work published in [[Worcester]] (1795).<ref name="Feminist"/>
Also ascribed to Susannah Dobson are the anonymous didactic ''Dialogue on Friendship and Society'' (1777) and ''Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry'', an original scholarly work published in [[Worcester, England|Worcester]] (1795).<ref name="Feminist"/>


==References==
==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobson, Susannah}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobson, Susannah}}
[[Category:1742 births]]
[[Category:1740s births]]
[[Category:1795 deaths]]
[[Category:1795 deaths]]
[[Category:English translators]]
[[Category:18th-century English translators]]

Latest revision as of 20:42, 16 July 2024

Susannah Dobson née Dawson (c. 1742[1] – 29 September 1795) was a translator from the south of England, the daughter of John Dawson of "the parish of St Dunstan, London".[2][3] She was notably concerned with the 14th-century Italian humanist Petrarch.

Life

[edit]

Susannah Dawson married in 1759 a physician and medical writer, Dr Matthew Dobson of Liverpool, where she wrote her Life of Petrarch. He died in Bath, Somerset in 1784. Their three children were Susannah (born 1764), Dawson (born 1766), and Elisa (1760/1761–1778). It has also been suggested that Susannah Dawson was born in Toxteth, near Liverpool, in 1742.[1]

Frances Burney mentions that in 1780 Susannah Dobson had ambitions to join Mrs Thrale's circle, but the latter was not keen: "Mrs Dobson... persecutes me strangely as if with violent & undesired Friendship; yet Mrs Lewis says She is jealous."[4] One modern view of what Thrale wrote is that it implied Dobson was a lesbian.[5] Burney wrote of her, "Though coarse, low-bred, forward, self-sufficient, and flaunting, she seems to have a strong masculine understanding." Her husband, Dr Dobson, had become Mrs Thrale's physician.[3] Samuel Johnson, however, praised her as a "Directress of rational conversation".[6]

Susannah Dobson died 30 September 1795, and was buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden.[3]

Works

[edit]

In 1775 Dobson published in two volumes her Life of Petrarch, collected from "Mémoires pour la vie de François Petrarch" (by Jacques-François de Sade).[7] According to a modern account, in "rendering down the Abbé de Sade's massive French original, she probes the actions and feelings of another age." Among her contemporaries who praised it were the novelists Clara Reeve and Elizabeth Benger.[6] It was reprinted in 1777, and several times up to a sixth edition in 1805. She claimed in 1780 that it had earned her £400.[3]

Dobson's second work was to translate and abridge Sainte-Palaye's The Literary History of the Troubadours, which appeared in 1779. In 1784 she translated the same author's Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry, and in 1791 Petrarch's De remediis utriusque fortunae, as Petrarch's View of Human Life.[8]

Also ascribed to Susannah Dobson are the anonymous didactic Dialogue on Friendship and Society (1777) and Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry, an original scholarly work published in Worcester (1795).[6]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Temma Berg: The Lives and Letters of an Eighteenth-Century Circle of Acquaintance (Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006), Retrieved 19 May 2017, p. 56.
  2. ^ Probably St Dunstan-in-the-West.
  3. ^ a b c d Antonella Braida, "Dobson, Susannah (d. 1795)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) Retrieved 7 October 2014, pay-walled.
  4. ^ ODNB, quoting Thraliana: the Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (later Mrs. Piozzi), 1776–1809 (London, 1951).
  5. ^ Berg, p. 83.
  6. ^ a b c The Feminist Companion to Literature in English, ed. Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 299.
  7. ^ See the French Wikipedia page Jacques de Sade.
  8. ^ British Library. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
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